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The 4th edition of the School of Citizenship begins with a debate on the voting behaviour of migrants in Spain, Europe and the USA between Najat Driouech, Emilio Doménech and Santiago Pérez-Nievas
The fourth edition of the School of Citizenship promoted by Jovesólides, Acoec and Espai Obert El Marítim has started with an inaugural ceremony presided over by the General Director of Equality in Diversity, José de Lamo, and the Director of the School, Boutaina El Hadri, who have claimed the inclusion of citizens of migrant origin in political life. More than 200,000 foreigners will be able to vote in the upcoming May elections in the Valencian Community.
'It is time for the migrant revolution, led from Valencia, so that political parties finally listen to 15% of our population and take steps to integrate migrants into Valencian society,' de Lamo said in his speech to the nearly 150 people who followed the event at the Auditorium Joan Plaça of the Valencia Botanical Gardens and on social platforms.
For her part, the director of the School of Citizenship called for 'a change of mentality to develop a new activism and conquer spaces such as the Ampas, the Fallas or the neighbourhood associations, or we will have no choice but to create our political party'. El Hadri called on all political parties to 'open their eyes and realise' that 'part of our citizens feel excluded from the democracy that we defended tooth and nail 41 years ago' when the coup d'état took place on 23 March. In the same vein, she has also called for 'political will' to achieve the inclusion of people with a migrant background 'in the posts of candidacies' for the next regional and local elections in May.
Will Spain follow in the footsteps of France and the US, where migrant votes have determined election results for years?
During the inauguration, a debate colloquium was held between social activist and regional deputy in the Parliament of Catalonia, Najat Driouech, journalist and expert on American politics, Emilio Doménech, and doctor of political science from the UAM, Santiago Pérez-Nievas, who analysed the voting behaviour of migrants in Spain, Europe and the USA, moderated by journalist Lorena Tortosa.
The Catalan MP has stated that 'there is 'no real will' in political parties to normalise the presence of migrants in parliaments and institutions. 'Their speeches and actions are not coherent, the parties must be courageous, let go of their complexes and lose their fear of losing elections,' he said. In addition, 'there have to be people willing to take a step back.'
Journalist Emilio Doménech has analysed how the migrant voice 'plays a key role' in US election campaigns, 'especially the Hispanic population, which is only growing, which is why the American parties are paying more and more attention to it and developing complex specific strategies and debates”. For Doménech, there are three aspects that Spanish parties should learn from the US experience in order not to repeat mistakes: the migrant electorate is very diverse and complex, it cannot be treated as a monolithic whole; there is a need to better define the messages so that they are of interest to them and to combat fake news among the population; migrants are adult citizens and deserve the utmost respect; treating them in a condescending way generates their discontent.
For his part, the political scientist Pérez-Nievas criticised the fact that there are no sociological or demoscopic studies analysing the voting behaviour of voters with a migration background in Spain. He also assessed the 'failure' of the reciprocity agreements that allow citizens from some non-EU countries to vote in local elections in Spain, as 'the bureaucracy required to access this right is in itself an obstacle to the mobilisation of the collective'. In his opinion, it would be necessary to reform the electoral system to introduce 'open list formulas that favour the presence of people with a migrant background' in parliaments and encourage greater voter participation by the group.
Do you want to relive the opening and the debate-colloquium?
The 4th School of Citizenship begins its training activity on Thursday, March 2. This course will be shaped by the 2023 election dates and by the Spanish Presidency of the European Union. Interesting novelties have been introduced this academic year, such as a cycle of political meetings with the candidates for the presidency of the Generalitat or visits to parliamentary venues such as the Valencian Courts or the Congress of Deputies.
To follow all the news about this project, financed by theMinistry of Equality and Inclusive Policiess, you can follow the hashtags #EscuelaDeCiudadanía and #MigrantesEnPolíticaYa on social networks.
