Boutaina El Hadri: “Inclusion cannot fall solely on migrants, it is a collective challenge”

The International Seminar Migrations in the Mediterranean brought together institutions, academia and social organizations to debate, with data and rights, the challenges of inclusion.

Jovesólides took part in the international seminar by presenting experiences such as the Citizenship School and defending inclusion as a right in the face of racism and exclusion.

Casa Mediterráneo in Alicante hosted the international seminar Migrations in the Mediterranean: Challenges and Practices of Reception and Inclusion on September 17 and 18. Over two days, the event brought together academic experts, institutional representatives, international organizations and social entities to reflect on the main challenges and opportunities posed by human mobility in the region.

The seminar was inaugurated by Andrés Perelló Rodríguez, director of Casa Mediterráneo, and Pilar Cancela Rodríguez, Secretary of State for Migration. Both emphasized the need to address migration with data and respect for human rights, countering misinformation and hate speech.

The program included contributions from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), ICMPD, entities such as Instrategies, Casa Marruecos or ASTI Alicante, and academics from Spanish universities. The panels addressed key issues such as education, social inclusion, multilevel governance and public policies on integration, offering a broad framework for collective reflection.

From structural racism to good practices towards real and democratic inclusion

In this context, Boutaina El Hadri, director of Jovesólides, spoke in the panel on public policies of reception and integration. Her contribution focused on the role of community organizations, the impact of structural racism and the need for transformative policies.

El Hadri explained that community organizations are safe spaces where migrants feel recognized, in contrast to the exclusions they experience in neighborhoods, hospitals or schools. However, she pointed out the lack of institutional recognition and stable support in areas such as training, funding and networking. She recalled that Jovesólides was born out of a “transformative intercultural accident” and that it has managed to survive for 26 years thanks to its community roots.

One of the central axes of her intervention was structural racism, with special attention to Islamophobia and Morophobia, which are not even codified in Spanish law. She referred to cases such as Torre Pacheco and Jumilla, and called for a clear law against hate to prevent its normalization. She also criticized utilitarian discourses that reduce migration to cheap labor. “The day they don’t want to clean, they are disposable. That does not build equality,” she said, further warning about the impact on the mental health of migrants and racialized people.

El Hadri stressed that integration policies have failed in several European countries and that the real alternative lies in inclusion and social cohesion. She asked the audience: “If we have to transform society, do we work with the 20% migrant population or with the 80% native population?” In her view, the challenge is to transform the perspective of the majority, recognizing that Spain must be rebuilt from a plurality of perspectives.

As examples of good practices, she presented the DANA program, which reached 23,000 people and worked in partnership with public institutions to respond to the challenge of reconstruction, and the Incorpora initiative in La Coma, aimed at training people to connect needs with opportunities.

Finally, she highlighted the Citizenship School, a pioneering experience which, in six editions, has trained 200 migrants and produced 15 policy proposals with the participation of more than 200 political, social and media representatives. Its goal is clear: to build leadership, increase the political participation of migrants and strengthen democracy. “There is no lack of role models, what is missing is to make them visible. There is an effort to render the positive invisible and amplify the negative,” she stated.

Boutaina El Hadri’s intervention closed with a strong message: inclusion is not a favor or an economic concession, it is a collective right. And seminars like this are essential to move towards diverse, cohesive and hate-free societies.

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