On Thursday 10 November, at 17:00, it will be presented in the Assembly Hall of the Faculty of Social Sciences the study “The Roma neighbourhood [demonym that the Romanian gypsies give themselves] and the immigrants that act as car guards in Valencia”. It is the final report of the research contract signed between the City Hall of Valencia and the UV and carried out by researchers Francisco Torres, Albert Moncusí, Miguel Monsell and Yaiza Pérez.
Together with the authors of this study, they will intervene Ernest Cano, dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the UV; Consuelo Castillo, city councillor of Social Services. City Hall of Valencia; Roberto Jaramillo, city councillor of Development aid and migration.
This study is an approach to the problems of immigration and social exclusion of the city of Valencia focused on two groups: the Roma families, Romanian gypsies, and the diverse group of immigrants that work as car park attendants in different spaces of the city. The analysis of the social situation of these two groups is focused on their labour integration, on the margins of the informal economy, and on their residential integration, frequently in sub-standard housing.
With regards to Romanian gypsies, the study highlights that it is a young and family migration. Even though most of them had already a job as blacksmiths, sellers, labourers, etc., the conjunction between the economic crisis, the employment moratorium applied to Romanians and the low formative level of the group have made the collection of scrap and other objects their main economic activity which they combine, when possible, with agricultural works and cleanliness and begging. From the point of view of housing, the study shows a double residential trajectory in Valencia. A part of the group has been living, and lives, in schacks and settlements in the interstitial areas of the city (areas of vegetable gardens, ancient areas and industrial facilities) with severe problems of habitability, census and access to public services. Another part of the Roma families live in precarious houses, even though normalised, in the peripheral working-class neighbourhoods such as El Cabanyal, Benicalap, Cruz Cubierta, Nazaret, and others. In these cases, the major possibilities of daily relationships between neighbours are two-faced. Fear on the one hand, a peaceful but distant cohabitation, based on strategies of mutual avoidance. On the other hand, it can be observed a certain uneasiness between neighbours, focused on the storage and manipulation of scrap and on a sociability on the street considered excessively expansive and rude.
Then, immigrants who work as car park attendants, popularly known as “car guards”, are a group of men, very heterogeneous when it comes to their origins and who have in common a situation of exclusion from the labour market and society. Working as a “car guard” is a modest source of income, which, in many cases, is also the only source they have. The study presents a typology of spaces in the city where the presence of car park attendants as spaces of business and/or administration, services, leisure or caused by unusual events is usual. At the same time, the investigation presents how these spaces are organised and the diversity of situations between the occasional dedication which changes of place and the dedication almost permanent in the same place in the long term. This is one of the factors, among others, which form the type of relationships between “car guards” and the citizens who park their car (which can move from mistrust of the spaces and the occasional “car guards”, to a certain trust, when in the long run the person who provides a “service” is the same person in the same space). Another novelty of the study is the analysis of the speech of immigrants when it comes to their activity. For some of them it is a job, a service provided; for others, it is an activity to survive.
In addition to the consequences for the people affected, in terms of life conditions and labour integration, this situation leads to a clear negative view of these two groups and the danger of stigmatisation. The study finishes with proposals referred to the management of the municipality census, measures related to the collection of scrap to dignify the activity and reduce the uneasiness of the neighbours and proposals for social housing in the city, among other aspects.
It is an unprecedented study, since there are not any studies about these problems in the city of Valencia, and it is relevant for its consequences for the people affected and a possible negative influence regarding the cohabitation with the neighbours and an adequate social cohesion. In this sense, this study is interesting for professionals, public managers and the citizenship as a whole, since the situation and manners to the disadvantaged groups are one of the indicators of an inclusive city and democratic quality.
Last update: 10 de november de 2016 09:06.
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