One in ten people living in Catalonia today (9.7%) arrived between 2021 and 2023. The figure (780,639 people) includes foreigners (the majority), people from other parts of Spain (a significantly lower number than in previous periods), and Catalans who had left and returned (10%: 40,710 people). The data comes from the 2024 population and housing census published this Thursday by the Statistical Institute of Catalonia (Idescat). Overall, and in absolute terms, the population increase has meant 700,000 new inhabitants since 2014, reaching the current total of over 8 million, as deaths and emigration must be subtracted from the arrival figures. With the pandemic over, the attraction of people from elsewhere has surged again. Despite the increasing challenges in integrating newcomers due to the strain on social services (especially health and education), the Catalan economy and society possess remarkable dynamism and attractiveness. Catalonia is one of the regions in Europe with the most intense influx of migrants. Increasing numbers of skilled workers (the so-called expados) and many low-skilled workers have returned to perform essential jobs in the tourism, domestic work and care sectors.

President Salvador Illa said this Tuesday in the Catalan Parliament that "immigration makes us a better country." Is this true? Before responding based on ideological bias, for or against, it's necessary to look at the data. The study was presented this Tuesday. Demographic transition, immigration and aging in Catalonia 2024-2050, Prepared by Josep Oliver, professor of applied economics at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and presented at the Association of Economists of Catalonia.

Tourism phobia? To the expats? To immigrants? There are polite and respectful tourists (you do your own sightseeing, right?), expats with a desire to integrate (surely they have a relative living abroad) and immigrants without whom we wouldn't leave (who cares for dependent relatives?). Fear and/or phobia abroad, in general, is a dead end. It harbors hatred of difference. Structural problems—housing, insecurity, poverty, strain on social services, etc.—are one thing, and people are quite another. If instead of looking at collectives, we focus on specific individuals—neighbors, friends, coworkers, shopkeepers, acquaintances, or those we greet—our perception becomes humanized. The other person becomes a familiar face.

La Barceloneta is a hake stew or pickled anchovies. La Barceloneta is in four-story apartments, that is, a two-story house divided into twenty-eight-square-meter apartments. La Barceloneta is life on the street, with meals delivered to your doorstep. La Barceloneta is where Alba Aguilera (Barcelona, 2001), Montse Catalán (Barcelona, 1975), Esther Jorquera (Barcelona, 1987), and Marina Monsonís (Barcelona, 1979) work or live. They explain how they fight against the paellas and frozen sea bream sold on Passeig Joan de Borbó (a name they don't like), against the macha tea and chicken shops. teriyaki And above all, against monoculture tourism. La Barceloneta is where the four women have become friends, tied together by many ropes from a single net they weave with strength: they want to preserve the essence of a fishing neighborhood.

He 30 minutes This Sunday we delved into the reality of the expats, this phenomenon of skilled international migration that settles in cities like Barcelona or Girona without integrating into the country's social or cultural fabric. The report was interesting and captivated the viewer with the intrigue aroused by these people, whom we often cross paths with or whose presence we often notice in our neighborhoods. It was like accessing a certain continuity of these strange lives: what do they do beyond occupying designer cafes with computers and making a living? brunch. They are somewhat hermetic existences and, in a certain way, the report also suffered. The witnesses of the expats were superficial, both in their topical discourse and in their appearance in front of the cameras. The report also had small details. The greeting of"Hello, neighbor!" that threw a expado The Dutchman in the fisherman weaving a net in Barceloneta betrayed this kind of condescension toward the environment, a display of a feigned coexistence with a world that seems quaint and bohemian to them. However, when the protagonist himself visited an apartment in Poble-sec to buy it, he appreciated the neighborhood's "international" quality. The supporting characters were also very revealing. Local citizens who didn't hesitate to sell them the reality, adjusting it to what wealthy foreigners wanted to hear. Expeditions It portrayed the Girona of cyclists and oat milk coffees, and showed them as the promoters of a renewal and conservation of urban heritage. It also revealed a lack of interest in the linguistic issue, reducing the language to a folkloric detail. good day and the have a good one as a concession from the colonizers to the tribe for not making themselves completely unfriendly.