Addendum: I asked following questions to the Espacio del Inmigrante Raval in order to better understand the context of the official statement below. For more information on the work done by the Espacio, check out their webpage here.
A: Why are you being evicted now and how does that relate to the current high levels of gentrification in Barcelona?
Immigrant Space in Raval: We are being evicted because the building in which we work is actually an occupied, squattered space, “freed” from market speculations and re-used for the benefit of the neighborhood. That means: the building currently serves as housing for a population that is mainly migrant, as well as it shelters our community center offering political activities and social services. This eviction is certainly a part of the gentrification process of Raval that started at the beginning of the year 2000 with the opening of the Rambla del Raval, and continued with the construction of the Filmoteca, as part of a process that suggests that Barcelona ought to meet purposes of tourism development and is less obligated to show accountability to its citizens.
AKC: Which are your future strategies, or future plans? How can one resist gentrification?
Immigrant Space in Raval: Our strategy is twofold: On the one hand, we will search for support from neighbors, as well as from other collectives and associations with which we have been closely working since the beginning of our activities at the Immigrant Space in Raval. On the other hand, we will go back to our strategy of occupying abandoned buildings in Raval and will continue to develop the work that we have been doing for more than three years now.
Press release from the Immigrant Space in Raval on eviction
Published June 13, 2016 by the Immigrant Space in Raval
English Version/Original in Spanish
“The building in which the Immigrant Space works in Passatge Bernardí Martorell 2 in the Raval district in Barcelona will be evicted by the Mossos d’Esquadra (police force of Catalonia), on July 13, 2016. This building serves as housing for more than 15 families, and has welcomed the social and political work of the Immigrant Space for more than three years. For this reason, we release this public call directed to everyone in our neighborhood, as well as to other collective action groups in Barcelona and allied media to support and defend the Immigrant Space.
The Immigrant Space in Raval was born in 2013 when the Public Health Law excluded all migrants in a state of irregularity from access to health care. Since then, a space of solidarity and support among the migrant population has been created which allows autonomously organized comrades migrants to take advantage of legal, medical and psychological counseling. Through our open assemblies, training facilities, Spanish courses, documentaries, popular gazebos, lectures, debates and other meetings, we have strengthened the social fabric of the neighborhood, the defense of the rights of migrants and the fight for recognition of this population as political subjects. The space also functions as a platform for different political, social and cultural groups working in the vindication of the rights of migrant and racialized people against subordination and structural racism.
The Immigrant Space will be evicted as a consequence of continuing gentrification and touristification of Raval, a process in which the neighborhood is supposed to serve touristic purposes and not the needs of its residents. Once again they attack our work and the creation of political processes of self-managed social centers in Barcelona that offer real meeting spaces, solidarity, reflection and grassroots politicization. Currently, these services do not exist at the institutional level. Even worse, they will put an end to a space managed by and for migrants themselves at a time when the rule is exclusion, institutionalized racism and violence towards our community.
Why do they set an end to an autonomous space for political work that benefits the migrant population? Why are they evicting a space in which important initiatives of political organization to defend the rights of migrants who are being persecuted and repressed, such as the Popular Union of Street Vendors, have been created? Why do they pursue policies that instrumentalize migration? Why do they not recognize immigrants as political subjects ?!
We from the Immigrant Space in Raval say: ‘Here we are, here we live, here we fight and we are not going anywhere! We will keep on migrating and resisting!'”
No to eviction of the Immigrant Space!
This space is of the neighborhood!
This space stays!
#MigrateAndResist!
(Version en espanol)
AKC:Por que están tratando de desalojarlos y que relacion tiene esto con el contexto actual de centrificación en Barcelona?
Espacio del Inmigrante Raval: Seremos desalojados porque la finca donde trabaja el Espacio del Inmigrante es una finca okupada, “liberada” de la especulación y reutilizada para el barrio, tanto como viviendas mayoritariamente para personas migrantes como centro social de nuestras actividades políticas y asistenciales. El desalojo de la finca se contextualiza en un proceso de centrificacion del barrio del Raval que se inició en el año 2000 con la apertura de la Rambla del Raval y continuó con la construcción de la Filmoteca, en una Barcelona cada vez más destinada al turismo y menos a sus ciudadanos.
AKC: Cuales son las estrategias, y/o los planes futuros? Como se puede hacer resistencia a la centrificación?
Espacio del Inmigrante Raval: La estrategia a seguir es doble. Por un lado, buscar el apoyo de los vecinos y las vecinas del barrio, así como de los diferentes colectivos con los que se ha trabajado conjuntamente desde que empezamos la actividad en el Espacio del Inmigrante. Por otro lado, volveremos a okupar en el Raval y seguiremos desde ahí desarrollando el mismo trabajo que se viene realizando desde hace más de tres años.
Big thanks to Cinthia Carvajal and Sophia Nicolini for proofreading our translation!
El edificio en el que trabaja el Espacio del Inmigrante en el Passatge Bernardí Martorell 2 en el barrio del Raval será desalojado por los Mossos de Escuadra, el día 13 de Julio del 2016. Ese edificio además de funcionar como vivienda para más de 15 familias, ha acogido el trabajo social y político del Espacio del Inmigrante desde hace cuatro años. Por esta razón hacemos un llamado público a lxs vecinxs de nuestro barrio, así como a otros colectivos sociales de Barcelona y medios de comunicación afines para apoyar y defender el Espacio del Inmigrante.
El Espacio nace el año 2013 cuando la ley de sanidad excluyó del acceso a la salud a todas las personas inmigrantes irregularizadas. Desde ese momento se forma un espacio de solidaridad y apoyo entre y para la población migrante atendiendo auto- organizadamente a compañerxs migrantes con necesidades de asesoría jurídica, médica y psicológica. Através de las asambleas abiertas, espacios…
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