The sociological interpretation of immigration policyin Spain has gone through several phases as the analysis of political discourses or socio-legal analysis. These interpretation shave not fi nished answering some paradoxes that are observed at the different levels of government: European Union, state and regional level. The debate transnationalism-methodological nationalism provides a conceptual framework of «Weberian ideal types» that allows us a new interpretation of immigration policies in Spain getting encompass and surpass previous interpretations.This theoretical framework, barely used for the Spanish context, sheds light on the power relations between State and the Marketand its influence in shaping immigration policy.