REPCAT · The Role of the Ethnic Majority in Integration Processes: Attitudes and Practices towards Immigrants in Catalan Institutions
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2018-09-01 → 2020-08-31
- EU contribution
- €170,122
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
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Results in brief
The Role of the Ethnic Majority in Integration Processes: Attitudes and Practices towards Immigrants in Catalan Institutions
The main objective of the REPCAT project was to examine how diversity is represented, and what barriers there are for the participation of immigrants and ethnic minorities, in three Catalan public institutions: the education system, the police force, and the Barcelona City Council. The basic assumption was that the ethnic diversity of Catalan society is underrepresented by its institutions, which contributes to hamper integration processes and cement inequalities, as minority groups lack both role models and access to influence on policy-making and institutional practices. At a general level, it aims to expand our understanding of why the inequalities between the native majority and the ethnic minorities remain deep despite policies that embrace interculturalism and non-discrimination, and why the ethnic diversity of society is still not represented by its institutions. The study distinguishes between physical representation of diversity, meaning the actual presence of immigrants and minorities at different positions within the public institutions, and discursive representation, which refers to if and how ethnic diversity is incorporated in institutional agendas and publications as school books or political party programs. It confirms that people of immigrant or ethnic minority origin, as the Roma, are indeed underrepresented in these institutions, while recognizing the difficulties involved in conducting such mapping as there are no ethnic registers in Spain. Moreover, the study concludes that there is a significant gap between the general intercultural discourse that defines the Catalan integration policy framework, and multiple practices that continue to reproduce disadvantage for immigrants and minorities, though unintentionally. The project argues that there is a need to go beyond anti-discrimination policies and consider measures that explicitly address underrepresentation, as ethnic quotas in access to public employment.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
This project proposal aims to take research on diversity management and integration further by focusing on how ethnic diversity is represented in three central Catalan institutions: the public school system, the Catalan police force and the City council of Barcelona. The case of Catalonia appears particularly relevant for an empirical study on the actual representation of diversity given its pronounced intercultural policy focus, while socio-economic inequality between natives and immigrants is vast, and many immigrants live in situations of precariousness and marginalization. The proposal addresses key priorities set by the H2020/Europe in a changing world-Inclusive, innovative and reflective societies program, and contributes to European excellence in the social sciences by proposing a research program designed to i) increase knowledge on diversity management and obstacles for the participation/representation of immigrants in societal institutions, and ii) develop an action strategy to address shortcomings in this area, based on the view that research on social challenges as inequality and discrimination to a greater extent should contribute to combat these problems through practical implementation. The proposal is based upon the assumption that there is broad awareness of the problems with misrepresentation and discrimination of immigrants within Catalan institutions, but that these problems are merely addressed at the discursive level; what is lacking are measures to accomplish better practices.At the theoretical level, the concept of interculturalism will be critically examined and de facto representation will be introduced as a central, complementary concept. The knowledge and action strategies generated through this project will be transferrable and useful in other contexts, also at the European level.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- UNIVERSIDAD POMPEU FABRA · BarcelonaCoordinatorSpain
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union