multicultural Barcelona

Articles in ‘multicultural Barcelona’

“Illegal” immigrants – Barcelona 1935

June 22nd, 2011 According to police estimates in 1935 there were around 16,000 “illegal” immigrants in Barcelona: including 5,500 Germans, 1,500 Italians. 600 Argentineans, political refugees from dictatorships, but also in the case of the Germans, economic migrants who arrived after the 1929 crash and who made their living selling wares in the streets. They faced the constant threat of deportation from the Republican authorities. Source: Anarchism and the City by Chris Ealham

History of Barcelona, multicultural Barcelona | Tags: , |

Pakistan Barcelona

April 14th, 2009

Barcelona has the largest Pakistani community in Spain with officially more than 13,000 residents, 90% of whom are men. Outside Britain, Barcelona is the city with the most concentrated population of Pakistanis in Europe. Here are a couple of interesting links on I came across.

Desi Salsa in Barcelona By Salma Shakir

It was one of those early evenings, when my mind was wondering and revealing the epiphanies of La Rambla. I was enjoying my coffee in a cafe, watching the mimes entertaining the passersby when a somewhat familiar figure stood in front of me. He was selling flowers and was familiar because he looked like as if he belonged to my part of the world. The words that were coming out of his mouth were Spanish, so I gave it a shot. I asked him in Urdu, where was he from? His eyes lit up when he realized that I too was from his part of the world.

“Jhelum”, he said. In the ensuing conversation, he revealed that he was living there illegally. He had hitched a boat ride to Almeira and in eight months had finally made it to Barcelona. He had applied for a work permit and while that was in the process, he had found a job in a fast-food place. To supplement his income he sold flowers at night. He said he made about 400 to 500 euros a month. He lived with eight other people in a house. His expenses were for the bare minimum. Whatever amount he could save he would send it home. This was my first meeting with a trakhero, meaning foreigner.

Barcelona – Pakistani capital of Spain

After living here a bit I began to sense that Barcelona probably had the highest concentration of Pakistani immigrants in all of Spain, consisting mostly of men, many of whom seemed to come from the Punjab. Recently I discovered a couple of interesting reports that actually confirm these perceptions: Multiculturalism and Health and Immigration, Education and the Labour Market. For example, the first one states that 95% of Pakistanis in Barcelona are male and are not only from the Punjab but from a particular city there – Gujrat. The second report claims that 69% of Pakistanis living in Spain live in the province of Barcelona.

See also

  • La discreta comunidad pakistaní de Barcelona crece sin cesar (La Vanguardia)

  • Wikipedia Pakistanis began settling in Spain, mainly in the city centre of Barcelona, as early as the 1970s, and most Pakistanis in Spain still reside there…Punjabi is the most common first language among Pakistanis in Spain, reported by 63.6% of one survey group in Barcelona….In Barcelona, the two mosques most frequented by Pakistanis are the Tariq ben Zyad Mosque and the Minhaj ul-Quran Mosque. The Tariq ben Zyad Mosque, on the calle Elisabets, was founded in 1981. It is named for Tariq ibn Ziyad, the general who led the Muslim conquest of Spain beginning in 711, and belongs to the Tablighi Jamaat movement. The Minhaj ul-Quran Mosque, founded in 1997, is, as its name indicates, part of the Minhaj-ul-Quran International movement.
  • Video on Pakistanis in Barcelona (8 minutes) A look at Pakistan’s recent mass imigration to Barcelona, Spain…focusing on the communities, connections and underground work opportunities for recent immigrants to Spain.
  • The problems of Radio Pakcelona
  • Islamic Barcelona (Barcelona Metropolitan)

Immigration in Barcelona, multicultural Barcelona, Social issues in Barcelona | Tags: , , , , , , , , |

Pakistani children

April 14th, 2009

pakistani_children_barcelona

pakistani_children_barcelona2

Graffiti artist unknown. Taken by Mónica in El Carmel, Barcelona.

Art, El Carmel, Graffiti in Barcelona, multicultural Barcelona, Places in Barcelona | Tags: , , |

Pakistani baker

March 22nd, 2009

pakistani_baker_shop

My favourite Pakistani baker’s in Barcelona. Excellent meat samosas, Tikeyas and spicy chicken rolls, along woth sickly sweet delicious Arab and Asian sweets.

Address: Calle Hosiptal.

Directory, Interesting shops in Barcelona, multicultural Barcelona, Shops | Tags: , , |