4th Consultation Forum for The Municipality of Roquetas de Mar

THE LOCAL ACTION PLAN IN ROQUETAS DE MAR – FOR MIGRANTS AND BY MIGRANTS

Roquetas de Mar is one of the cities participating in the ARRIVAL Cities Project. Its inhabitants come from over 100 different countries and it is the sixth Andalusian city (over 50.000 inhabitants) with a higher percentage of foreign born citizens a 28,38%. Unlike Fuengirola, Mijas, Benalmadena or Marbella, some of the cities that are ahead of Roquetas de Mar in this classification, the foreign born population in the city hasn’t moved here for residential reasons attracted by the quality of life. Roquetas de Mar is an arrival city for people from all over the world that has move here looking for a job. As all the other project partners Roquetas de Mar is currently in the process of developing its Local Action Plan (LAP) to manage migration flows, it is a Plan for Migrants in which Migrants will have their voice heard.

The main body for the development of the LAP is the Local Support Group, that has already had 8 meetings, and in which all the providers of public Services and the main NGOs working with migrants are represented.  The LSG is composed by a total of 15 members and has a strong political support, with the active involvement of two City Councilors, who took part in the transnational encounters: Jose Juan Rodriguez and Jose Galdeano Antequera.  Besides the City Council, the Regional Government (Junta de Andalucia) is also actively involved with the participation of the Andalusian Employment Service (Ms. Humbelina Mansó de Inés – Director of Local Office), the Health Care Service (Ms.  Pilar Baraza – Director of Services to the Citizenship) and Education Service (Angel Marqués Rosales).  In the LSG there are also present the local branches of two of the most important NGOs in Spain, Red Cross and CEPAIM (Foundation for Coexistence and Social Cohesion) represented by Hanane El Mansouri and Diego Caparrós.

Besides their indirect involvement in the LSG Juan Francisco Iborra (Chief of the Social Services area and Local Coordinator of the Arrival Cities Project in Roquetas) has worked really hard to make sure migrants are taken into account in the development of the LAP, and to do so three Consultation Meetings have already taken place (26th October 2016, 10th November and 22nd February this year).  While the LSG is a technical working group that requires from its participant the commitment to take part in its different sessions, the Consultation Meetings have been open to all the migrant community and have managed to gather a high number of participants from among others the following associations: FULBE, NIGERIAN ASSOCIATION, AS-SALAM, AL-MOUHAJIR, EQUATORIAL GUINEA ASSOCIATION, FAIA, SENEGAL ASSOCIATION.  These meetings have been mostly arranged as a way of the different communities to present proposals that could be implemented in the city with the support of the City Council and other stakeholders. 

To join this two processes, to involve the migrant community in the more technical work elaborated by the Local Support Group, the past 24th of March a specific Forum was organized, facilitated by the external expert Jorge Vitores Mas.  The work meeting was structured in two parts.  During the first part, the provisional SWOT Analysis produced by the LSG was presented to all the participants and its different items were discussed.  A lively debate took place that allowed to reformulate, complement or precise the initial analysis.  During the second part of the meeting, the participants were divided into four working groups where specific issues were treated.  Each group was allocated a moderator in charge of making sure the debate was moving forward, and a raporteur to take notes on the conclusions.  At the end of the session, the different groups came back together again and the work of the individual groups was put in common.   There has been a general agreement among the participants that this getting together has been particularly enriching and that it is only through this approach that the LAP will be for migrants and by migrants.

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