Sounds to me like Spain is trying to inject a stimulus package into their shit economy. Once in, they won't recover. 
I don't know what the motive is. What I do know, from the article, is that the Sephardi community lobbied the powers-that-be for many years to have them reinstate citizenship to those expelled Spanish folks. Although it was never made part of a political program, I understand that the return of the Sephardi Jews to Spain has always had a very positive response among the population.
They wanted to do the same thing with the republicans that left when Franco took power, but the their descendants don't want to go back.
