Since arriving in Barcelona, Silvia has been living with administrative irregularity. At twelve years old, she followed in the footsteps of her mother, Angela, who the summer of the pandemic emigrated from Honduras trusting that she could soon regularize her situation. Seeing that it would not be easy, she paid for the girl's plane ticket and almost two years later she landed here, unaware that sharing a bed in a rented room awaited her. She doesn't remember how many apartments she's been through, but she does remember the day she realized she would be "different", when the school planned a trip abroad and she didn't have a passport.

The extraordinary regularization process for migrants has concluded with 1,174,978 applications to join the process throughout the State. The figure exceeds the half-million forecast made by Pedro Sánchez's executive when it announced the opening of the procedure, the seventh of its kind in democratic times and the first in 20 years. Of the total requests, more than 52% have already been admitted for processing, and therefore the beneficiaries now have a first temporary authorization to live and work in Spain. After admission, the government has three months to respond, but rejected applications have not been made public. Catalonia, with 257,000 —two out of every 10—, is the territory that has registered the most files, ahead of the Community of Madrid (202,000), the Valencian Country (167,000), and Andalusia (161,000).

The workers of the third social sector are called this Wednesday to a 24-hour strike –called by the majority unions CCOO and UGT– to demand that wage parity with staff hired by public administration be applied. The protest is the first act of mobilization, as 15-minute partial stoppages are planned at workplaces on Wednesdays, July 15 and 29.

The final stretch of the extraordinary regularization process for migrants promoted by the Spanish government is coming to an end with an open judicial front. Given the doubts raised by the Supreme Court about the measure's compatibility with European law, experts consulted by ARA agree that it is unlikely to have immediate effects on the applications submitted. While the legal world points to possible shortcomings in the processing, organizations and groups that have helped migrants with paperwork – often fighting against misinformation and lack of resources and suffering from administrative collapse– are now focusing all their efforts on ensuring that applicants can complete the procedures before the deadline expires this Tuesday.

The Department of Equality and Feminism will launch a new "community care" service for the LGTBI community that will complement the individual support already provided at the hundred points of the Integral Care Network (SAI) throughout Catalonia. Pending the approval of the Generalitat's budget and the corresponding tender, the new service will provide collective "on-demand" responses with mutual support groups guided by a social educator hired for this plan.

The day before the extraordinary regularization process for migrants ends, there are still those who submit their documentation. For Al Bilal, a Pakistani man in his forties, it has been "very" difficult to obtain all the papers, especially the criminal records from their country because they had only partially reached them to the point where they had considered completing the procedures without attaching the proof they had requested. Finally, the paper arrived last week, just in time "to avoid surprises," he says. On the contrary, it even includes the registration that is not required. Pending definitive data, the latest official figures from a couple of weeks ago indicated that 900,000 applications have been made, although journalistic reports increased the figures to 1.2 million cases, more than double the half a million predicted by the Spanish government.

Room for 350 euros plus 300 euros for registration. The formula is repeated on advertising websites and exemplifies how complicated it is to register without a rental contract. Ángela (she doesn't want to give her surname) spent two years trying to get the owner who rented her a shared room in an apartment in Barcelona's Horta neighborhood to register her and, desperate due to the refusals, she went on Facebook and immediately a range of possibilities opened up for her to register in another dwelling without living there. She says she paid 300 euros, and two years later she had the "surprise" that they were asking for 150 more for the renewal. "Desperation makes you end up paying what they ask for," states this Colombian woman with a stable job and no record with social services.

The heatwave hitting Catalonia has had a clear impact on health. In two days –Monday 22 and Tuesday 23 June– thirteen deaths associated with high temperatures have been recorded, coinciding with the peak of high temperatures, according to the Daily Mortality Monitoring System MoMo of the Carlos III Health Institute. This is the start of the summer season with the highest mortality since records began in 2015. Of the series, only June 2022 had a worse performance, with deaths before the first fortnight of a month that ended with 39 victims.

2.218 million extra euros is the amount that the Council of Ministers approved this Tuesday to strengthen the dependency system, one of the pillars of the welfare state, but highly criticized for the slowness and scarcity of resources 20 years after the approval of the law that was already born underfunded. "Today is a historic day," proclaimed the Minister of Social Rights, Pablo Bustinduy, who was in charge of presenting the economic "effort" of the Spanish government to improve the fourth pillar of the welfare state. "We must transform our care system," he said, "we want to move towards guaranteeing a public service that responds to the needs of citizens, both from the perspective of those who receive it and those who provide it".

Final stretch of the extraordinary regularization process that should allow thousands of migrants living and working in Spain (in the underground economy) to obtain the residence permit that will allow them to end a life without rights. After a turbulent start more than two months ago, in which misinformation and lack of resources led to long queues of applicants to receive the necessary documentation for the procedures, the process will close on June 30. So far, more than 900,000 applications have been submitted, almost double the 500,000 foreseen by the Spanish government.

Are neighborhoods safe? Looking at crime data, one can conclude that they are. Or, at least, sufficiently so. However, there is an increase in the perception of insecurity and a feeling of fear when going out at night or walking down certain streets, especially among young women and the elderly. Marta Murrià, head of the urban coexistence and security area at the Institut Metròpoli, states that between 15% and 20% of residents in the Barcelona metropolitan area feel insecure, but, even so, more than 60% of the population does not change their behavior or routes, even if certain places or times may trigger alerts.“The feeling is not only related to the number of crimes or being a victim; there are other factors that explain it,” continues the expert, who gives the example of residents in the neighborhoods along the Besòs strip, who express the most insecurity, despite not always being areas with a high crime rate. Murrià was responding to the debate on security and coexistence in neighborhoods raised by Confavc (Confederation of Neighborhood Associations of Catalonia), during one of the conferences it periodically organizes to gauge the "malaise" of the neighborhoods. “Things are starting to happen in the neighborhood,” summarized one of the attendees to warn that far-right discourses are taking root, fueled by difficulties in paying for housing and an economic and social crisis that ultimately generates coexistence problems. Some of these factors were pointed out by sociologist Murrià, and that Anna Almécija, a criminologist, also related to poor urban planning.Almécija is a member of the Catalan Association for the Prevention of Insecurity through Environmental Design, which analyzes whether the design of spaces facilitates crime. The expert points out that it is more than proven that there are elements that favor "natural surveillance" of the neighborhood. These

He has a slight accent and a cadence that suggest he comes from very far away and that Catalan is not his mother tongue. Nevertheless, both the pronunciation and vocabulary of Alejandro González, a 25-year-old Hispanic-Colombian, are excellent. And even more so considering that he has never lived in Catalonia nor, for now, does he have any intention of settling there. He is not driven by need, nor obligation, nor even love, which are the factors that usually push someone to learn a language. In fact, it wasn't until he landed in Toulouse to study a master's degree four years ago that he became curious about the language and culture of a friend who introduced herself as "a Catalan from Barcelona".

He leaves the tent, which by midday must already be an oven inside. “No problems, no police,” he says, looking from side to side. From the dozen tents in this corner of the ronda del Litoral, between L'Hospitalet and Barcelona, no one peeks out when they hear a strange voice. At the door of each one, there are trainers and pool flip-flops that reveal that the owners have preferred to remain oblivious to what is happening outside and avoid problems. They are afraid that making themselves visible will force them to move again. This group has settled in a vacant lot between roads, having come from evictions at the airport, the Ciutadella, and the Zona Franca. “They are looking for the periphery,” illustrate those from the organizations, who point out that they opt to go more unnoticed by the police and also by the neighbors.

Manuel Heredia gets up every day at 5 in the morning to go to work. He washes his face and teeth, ties up his hair, takes the train, and at 6:20 AM he enters the company's door. Eight hours later, he showers and makes the journey in reverse. Until the next day. It is the same routine as so many workers, but Heredia's peculiarity is that he lives on the street, an exceptionality that is becoming increasingly normalized, social entities warn. The FOESSA report from Cáritas estimates that in Catalonia 1.4 million workers are poor.

It has been more than four years since the death of Munir and Jéssica in the shantytown of Montcada i Reixac. In this time, however, the situation of the settlement has not changed at all and its inhabitants continue to live in poverty between the Besòs river and the BV-5001 road, invisible to the administrations despite the tragedy. That day in January 2022 it was cold, the couple lit a fire to warm themselves and died of asphyxiation inside their makeshift home, leaving three children orphaned. The arrival of a new summer does not improve the neighbors' outlook, as with the rising temperatures they have to seek refuge outside the shack—built with sheet metal or materials not very resistant—when the sun beats down the hardest and makes the air inside unbreathable. This is the case of a man resting in the shade without a shirt. He does not want to give his name, nor have his photograph taken and be interviewed, he is tired of reporting the situation and angry about the lack of help they have received: "They died right next door and everything remains the same; I don't want to talk to you because it will be useless".

The Pope has reserved the two small-format, more intimate events for the second and last day of his visit to Barcelona to meet with vulnerable groups. In the morning, he met with about eighty inmates at the Brians 1 prison, in Sant Esteve Sesrovires, before heading to the monastery of Montserrat. In the afternoon, he chose the modest church of Sant Agustí, in the heart of Barcelona's Raval, on his way to the central event of the blessing of the Sagrada Família's tower of Jesus. It was, therefore, a day marked, on the one hand, by two great symbols of Catalan spirituality and, on the other, by two points where current social problems are felt.

In October 2024, when the Congress approved the ELA law, at the home of the Culleré-Piqué family, a bottle of cava was opened to celebrate that, finally, the sick peopleThe family complains that, while the Generalitat has avoided service cutsthe Catalan law, which complements with a maximum of 4,929.5 euros per monthCompanies charge 18.5 euros per hour of care during the day and 22 euros at night and on weekends, in addition to mileage charges – between 0.26 and 0.32 euros. That is, the estimations of the Department of Social Rights to calculate the aid do not take into account the extra amounts for night and holiday hours nor the travel expenses of the workers that companies do charge. Therefore, the difference is borne by the Culleré-Piqué family. Social Rights assures that, for patients with annual incomes below 53,000 euros, the system covers the total cost of the service. Above this threshold, a co-payment of 5% applies.

There is one year left until the municipal elections and only ten days until the Pope's visit to Barcelona, and the labor conflict with part of the City Council staff is growing. In fact, social workers will maintain their strike for June 9 and 10, coinciding with the pontiff's presence. This Friday, in an extraordinary plenary session requested by the Junts, Comuns, and ERC groups, Jaume Collboni's government has been left alone with Vox against opening a dialogue space with the three minority unions –CGT, Intersindical, and ABACOS, with only 3 out of the 15 members of the negotiation table–, who have called for 30 days of partial stoppages in basic social services, gender-based violence, childhood, libraries, nursery schools, social emergencies, or citizen attention.partial stoppages in basic social services, gender-based violence, childhood, libraries, nursery schools, social emergencies, or citizen attention.

The Government and the Third Sector Table approved this Wednesday the forgiveness of the debt for electricity bills that vulnerable families have accumulated between 2022 and 2025. The measure is part of the expired agreement signed with Endesa in March 2021, and will mean that thousands of families will not have to pay unpaid bills, without risk of being reported. On the eve of the approval of the Generalitat's budgets, Salvador Illa and the president of the Table, Xavier Trabado, have formalized the agreement between both parties to allocate 250 million euros to strengthen social policies, from the fight against energy poverty to the promotion of employment, the fight against homelessness or child poverty.

It has taken four years for the law of the third social sector to see the light of day. The project was dropped due to the call for early elections, and after months of new debates and parliamentary proceedings in this new legislature, the plenary session of the Catalan chamber approved this Wednesday by a large majority a text that, for the first time, officially recognizes the work of the 3,000 non-profit entities that serve more than two million Catalans –a quarter of the population–, the majority of whom are vulnerable groups. The norm was passed with the votes of the PSC, ERC, Comuns, and Junts, the abstention of the PP, Vox, and the CUP, and the opposition of the deputies of Aliança Catalana.