City of Bilbao Intercultural Profile
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City of Bilbao Intercultural profile 1. Background Founded in the year 1300, Bilbao is the capital of Vizcaya (Biscay) province and the economic, social and cultural centre of the Basque country (Euskadi). With its population of almost 350,000 it is at the heart of a metropolitan area with over 1,000,000 inhabitants. Like the whole of the Basque country, Bilbao has two official languages: Spanish and Basque (euskera). Following the harsh economic crisis that struck its major industrial activities (iron and steel and shipbuilding) in the 1980s, the city had to reinvent itself and rise to major challenges: high unemployment, environmental problems and urban decay, high levels of emigration and increasing social exclusion. At the end of the 20th century, if it was to turn its economy around Bilbao had to make radical changes. After years of economic uncertainty the city has found renewed vigour and is turning into a service‐oriented city bent on environmental and urban regeneration. A transformation, owed in part to local government but also to a clear belief in cooperation between the public and private sectors and between the different administrative levels, which has met with much acclaim in other parts of the world. The symbol of this “New Bilbao” is the Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Gehry, but numerous factors have contributed to the city’s regeneration and profound transformation. Over 25 years Bilbao has gradually shed its industrial skin and rehabilitated emblematic parts of the city. The move to reclaim the Ría, or estuary, has played a major part in the transformation, not only in terms of communication and commerce, but also of the many spaces and opportunities opened up to cultural, leisure and sporting activities developed there. Finishing touches to the city’s strategic transformation project include the new bridges, the underground and tram systems and the airport. Bilbao is now facing up to new challenges linked to its development and social cohesion. It aspires to be an internationally competitive city and to foster intercultural harmony in a population 7.7% of which is made up of foreign nationals. The city authorities have decided to focus on the intercultural dimension in order to rise to these challenges but also to take advantage of the opportunities diversity offers for the city’s social, cultural and economic development. 2. Increasing socio‐cultural diversity in Bilbao Bilbao, like the rest of the Basque country and Spain in general, is no exception and has seen the number of foreign nationals residing there steadily increase since the turn of the century. This “new” diversity has brought a marked increase in the plurality that characterises Bilbao’s identity. 1 While there were 3,953 foreigners living in Bilbao in 2000, by 1 January 2014 that number had risen to 26,842, an increase of 22,889 people, but the total number has decreased in the last few years, down from a maximum of 30,191 foreign nationals in 2012. The impact of the economic crisis, returns to countries of origin or moves to other countries, together with the naturalisation of many residents, especially from Latin American countries, explain this decrease. The countries from which most of the foreign residents originate continue to be Bolivia, closely followed by Morocco and Romania, then China, Paraguay, Brazil, Ecuador and Algeria. As to the naturalisation process, in 2014 there were 10,234 Spanish nationals living in Bilbao who were born in other countries, principally Colombia, closely followed by Ecuador and, to a lesser extent, European countries such as France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and Portugal. As regards geographical distribution, after an initial settlement phase the foreign population has spread out into the different districts and neighbourhoods, with no appearance of any form of segregation. The map showing the percentage of foreign residents in each district reveals that there are foreign residents in every part of the city, with no great differences in the percentages. There is, however, a somewhat higher concentration in certain areas, such as the old part of the city with the San Francisco neighbourhood, and certain parts of Ibaiondo and Errekalde (or Recalde) districts. Percentage of foreigners in the different districts of Bilbao (2014) In terms of population groups, Africans, particularly from sub‐Saharan Africa, present the highest concentrations, their patterns and possibilities of movement being more limited. As to age, the data confirm, as usual, that the foreign population counterbalances the high rate of dependence among the native population. In the native population there are 1.77 people to cater for the needs of each dependent person, compared with 5.26 people among the foreign residents. 2 3. Diversity management policies in Spain Spain took in most of its immigrants in the period from 2000 to 2010, at a rate far higher than the United Kingdom, Germany or France, where the numbers remained more or less constant over the same period. Other southern European countries, like Italy, also experienced a marked increase in immigration, but not to the same extent as Spain. In Spain integration did not become an issue until a few years after the arrival of the first waves of immigrants, first at the local level, and subsequently at the level of the Autonomous Communities and the State. Indeed, the idea of integration did not even appear in the wording of the first Aliens Act of 1985, and it was not until the 1990s and more specifically 1996, that the question arose, drawing as it did so on the greater experience of the local and Autonomous Community authorities in the matter. Some of the plans that emerged confined themselves to transcribing the various departmental measures of the local and Autonomous Community authorities relating to the immigration present in their territories. Others went a step further, placing such measures on a broader theoretical plane (debates on multiculturality, interculturality, living together, diversity, or civic citizenship), even shaping municipal and autonomous authority services and actions to suit this approach; some would incorporate budgetary provisions and evaluation mechanisms, which were not always fully implemented. Be that as it may, the integration plans grew and spread like any other instrument of the organisation of administrative activity, although their very spread and multiplicity helped to create a veritable patchwork of integration models in Spain, rather than one single model. The tools of integration policy The Act of 1999 finally paved the way for a State integration model in coordination with the other administrative levels. An Immigrant Integration Fund was set up with substantial resources and State Citizenship and Integration plans were developed. The economic crisis led to cutbacks in funding, however, and a loss of interest in the issue. Model based on equal rights and duties. Limited distinction between “regular” and “irregular” through compulsory registration in the municipal register, giving access to local public services Development of the Citizenship and Integration Strategy: First Plan (2007‐2010) Second Plan (2011‐2014) Immigrant Integration and educational support Fund: State funds distributed to the municipalities by the Autonomous Communities (with sharp cutbacks in recent years); Compared with the rest of Europe (MIPEX‐28), Spain ranks somewhere in the middle in terms of best practices, with slightly favourable results. 3 One salient feature is that in spite of the serious impact of the economic crisis in Spain, just as large numbers of immigrant workers were arriving, it is safe to say that, for the time being, populist anti‐immigration propaganda has not received as much support as it has in other European countries. Exactly why this should be the case is unclear, but it is something definitely worth noting and indeed analysing in order to clearly identify the reasons behind it, as this is one of the major challenges facing Europe in this century. 4. The social immigration Pact in Euskadi With somewhat lower than average percentages of immigration than in other parts of Spain, the different institutional levels in the Basque country have been promoting policies and initiatives to foster the integration of immigrants for a number of years now. The Basque Government, the Provincial Authorities and many municipalities have set projects in motion to foster integration and harmony and prevent xenophobia. Civil society has also played a decisive and highly proactive role, welcoming new arrivals and helping them settle in, and cooperating with the authorities on numerous projects in favour of integration and mutual understanding. In 2011 the Basque Government took on the preparation and approval of the Social Immigration Pact in Euskadi. A document drawn up by a joint committee of people with experience in the social, political, economic and academic fields. The Pact was a key part of the Basque Government’s 2011‐2013 Immigration, Citizenship and Intercultural Harmony Plan, the document that laid down the strategic lines for the government’s immigration policies. The objectives of the Pact were: To make a joint analysis of the challenges and opportunities immigration represented for the Basque country. To generate a vision, widely shared by the authorities and society as a whole, of an integration model that guaranteed civic rights, intercultural harmony and social cohesion. To agree on the main lines of a participatory model of governance of public integration policies. At the Council of Europe experts’ first meeting when they visited Bilbao we had an opportunity to see how the Pact had developed and what stage had been reached, with the help of Xabier Aierdi, adviser to the Basque Government and one of the main Basque experts on the subject, on which he has been working for many years at the University of the Basque Country. Mr Aierdi commented that the Plan was developing quite slowly.