Movement Profile
The platform Andalucía Acoge was born in 1991 to provide an effective response to the growing phenomenon of global migration in general and immigration in Spain in particular. The platform’s main objective is the promotion of intercultural diversity and the integration of immigrants in the host society. Andalucía Acoge is made up of nine associations that conduct their work in 21 centres in Andalucia (Southern Spain) and Melilla (Spanish territory in North Africa). Our activities are carried out by a team of 21 employees and 400 volunteers.
To apply concretely its ideals of solidarity, justice and human dignity to the migration context, the platform advocates the need to consider every individual who has residence in Spain as a Spanish citizen, independently on his/her nationality or legal situation.
To trigger change, the platform runs the campaign ‘Aquí vivo, aquí voto. Por una ciudadanía plena’ (I live here, I vote here. Toward full citizenship) to raise awareness on this issue and promote a residency- based citizenship that meets the requirements of immigrants. In the context of the Spanish local elections this May, Andalucía Acoge participated in the project ‘Tod@s iguales. Tod@s ciudadan@s’ (All equal, all citizens). This platform aims to publicly discuss the importance of immigrants’ political rights. The campaign’s ultimate aim is to change the Spanish constitution in order to allow all people living in Spain to participate in elections by proposing a new model of citizenship based on residency rather than nationality. This would ensure that the same rights are granted to everyone and not just to one part of society.
Our vision for an inclusive EU
The leitmotif of our platform is a change in the terms of debate from immigration to citizenship. As the Spanish Royal Academy puts it: stop talking about people who arrive in the country, but talk instead about how the people who live here can exercise their political rights and become involved in the political process. It is obvious that (social) diversity should also be represented in political participation rights of all people. For us, this is the basis of an inclusive Spain and therefore of an inclusive European Union.
Introducing such rights implies acknowledging diversity as reality and moving towards participatory democracy. It is not justifiable in a democracy that millions of people fulfilling their citizens’ duties as taxpayers cannot contribute to decisions on political elites and the policies influencing their lives, their work and their families. If we deny these rights, we create an unequal and unjust society that gives immigrants inferior status to Spanish, and EU nationals. Thus, we create two unequal groups of people and transmit a vision of immigrants as a provisional labour force rather than real citizens. Such changes may seem dangerous in the eyes of many people, but we should remember that granting voting rights to disenfranchised groups leads to addressing more blatant discrimination. To eradicate this situation not only from the public visibility of the social situation, but also from the discourse of political parties, is of pressing importance.
Our vision of an inclusive EU is one in which migrants have equal voting rights. As expressed by the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) in its latest report, we believe that the Spanish legal framework needs to be amended to improve coexistence in diversity and allow immigrants to exercise their right to vote and to be elected. As the experiences of Ireland (1963), the Netherlands (1985) and Belgium (2004) show, granting immigrants the right to vote does not threaten national sovereignty. On the contrary, it fosters representation and increases democratic legitimacy.
Our platform criticises this system that only recognises the voting rights of 330,000 immigrants residing in Spain – although in the end only 2 percent of all legally residing immigrants result to have access to voting, because of the pre-registration in the census – and forgets the rest of the population. We want to remind society that citizenship can only be built through recognition of rights, and not limiting the access to them.
Although our daily work focuses on the Spanish reality, we think that a more residence based rather than nationality based model of citizenship should build the basis of a truly inclusive European Union.
Like in Spain, in Europe today there continue to be different categories of citizens. Almost 20 million non-European residents are experiencing legal exclusion in the European Union and because of this they are treated as members of an inferior legal class. These millions of people pay their taxes and contribute with their jobs to European prosperity, but the condition of citizen is denied to them. On the one hand they are obliged to fulfill all the duties of Law that rule all the societies of which they belong, and on the other hand they have no right to any political participation, that is, to take part directly in the issues that have to do with their community.
European Union citizens should recognize that the only way to achieve a Europe that is just and humane is to work towards the suppression of discrimination that can affect any individual or collective that is part of our community. Continuing to maintain the realities of legal and social exclusion, puts pluralism and peace in danger.
Tags: Movement Profile