Junts per Catalunya obtained, on January 10, the commitment of the PSOE to delegate immigration powers to the Generalitat.
The post-convergents started this transfer (still to be finalized) at a time of strong competition with ERC and also with Aliança Catalana, the xenophobic independence party that governs in Ripoll (Girona).
The Junts management has aligned itself in recent months with a group of mayors from the Maresme region of Barcelona who demand the expulsion of repeat migrants in a clear association between immigration and crime.
Far from disavowing them, the party leadership has supported the same thesis.
Junts' political drift on this issue seems evident, but there are exceptions.
In the municipality with the highest percentage of immigrants in Catalonia, Guissona (Lleida), there are 7,800 residents, of whom 53% are migrants.
But precisely there the party founded by Carles Puigdemont has power.
The mayor is Jaume Ars, who won the 2019 elections and swept the May 2023 elections when he won nine of the 13 councilors.
He has his own speech quite far from what has been heard from other mayors of the party.
And he also demonstrates it with facts: “I am not in favor of the binomial between crime and immigration.
In my party there are messages that I do not completely agree with, but it is also true that the problems that exist in Guissona have nothing to do with some towns in Maresme."
In the year 2000, 3,300 inhabitants lived in Guissona.
Today the population has more than doubled (7,800).
It is one of the few municipalities where immigrants are the majority.
The key to achieving these figures is the need for labor from the Bonàrea food corporation, an agri-food business group in full expansion.
Bonàrea needed so many workers that in the 90s it began to sign contracts with workers from other countries.
Today people of 43 different nationalities live in Guissona.
“The largest community is the Romanian community, with 1,260 residents, followed by the Ukrainian community, which now consists of 1,180 people but when the war with Russia began it reached 1,300.
There are 600 residents from Senegal, 380 from Bulgaria, 150 from Colombia, 78 from Gambia, 67 from Guinea, 50 from Moldova, 25 from Pakistan, 21 from Cuba, 11 from Mauritania…”, the mayor says from memory.
“We do not have insecurity problems because there is work and the percentage of unemployed is residual.
In addition, Bonàrea exercises a control role.
At the Town Hall we meet with the Municipal Guard, Mossos and Bonàrea security once a month.
If a person causes problems and is a Bonàrea worker, they get their attention.
For the company, coexistence is essential,” reveals Ars.
“The problem in Guissona is that it is difficult to plan for population growth.
We outgrew the institute before inaugurating the last renovation,” maintains Ars.
In 2021, the mayor decided to create what was called “Cohesion Space.”
It is a monthly meeting at City Hall in which clinic workers, social services, Caritas or the Red Cross, but - above all - the leaders of migrant communities participate.
These references act on the communities by transmitting messages and exercising an authority that translates into coexistence.
The meetings are held on the last Thursday of the month and EL PAÍS attended the one on January 25.
The first to intervene was a technician from the Guissona Primary Care Center (CAP) who reminded the leaders of the immigrant associations that every Thursday health cards are issued for new arrivals who do not have them.
Ars points out: “Guissona is a municipality with a free registry.
When they arrive, the first thing we do is register them so that they can qualify for everything: healthcare, education….”
The speech is very different from the one that the mayor of Ripoll, Sílvia Orriols, has been giving in recent weeks, putting obstacles in the registry of residents of other nationalities.
The CAP technician addresses Tania Bashta, the vice president of the association of Ukrainians in Guissona: “Doctors tell us that there are many elderly Ukrainians who do not relate.
“They are isolated.”
They agree to set up activity groups with the community to try to break this dynamic.
Today half a dozen members of the municipality's nursing home attended the meeting.
Pepito speaks up: “The center is hurt, there are no excursions, no talks, no theater.
We have a giant place for four people and we believe that elderly people of other nationalities could come with us.”
Ivana Mocany, vice president of the Romanians association, believes that she will not drag her community there: “In my country there is no culture of going from one place to another.
“They are embarrassed to enter a bar.”
The agreed solution: organize workshops to bring elderly migrants closer to the premises.
The Deputy Mayor for Social Cohesion, Elena Guirado, brings up the thorniest point on the agenda: “We have received news that there has been some racist behavior.
Have you detected anything?”
Bashta immediately answers: “Yes, but we don't know what to do.”
Together they conclude that, above all, this type of behavior occurs in young adolescents.
Ars summarizes: “In an intercultural soccer tournament we had an episode.
"We have detected that there are racist conflicts in football and we think that perhaps we could talk to the coaches and propose some type of training."
A representative of Bonàrea warns: “In the company there have been isolated cases among groups of young people.
“We have our own protocols that we have put in place.”
The CAP technician defends that there are also
anti-bullying
talks in the health center and Theophile Fayendione, from the Senegalese association, and a representative of one of the neighborhood associations in Latin America agree that the problem is “labels” and “ education” that occurs within homes.
One of the four municipal guards, Raül Novell, takes the floor to discuss coexistence conflicts.
“This municipality works in shifts (in reference to Bonàrea's work shifts) and balance must be sought.
A bar must be able to work and the neighbor must be able to sleep.
We all have to win,” decides Solomonic Novell.
Jaume Ars, mayor of Guissona, poses in his office at City HallKike Rincón
The last point of the day is related to “the Senegalese”.
Up to 68 Senegalese without work permits arrived in Guissona in December and overwhelmed the municipality's social services.
“We need resources.
We are giving them Catalan classes but they need to stay in Spain for two years to prove their roots and be able to work.
That route is complicated in Guissona,” admits the mayor.
Ars anticipates: "Now they are living in other Senegalese's apartments and we don't know how long they can last like this."
The meeting ends.
Little by little, the attendees go home.
Ars is proud of the space he has created.
“I am the mayor of all the neighbors.
In the end, the system is unfair.
There are 7,800 residents, only 3,200 have the right to vote.
In May, 62% did and I had an absolute majority with 1,000 votes.”
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