The invisible frontiers of The Ejido

MORE INFORMATION The cottage of the destitute Almeria, the depression of a land of entrepreneurship

The Ejido that came to be one of the richest towns of Spain, has assumed and not without the resignation which out of 94 different nationalities, have come to stay. In 2002, the moroccan, the most numerous, they accounted for 8% of the population. Now, at least according to the census, there is a moroccan for every five residents. But the people, which has a restaurant with a Michelin star, does not have a muslim cemetery. Nor minarets. Neither political representatives of the aliens. Also mixed groups in the bars.

The hostility is not that of yesteryear, is now exercised in a more subtle way. Khalid, a teacher paid by the moroccan Government to give Arabic lessons in schools, looking for an apartment two months ago. “Over the phone, I care for them, but when they see that I am moroccan you're all rented,” she complains. For 400 euros, the same budget of the teacher, this reporter will offer “as soon as they release” a floor of three rooms. Until recently it was read at the doors of some local with a warning: “Just partners”. Or just white, for whom captase cunning. Each one has the matter of course what is your site. “I prefer to buy in a trade from someone here”, recognizes the churrero José Antonio Garrido. Meanwhile, immigrants, newly landed in the boat, continue to arrive, attracted by a daily wage picking peppers.

THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE ANDALUSIAN PROVINCES

Source: INE D. ALAMEDA / J. GALÁN / THE COUNTRY

The last CIS survey gives Vox a seat in Almería, the province with the highest rate of foreigners in Spain, according to the National Institute of Statistics. It was not by chance that the training far-right began its campaign of andalusia in The Ejido, governed by the right since 1991. In a wedding hall burst is heard phrases such as “Africa does not fit in Spain” or “what country will we leave to our children? does the imposition of the burqa?, do you feel foreigners in our own land?”. Applause.

The real change in The Ejido have brought the women, whose presence started to be felt from 2003 onwards. And children. The schools have become a laboratory of coexistence and have been dragged to the fathers, and especially mothers, to be understood. “It is in the schools of Wells [a punished neighborhood with more than 60% of immigrant neighbors] who has been born a project that integrates health centres, social services and associations of parents and of neighbors to work for peaceful coexistence”, explains Isabel Bonilla of the Association Codenaf, one of the participants.

revolutionary Change

The change, keep the involved, has been revolutionary. “Seven years ago, it was unlikely that moroccan girls were the university and is not entitled any student immigrant. Today, more than half of the graduates are foreigners,” says Pedro Lozano, director of the award-winning institute Francisco Montoya which has a 65% of foreign students from 14 nationalities. “We were ahead of the Administration and we are committed to an educational project based on the coexistence. We still have reactions to racist of some parents, but with occasional”.

The invisible remain the challenge of the Administration and not just the local. Between the greenhouses are managing close to 2,000 people, according to the calculations of the Foundation Cepaim, which supports the workers of the so-called sea of plastic. Who has papers charged a daily wage of € 46, who is not, a beggar in the roundabouts to work for 32. The aliens act collides with the needs of a labour market that is nurtured by hand of african labour and pushes the immigrants with their bureaucracy to the sidelines. Casinovale The main pathway to regularize their en iyi casino siteleri status is to demonstrate three years of residence in Spain and to present a one-year contract in an industry in which 96% of the hires are temporary, according to data from the Ministry of Labour, Migration and Social Security. “You have to change the law. It is an obstacle. For the employer and for the immigrant”, claimed to be from Cepaim.

The event and the pitfalls of employers to hire foreigners for less days of the that actually work are the main complaints of CCOO. “It is a problem for the worker, but also for the Social Security. There is a bag of fraud millionaire”, explains the trade unionist, Maximum Arévalo.

Sidy Traouvre (the fund), shares a bed in a room where they sleep with six other people. Julian Rojas

Sidy Traouvre, 19 years old, came by boat to Spain in August after eight months of traveling from Mali. Today he shares a bed with a fellow countryman who offered him a roof in a farmhouse by the to pay 1,200 euros. Sleep eight in a room full of bunk beds, clothing and suitcases. Are 24 in total, sharing a bathroom unclean and cooking with water from a reservoir used for irrigation. “It is not easy to find what one expects, but I adapt”, he says before a container full of garbage and flies. Doctors of the World, who works in the area, has documented a long list of ailments among the group that remains trapped between plastic. There are stomach problems and skin diseases, but also depression and paintings from anxiety faced with the frustration of their migratory project.

The head of the department of social services of the City, Manuel Ariza, use a pen to draw a straight line with the that explains at what point is The Ejido. It uses the data of the last survey on social harmony conducted by the Obra Social La Caixa, in areas of high diversity. On the left end write “hostility”; on the right, “coexistence,” and in the center write “coexistence”. “Here is when any flame sets on fire,” he warns. The Ejido, away from the hostility total, has exceeded in some points the border of the coexistence. “This gives you a cushion of conflict resolution of mild to moderate intensity,” explained Ariza, Spanish flag in the wrist and in the watch screen. The coexistence of truth must be the object of forthcoming studies.

The spaniards who migrated to the field of golf

The municipality of 88,000 inhabitants (54% more than in 2002) continues to grow in the heat of an agricultural season of ten months, washed down with cheap labor, foreign and also spot. But their neighbors, instead of focusing around your English Court, have been dispersed, creating boundaries that only we can sense. The spaniards have been moving away from the areas in which they have accommodated the immigrants. From the city center, up to Las Norias, the punished neighbourhood of The Aquarium and Seville, where families have occupied entire buildings and even enabled garages to have a place to live.

The ejidenses that may have bought an apartment in Almerimar, the area with views of the sea, port, English in t-shirt and golf course. Don't like to look out the window and see blankets and clothes hanging out on the terrace of the neighbor. The one who does not speak your language and pray to a God who is viewed with suspicion. “I can't say how it is living together because I did not I have lived. And in addition they can not say anything, because as soon as you upload the tone accuse you of being a racist,” complains Mary Martin, the owner of a fish stall and an apartment in Almerimar.