Immigration and Negotiation of Political and Spatial Rights in Madrid and Back Home

During my time with SEDOAC, I have not heard them explicitly articulate a discourse of “right to the city”. However, one particular thing associated with the “right to the city” that they are very conscious of, is the right to enjoy public spaces without fear. SEDOAC’s battles cannot be isolated from the larger context of their neighborhood and community. Even though Spain formally prides itself in being a multicultural and inclusive country, it is not uncommon to hear non-white immigrants speak about the deeply-rooted racism and their inability to feel welcomed in this global city. A significant problem that non-white immigrants face is the fear to conduct their daily lives and the undermining of their rights to public spaces due to the racial profiling techniques, in connection to immigration control, of the national police. Police officers “are encouraged by the use of statistical targets for the detention of irregular migrants to approach people belonging to ethnic minorities for identity checks” (Amnesity International 5). Monetary compensation is proportional to their level of “productivity”, and this is materialized by the number of detainees under their name. Under Spanish Law on Public Security the police can check the identity of people in public spaces in order to conduct an identity check. These checks are carried out with no other criterion than phenotypic attributes and are performed in neighborhoods with large migrant populations, like Sol and Embajadores (Amnesty International 14). A witness said the checks were now conducted in bars, restaurants, and locutorios, resulting in an atmosphere of paranoia. Non-white migrants with an irregular situation and a fear of deportation are constantly on the lookout and have lost the right to enjoy public spaces. In addition, in a moment when the topic of immigration is controversial, the sight of ethnic minorities being constantly arrested and taken to police stations, only furthers the stigma and negative perceptions of immigrants as locals start to associate them with criminality. SEDOAC’s members have these racist raids very present in their minds. I have heard them say that many of the new arrivals to Spain seek a job as internas to limit their time in the street and thus their probability of getting detained.s

In Spain, there are Centers for Detention of Foreigners (CIE) where the police take irregular migrants if they catch them without papers in the streets to deport them to their origin country. Immigrants can be detained there for up to two months, and if they are not deported within that time frame, then they set them free. The CIEs are known to be a violation of human rights, and some immigrants have died at these centers due to lack of sanitary and health attention. Delia from SEDOAC was interviewed for an episode of Invisibles Podcast, and in this interview she recounted her traumatic experiences with these racist raids. In 2017 while working as an interna, she was strolling down a street on Christmas eve, when she entered the subway and saw a lot of policemen asking people for their documentation. According to Delia, the policemen know that many domestic workers (internas) make use of their free time on Saturday to go to the markets, so policemen concentrate on those areas. Delia, along with many others, was sent to a CIE where she was locked in an inhumanely small room with around 30 other women. A lawyer from Red Jurídica stated in the same podcast that CIEs emerged in Spain in 1985 with the introduction of the Ley de Extranjería and the integration of Spain to the European Union. These raids are a constant reality for racialized immigrants. A year ago on March, Mame Mbaye, a street vendor of African descent, died due to cardiac arrest while being persecuted by the police. Mame’s death provoked indignation and moral outrage. This march many people congregated in his home neighborhood of Lavapies (largely racialized immigrants) to commemorate the anniversary of his death. Members of the union that he belonged to, put a commemorative plaque near his place of death; it states that he died due to institutional racism (Gutierrez). Romy Arce, the Usera district councilor that has worked alongside SEDOAC, publicly denounced that Mbaye had died due to institutional racism. Madrid’s district attorney fined Arce for libel.

Since irregular immigrants may seek to limit their time in public spaces, I find very interesting the subversive and political use of podcasts and radio stations. ‘Latino’ radio stations have constituted another form of social and political resistance. Historically, radio stations in the Americas are seen as a popular and communal alternative to participation in politics when repressive governments silence their realities and struggles (Ruiz Trejo 78). Radio stations have also served as creators of connections and unity between people that have migrated internally and external, providing survival mechanisms in the destination city, and a connection to their place and family of origin. In Madrid, Latino radio stations are seen as a method to exercise “their right to the city”. Immigration surveillance, precarious work hours, and social isolation during employment –most drastically seen with the domestic internas- have made Latino immigrants hold on these sonorous networks that play music and stories from back home, and generate group pressure against political and social exclusion (Ruiz Trejo 89). A perfect example of this is the CD created by Territorio Doméstico that I mentioned in past blogposts. The album describes scenes of structural discrimination, racism, alienation; all in cheerful beats that allows them to sing and dance. These stations let them form a sense of belonging and community and lets them claim rights that the city has denied them. Thus, immigrants in Madrid have found creative ways- through radio stations, urban art, and grassroots organizations- to address their most pressing political and economic concerns and to combat the structural racism that welcomes them to this metropolis.

 Even though Invisibles Podcast is more academically-led, I think it shows how SEDOAC and other collectives have been reaching out to like-minded groups to build bridges and visibilize their stories in creative ways. For example, in an episode detailing Delia’s life history, a lawyer from Red Jurídica (roughly translates to Judicial network) spoke too. At the first SEDOAC event I went to this summer, there was another lawyer from this collective leading a workshop about negotiation and assertiveness with an emphasis on rights. The journalists from the podcasts and the lawyers are Spanish, but it still shows how SEDOAC seeks collaboration and allies in like-minded groups. Aside from denouncing racial profiling, it seems to me that neither SEDOAC nor allied collectives explicitly address “their right to the city” in their discourse. However, collectives of immigrant domestic workers have put in the center stage their role in a capitalist society and wealth production. For example, Territorio Domestico’s slogan is “without us, the world doesn’t move” and SEDOAC’s graphic design used to commemorate their 10-year anniversary depicts two women holding the earth. Some domestic workers collectives, like these two, are trying to put forward this counter-narrative that instead of emphasizing their employers role in wealth production, it emphasizes theirs, given that their employers wouldn’t be able to work as they do if it were not for paid domestic workers. With this counter-narrative, domestic workers are claiming their rights to benefit from this surplus, given that they are essential to its production. On the other hand, due to the transnational aspect of their livelihood and families, working in Spain allows many migrants the possibility to buy a home in their origin country. I have heard several domestic workers talk about how they bought a home in their origin city for their family, which means that working in Madrid helps them to assert their right to the city back home.  

Gutierrez, Icíar, “Aquí murió Mame Mbaye: cientos de personas se reúnen en Lavapiés para recordar al mantero fallecido hace un año”, El Diario, 15 March 2019, https://www.eldiario.es/desalambre/Mame-Mbaye-personas-Lavapies-fallecido_0_878063056.html