20% of immigrants are highly qualified people. There are university graduates who arrive by raft. This was stated this Thursday at a breakfast of the Nueva Economía Fórum, at the Hotel Palace in Barcelona, by Josep Oriol Pujol Humet, who since 2002 has directed the Pere Tarrés Foundation, an entity that, like President Salvador Illa, has Christian humanism as its ideal. A good part of those who listened to Pujol Humet belong to the social third sector and, therefore, they resonate with his concern that 33% of the Catalan child population (under 16 years of age) lives at risk of poverty or social exclusion.
Who does not see in this socioeconomic situation a dangerous breeding ground for the growth of the far-right? To combat the xenophobic populism of Aliança Catalana and Vox, Pujol Humet advocates for structural changes with the aim of strengthening social services, education, and healthcare. He also believes that the minimum wage must continue to be increased and that the housing problem must be addressed forcefully. "We have made it too easy for the far-right to engage in demagoguery," he states. He is right, of course. He is also right when he points to Trump as the culprit for driving new migratory flows by cutting global aid to the most disadvantaged countries. (By the way, the Archbishop of Tarragona, Joan Planellas, told me the same thing this week at an informal meeting.)
Born in 1986 –it then had 7 employees and now averages 4,300 throughout the year–, Pere Tarrés assists thousands of boys and girls, especially from migrant families. If it were up to Aliança Catalana and Vox, they shouldn't assist any. Like so many other entities, they do essential work, with the feeling of falling short. Together with Fundesplai, they are the two major organizations for leisure education, a world that, in the strict realm of volunteering, also includes scouting. In the afternoons, when they leave school, Pere Tarrés welcomes children and adolescents in socio-educational centers where they are helped with homework, play, and have snacks. It also works in collaboration with parish youth groups, paradoxically with little harmony with the Archbishopric of Barcelona. Within the Church there are many worlds.
Pujol Humet, who was a monitor in his youth, openly defends the regularization process for immigrants –"we cannot have 800,000 people hidden and exploited in the underground economy, it is a matter of human dignity"–, regrets that the extension of rent prices has not been approved in Congress –"housing is a priority: it is the main factor of inequality"– and is critical of the radicalization of mainstream educational unionism and, more specifically, of endangering school camps.
There is another key element for social entities as a whole. In most public tenders, price is the decisive factor and, in addition, a lot of bureaucracy is required: this double whammy is suffocating small entities, NGOs, associations, cultural centers, etc. "Accessing any subsidy or aid is extremely complicated." Large organizations like Pere Tarrés also do not have it easy, as they have to compete for the provision of social services with private giants like Florentino Pérez's ACS.
"Not everything in the social sector can be regulated by the principle of the free market," he warns. The reality is that many entities, starting with Pere Tarrés itself, are aware that they pay workers too little. But as things stand, improving agreements would mean closing down in many cases. "The paradox is that we have staff who, when they have children, have to rely on public grants for meals or holidays." If the school world feels mistreated, how must social workers or leisure monitors – those who run the cafeterias and after-school activities – feel? If teachers are planning a super-strike, what should those who look after boys and girls outside of school hours, subjected to much worse conditions, do?
The third sector has long been asking administrations to trust in the social action of civil society. A key action to defeat the far-right.
