BarcelonaIt's essential to talk seriously about immigration. We need to build a framework for debate within which the issue can be discussed directly, in an informed manner, with human rights within the boundaries and xenophobia and racism outside the boundaries.
Civilized conversation should allow us to combat the silence, perhaps well-intentioned but counterproductive, without fueling the tendency toward polarization that benefits the far right. Therefore, the first step to contributing to the creation of a framework for debate is not to ask or answer whether immigration is good or bad. Immigration is.
In Catalonia, it has shaped us as a society and will continue to shape us in the future. How will it do so? Well, it depends on the capacity for progress we achieve through economic growth and the degree of social cohesion.
The waves of migration in Catalonia today are distinct from those that occurred at the beginning of the 20th century and between 1950 and 1979. The two major waves of immigration in the last century came from Spain, and those that have occurred in the 21st century are foreign immigration. But they all have a common reason: economic immigration. People emigrate to progress, to improve their lives and those of their loved ones.
Unequal growth
Immigration reacts to the labor market, and our economy is intensive in cheap, low-skilled labor, primarily dedicated to services and care. Our labor market attracts immigration, but it also leaves it on the margins when decent housing is a scarce commodity, social services are strained, and the social ladder is failing. A danger that also affects the local population when we know that the income of Catalan families has been stagnant for 24 years, according to a report by the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce published this week. The income available to citizens for consumption and investment has risen by 0.1%, in contrast to the expansion of the Catalan economy, which has been 48.7% over the same period. As immigration expert Blanca Garcés and demographer Andreu Domingo (author of Catalonia in 3D. Demographics, diversity, and democracy), the mechanisms of social inclusion have begun to fail. The reason lies in the growth of inequalities and the lack of social mobility.
One of the characteristics of our migration phenomenon has been its speed. The key issue is that the latest waves have been short and intense, coinciding with a strong demographic shift in Catalonia. In the words of demographer Andreu Domingo: "The maximum impact migration had on population growth at the peak of the 1960s was 60%. In contrast, at the peak of the first wave of the 21st century, it was 90%. And in the second wave, 100%. All the growth that's been happening." The fact is that today births to foreign mothers have increased from 18% to 40%, and of children aged 0 to 4 born in Catalonia, 40% are children of one or two foreign parents. Therefore, it makes no sense to talk about immigration as a foreign or strange phenomenon. It's the children in our schools. Expert Blanca Garcés observes the speed of change, and in an interview with ARA magazine, she stated that "what generates anti-immigration positions is not immigration, but the feeling of lack of control."
How should we act? If there is residential segregation and substandard housing, and school is not a means of social advancement, we believe all the signs of a lack of social cohesion and collective failure. If young people of foreign origin experience inequality and discrimination ("shitty Moors" or a direct link between immigration and crime), if there is no common national project, the generational divide can give them an identity in religion, and their anger will also be directed against the same community, starting with the parents' generation, whom I blame. If immigrant youth represent the majority in the unemployment and school dropout rates, identity withdrawal or alienation is a given.
CEO Survey
The latest CEO study states that the far-right pro-independence movement would multiply its results in the last elections by five. This growth is primarily driven by the pro-independence vote, especially Junts. If a segment of the pro-independence movement doesn't overcome the melancholy and frustration of 2017, essentialism will end up fueling the far right and marginalizing the pro-independence movement and Catalan nationalism as well.
The tools for achieving a cohesive society are the economy, the labor market, housing, schools, and language. If the idea of Catalonia is one of cohesion and opportunity for the local population and the newest Catalans, we will have a chance; if the idea is one of exclusion, we are headed straight for failure.
