Anti-immigration rhetoric resonates with social service users
Social workers warn that they must deny that there is no discrimination based on origin in benefits.
BarcelonaFrom having a completely free stroller to passing by local citizens to receive healthcare or social benefits. They are the Rumors that fuel hate speech against migrants, which without any basis are spread throughout a society that has seen how, despite macroeconomic improvements, there is much social precariousness. Dean of the Official College of Social Work of Catalonia, Laura Morro, has warned that professionals from basic municipal social services try to deny favorable treatment toward residents of foreign origin while simultaneously resolving the problems raised by users.
Social workers describe how they often encounter native users who "show their anger" at the delay in receiving a service or benefit due to a lack of funding or waiting lists, blaming foreigners for having a privilege. "It's a lie," Morro states emphatically. "It's false that aid is monopolized by the immigrant population, because it is given to those who need it most."
In the service offices, "there is no discrimination based on origin" among users, insists the dean, who also emphasizes that citizens cannot be held responsible for believing these rumors because they actually respond to a feeling "of abandonment by the administrations, because they don't help them." For the professionals who have to face the situation every day, the situation is sometimes quite "unpleasant" because in some places this discomfort even has a violent expression.
The problem, according to Morro, is that most Most of the 2008 cuts have not yet been reversed, despite the increase in the Catalan population census and, above all, the complexity of the cases that professionals must accompany, aggravated by the difficulties in maintaining housing or the increase in cases of mental health disorders.
A struggle "for the docks" of the system
The diagnosis of the professional college coincides with that which has been repeated for some time now by the Third Social Sector Roundtable, which warns of the tensions between us and theothers, also in neighborhoods with greater vulnerability and social exclusion. "In reality, it is a struggle for the springs of the social system, which is very weak and leaves many people unattended," says a worker who avoids giving her name.
On why social benefits coverage in Catalonia is very low and the Aid does not reach those who need itMorro emphasized that there is a degree of "shame" in accessing social services because a large part of the population believes they are not entitled to it, as they associate it with extreme poverty. He also pointed out the excessive bureaucracy that makes it difficult to process.