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Indian subcontinent and South America.While the large Pakistani community
in El Raval is generally respected for the life and business it’s injected into the
neighbourhood, popular local wisdom has come to equate North Africans with
petty crime, whereas Romanies are treated largely as pariahs. It’s dangerous
nonsense, with at least some of its roots in a Catalan nationalism that prides
itself on a certain cultural superiority, but such bigoted views aren’t simply
confined to the Right – senior figures on the Left, too, have warned of the
“dangers” of allowing too many “foreigners” into Catalunya.
The facts, of course, tell a different story. Just eleven percent of the Catalan
population at large has its origin outside Spain, though as most of these people
live or work in the capital it’s easy to construct a prejudice from their higher
profile in the city. In contrast, almost a third of the Catalan population comes
from other parts of Spain, while the fastest-growing immigrant population is
actually that of other Europeans, free to settle in Catalunya with the relaxation
of EU residency rules. All told, 160 different nationalities are represented in
Barcelona, with foreign residents amounting to almost fifteen percent of the
population (broadly similar to other major European cities).
Social life and community
Economic success has led to familiar urban social problems. Almost two-thirds
of Catalunya’s seven million inhabitants now live in the city and its metropoli-
tan region, with many complaining that the high-profile regeneration projects
do little for their needs.
Hotel building
has reached epidemic proportions and
rents and property prices in general have boomed, depriving the young, the old
and the poor of affordable
housing
and other amenities. That said, both the
Olympic and Project 22@ schemes have incorporated social housing, leisure
facilities and green spaces, while the
public transport
system in particular is
something of a European model of excellence.
Nonetheless, there are tensions in an increasingly crowded, developed city.
Noise in residential areas is a perennial problem, and the Ajuntament has been
getting tough in enforcing
noise restrictions
and closing down transgressing
bars and clubs.The city council has also been getting more serious about deal-
ing with squatters, known as
okupas
, whose banner- and graffiti-clad buildings
have long been a familiar sight, especially in and around Gràcia. In the past,
Barcelona has been tolerant of the
okupas
but concern from some residents
about drugs and noise has persuaded the city council to close down many squats
in recent years. In the same vein, the police have come down hard on
botellóns
– the mass, impromptu outdoor drinking parties that sprout up in Barcelona
and other Spanish cities from time to time.
Tourism
, too, has brought its own problems, as Barcelona has acquired a
not-always-welcome reputation as a party town. The roaming stag parties and
unsociable late-night behaviour by visitors causes much hand-wringing at City
Hall (and much street-hosing early each morning), while certain old-town areas
such as the Ramblas or the Born are now virtual tourist-only zones for much
of the year. Locals in the Barri Gòtic have also had to contend with the noise
and other problems caused by an explosion in the number of tourist apartments,
many of them unregulated – the Ajuntament closed over 500 of them in 2008
and has said it won’t approve any new apartment licences in the old town.
Green Barcelona
From the huge, high-profile photovoltaic plant at the Fòrum site to the city
buses powered by compressed natural gas, Barcelona likes to see itself as a future
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Barcelona snapshot