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Fabien Nouvene in Barcelona: Immigrants succeed in Barcelona

Last update - Saturday, June 1, 2013, 10:45 By Fabien Nouvene

What picture comes immediately to mind when you think of Barcelona? Maybe it’s the Rambla, the Parc Güell, the Sagrada Familia, the wide beaches or the incredible nightlife. It’s these and other attractions that bring millions of tourists to enjoy the pleasant weather and cultural heritage that the capital city of Catalonia has to offer. But for someone who lives in the city, it appears that there is something else that is not so obvious at first sight: multiculturalism.

What picture comes immediately to mind when you think of Barcelona? Maybe it’s the Rambla, the Parc Güell, the Sagrada Familia, the wide beaches or the incredible nightlife. It’s these and other attractions that bring millions of tourists to enjoy the pleasant weather and cultural heritage that the capital city of Catalonia has to offer. But for someone who lives in the city, it appears that there is something else that is not so obvious at first sight: multiculturalism.

According to the 2012 annual report on immigration published by Barcelona’s city council, more than 280,000 immigrants – some 17 per cent of the total population –make their home in the city. That’s a big number, and their diversity can be seen in all areas, especially in the city centre.

In Barcelona, immigrant communities are not pushed out to the suburban areas but are spread all over town. Take for example the area known as the Raval, in the very centre. In the last 10 years this district has shifted from being considered an immigrant ghetto to a lively multicultural zone, where university buildings and museums share the streets with Pakistani restaurants and African stores.

Barcelona is one of Spain’s most successful cities, from tourism to industry to international business. But this success is not always accessible to everybody. Just ask those immigrants from the developing world, for whom the way to integration is long and difficult, even more so in a climate where unemployment is upwards of 25 per cent.

The dream of the Spanish Eldorado is definitely over. Job insecurity, the language barrier (for both Spanish and Catalan languages) and all the difficulties inherent to settling in a new country are among the myriad problems that newcomers have to face. But Barcelona still appears as an opportunity of a better life. This is especially the case for the Pakistani, Chinese, African and South American communities – who are among the most fragile, the ones that struggle most to fit in.

Barcelona plays also the role of a European ‘Silicon Valley’. High-tech and web-based companies attract skilled employees from far and wide, providing their teams with a pleasant work and life environment.

This is the case for Noemi Frongia, a young Italian woman working in the headquarters of a travel agency, who told us: “My company provides me with full-time training, in an international environment, and of course if I can get a contract after my training I would love to stay here.”

Aware of her luck, she confesses that her integration was quite smooth since she already spoke Spanish when she came to Barcelona.

But the country’s interior migration, though less visible, is very important as well. As explains Toni, a man who moved from Granada in the south 20 years ago: “After the dictatorship, Barcelona became more and more open to the world and it was also easier to move inside the country. People came from all around Spain to find a job here; for example many of Barcelona’s taxi drivers are originally from Andalusia.”

All of these migrations have turned Barcelona into a flourishing multicultural city, where it is possible and easy to hear many different languages, eat various types of food, listen to music from every continent and interact with cultures from all around the world.

 

Fabien Nouvene is a French student based in Barcelona and a former intern at Metro Éireann.


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