The cycle 'A Coffee with...' brought together the migrant collective and the leaders of PSPV-PSOE, PPCV, Compromís, Esquerra Unida, Podem and ERPV to analyse the presence of foreigners on the electoral lists and the content of their programmes.
The students also visited the parliamentary seats of the Corts Valencianes and the Congress of Deputies in Madrid.
Video summary of the cycle 'A Coffee with the School of Citizenship'.
The Citizenship School continues to break glass ceilings for the migrant population in the Valencian Community. A few days before the official start of the campaign for the regional and local elections on 28 May, the EdC completed the cycle of political meetings that offered students the opportunity to meet and talk to the candidates for the Generalitat in person during the months of March and April. Boutaina El Hadri, Director of the School of Citizenship and Manager of Jovesólides, highlighted the 'large number of people from different backgrounds and the high level of participation, which shows the interest of the group to actively participate in decisions that affect all citizens'.
The cycle 'A Coffee with...' counted with the participation of Joan Baldoví, candidate to the Generalitat for Compromís; Héctor Illueca, candidate to the Generalitat for Unidas Podemos; Rosa Pérez Garijo, leader of EUPV; Yaissel Sánchez, candidate to the Corts for the PSPV and Luc André Diouf, national deputy of the PSOE; Pepe Todolí, deputy secretary general for civil rights of the PPCV; María Pérez Company, candidate to the Generalitat for ERPV, Corina Becherescu, candidate of the same party for the Picassent town council and María Dantas, national deputy for ERC. The candidate for the Generalitat for Ciudadanos did not attend the meeting due to schedule problems.
In addition to symbolically passing a citizenship test, candidates were scrutinised by the public through numerous questions and testimonials. The issues that have attracted the most interest are the regularisation of people who find themselves in an irregular administrative situation, the guarantee of basic rights for this group (such as housing or employment), and measures to overcome the difficulties and discrimination they suffer on a daily basis.
The 4th Citizenship School, promoted by Jovesólides, Acoec and Espai Obert El Marítim, is marked this year by the elections and the Spanish presidency of the European Union. The pre-campaign political meetings are one of the most important innovations in this edition. In addition, this year's course included visits to parliamentary seats such as the Corts Valencianes and the Congress of Deputies, where students could learn first-hand about the workings of the regional and national legislative chambers.
School of Citizenship is an education for global citizenship and development project funded by the Vice-presidency and Regional Ministry of Equality and Inclusive Policies. You can follow all the news about the project with the hashtags #EscuelaDeCiudadanía and #MigrantesEnPolíticaYA on social media.