Guissona: the town where work unites 47 nationalities

Guissona (the Segarra)The number of immigrants now living in Guissona - more than 3,500 - exceeds all the inhabitants who lived there in 2000. An exponential growth that is explained by the great job offer in the town and that has made Guissona the municipality in Catalonia with the highest percentage of new arrivals. 49.9% of the inhabitants are foreigners, who come from 47 different countries, above all from Romania (34%) and Ukraine (30%) but also from Senegal (12%), Bulgaria (7.6%) and Morocco (5%). In 2000 Guissona became the first town in the State in which the immigrant population exceeded the native population. A small UN in the middle of the Segarra that has managed to remove any shadow of racism and xenophobia thanks to the great amount of work there is in the municipality. Unemployment does not exceed 5%.

The Guissona Food Group (GAG), owner of the BonÀrea stores, is well-functioning and employs 4,000 people directly. "If people are busy, it's easy to maintain social peace," explains Antoni Condal, head of the GAG's external relations department. The company began looking for foreign workers when it saw that people from Extremadura and Andalusia stopped coming to Catalonia to stay in their territory and work in the construction sector. "In 2000 we only found 20 people in the entire Spanish INEM willing to come to work," says Condal. The company opted to sign Senegalese who worked as day labourers in the fruit fields of Lleida in the summer, but it was not enough. GAG grew at a frenetic pace, hiring some 200 people each year. The option of hiring young people from Eastern European countries en masse, helping them to obtain work and residence permits, also failed. "They were doctors and engineers who killed chickens," recalls Condal. It was then that the company decided to go to the countries of origin to directly select young people with experience in slaughterhouses or butcher shops.

Permits and regroupings

Once in Guissona, the company provided them with housing, learning the language (85% of Guissona residents understand Catalan, according to Idescat) and the customs of the country. It also encouraged family reunification, an initiative that has been key to good coexistence: it allows newcomers not to lose their identity - they meet up with their family and close ranks with the rest of their compatriots - and at the same time they quickly learn the rules of coexistence.

Ioana arrived seven years ago from Romania. She believes that "she will always be a foreigner" in a land that, however, has welcomed her better than expected. She does not think about returning: "Here we have work, me and my husband. We do not need anything else," she says. But the fact that there are no conflicts does not mean that there is integration.

"On the boards of cultural and sports entities there are not half immigrants," says Xavier Casoliva, the mayor since 2011, who admits that it is "very difficult" to involve newcomers. "Think about what you would do if you were going abroad: if you were in London with 500 other Catalans, who would you go with?" he asks. The mayor explains that although "there is no street or neighbourhood for immigrants," as occurs in other cities, there are bars "where only immigrants go" and others where there are only natives. The City Council, Casoliva argues, makes efforts to involve them in the day-to-day cultural life. The mayor explains that building good relations between the different religions that coexist in Guissona has not been easy either. In the town church, for example, different branches of Christianity come together, each with its priest. The same occurs in the mosque, where Muslims from different countries come.

Other consequences of the arrival of immigrants are the new municipal facilities: a primary school has been opened, the high school has been extended, the library has been renovated, a new municipal pavilion has been built and it is a mayor's decision that Guissona should be a basic health area so as not to have to go to Cervera "every now and then".

School, key to welcoming

One of the new facilities is the school. It closed in 2007 to move to a larger space, but despite the expansion it became too small and the previous centre had to be reopened, under the name of Ramon Estadella. "We wouldn't be here if immigration hadn't arrived," says Laura Martí, director of Estadella. The centre now has 220 pupils, 70% of whom are from immigrant families. "Most of them were born in Catalonia," she explains. The head of studies, Marta Amat, says that the children see diversity "as something natural." "It doesn't matter to them whether their classmate is black or blonde. They don't have the prejudices that we adults have," the director stresses. The school has a reception room and language support to teach Catalan to newcomers.

The GAG giant, which continues to grow, will continue to bring immigrants to the town. It is the Guissena paradox, because, curiously, the reason that explains why Guissona is the town with the most new arrivals is also the reason why there is no racism: work.