Spain

This action was submitted through the GFMD Mayors Mechanism Call to Local Action for Migrants and Refugees.

Making migration and mobility positive forces for development

1. Bring together representatives of diaspora communities and governments of countries of origin and destination for round-table debates on sharing best practices and on recognising the role and needs of diaspora communities in development and investment in countries of origin as well as in integration in the host societies.

Nationals from Spanish-American countries are eligible to apply for citizenship after just two years of residence. Between 2001 and 2017, 977,546 people from Latin American countries became naturalized Spanish citizens through residence in Spain.

From the late 1990s until today, the municipality of Barcelona has followed an intercultural strategy to implement inclusive measures for local migrant integration. These measures were reinforced to welcome asylum seekers as the population tripled between 2015 and 2017, through a range of measures, including:

In Spain, the migration law (Aliens Act) foresees the possibility to request a temporary residence permit for humanitarian reasons

Spain, New Zealand and Australia have expanded the use of pre-existing temporary work quotas to target migrants from disaster-affected areas and areas facing adverse impacts of climate change

‘Cuidamos Centro’ (‘We Take Care of the Centro District’) is an employment training and practice programme that targets groups at risk of exclusion and long term unemployment in Madrid. The programme is coordinated by the Madrid Municipal Employment Agency and District Board. The initiative provides training and paid employment opportunities for those deemed most excluded from the city’s labour market. Whilst it does not exclusively target foreign-born migrants, the latter group are over-represented among the project’s participants (also known as dynamizers).

The city of Bilbao in Spain uses the local application of the Intercultural Cities Index to help assess needs and guide migration policy and programming.

All residents whatever their nationalities are invited to register in the Padron, the administrative municipal census, to automatically gain the status of a “neighbour”. The Padron is managed by the local authority (Offices of Citizenship Attention). Access to many services in the city requires registration in the Padron (i.e. for social housing, public education, but also city public bikes).

The Barcelona Anti-Rumour Strategy is a line of action of the Barcelona Interculturality Programme. They generate tools and discourses for dispelling these rumours and stereotypes, and thus to move ahead towards living together in a more intercultural and cohesive society.

The following actions are implemented: