Without papers, misery becomes chronic and in Catalonia it is estimated that there may be around 100,000 undocumented people. Waiting to see how the delegation of powers to the Generalitat on immigration issues, announced in January by Junts as a result of pacts in Madrid, is carried out, at the moment Catalonia’s room for maneuver in this area is limited. But with more resources, reception and processes could be improved to promote integration. The latest data from Idescat indicate that the risk of poverty or social exclusion (Arope rate) reaches 48% of the foreign population compared to the Catalan average of 22.8%.
A transversal reception model
Catalonia does have powers in welcoming migrants and refugees, but as Elisabet Ureña, responsible for the Càritas Migration program, highlights, a “more transversal model is necessary, which satisfies everything from the most basic needs to training, entry in the world of work, psychological support…” From Migra Studium they add issues such as making language learning much easier, speeding up the approval of studies, expanding emergency resources to city councils to prevent the most vulnerable from ending up homeless, in addition to demanding that the right to register be made effective. without fixed address. Sònia Parella, director of the Center d’Estudis i Recerca en Migracions at the UAB, agrees that it is time to rethink the reception arrangements considering that there is now more diversity of profiles than before and that refugees, that a high percentage are denied asylum and end up without papers.
Pending ILP for extraordinary regularization
Migra Studium calls for “specific attention to people in an irregular administrative situation in all public policies.” Mª Carmen de la Fuente, the director of this entity, emphasizes that they cannot meet the growing demands for help. “Without papers,” she adds, “they are increasingly vulnerable.” The Third Sector demands a position in favor of Spain approving the extraordinary regularization of 500,000 immigrants, as proposed by the Popular Legislative Initiative (ILP) recently admitted for processing in Congress. “But there is a long way to go,” says Raquel Sánchez, coordinator of MSF Spain. “We are in a moment of politicization of immigration, any protection measure is viewed with great fear,” she considers.
The responsibility of avoiding social fracture
The risk here and in Europe as a whole, with the spread of hate speech, is social fracture. It is easy to attribute many evils to immigration, so progress must be made towards inclusion to neutralize these attacks, says Parella. “We need more resources for cohesion, to address the labor dimension, training and language; The challenge is to reduce inequalities to promote integration, which is essential for young people and second generations,” she adds.
48% of foreigners at risk of poverty or exclusion
Poverty indicators skyrocket in the group of migrants until they reach 48% compared to the average of 22.8%, in the statistics for the age group over 16 years old. A 2020 ECAS study indicates that around 40% of non-EU migrants with work were poor compared to 10% of those born in Spain.
Limitation of legal and safe ways to migrate
An investigation coordinated by the Barcelona Public Law Observatory concludes that Spain and the EU hinder legal and safe ways to migrate through measures such as the externalization of border control and the request for visas, depending on the country of origin. At least 8,565 people died in 2023 on migratory routes around the world, of which 3,129 in the Mediterranean, the most lethal itinerary. Once here, the main way out for regularization is that of social roots provided for in the Immigration Law. They must prove that they arrived a minimum of three years ago and have a job offer. One of the few powers of the Generalitat in this area is to issue the roots report to obtain a residence permit. Ureña warns that if this procedure was previously resolved in about 45 days, it now takes three or four months. The traffic jam is repeated in the Department of Labor for the renewals of work authorizations.
From 8% to 17%: the increase in the population of other countries
In 20 years, the foreign population has gone from 8% to 17.24% of the total. Catalonia has reached eight million inhabitants thanks to the strong impulse of citizens from other countries in a context of weak natural growth. As a report by the Center d’Estudis Demogràfics highlights, this implies both logistical challenges, management of services, housing and mobility, and cohesion of an increasingly diverse society.
