Intercultural cities programme

Purpose:

The City Council deploys different Initiatives to encourage people with migrant/minority backgrounds to engage in political and public life.

Stimulus/Rationale:

The Sabadell Intercultural Plan (2020-2023) emphasises, following the intercultural perspective, the importance of promoting spaces and opportunities for positive interaction, participation, the generation of links and intercultural dialogue.

The Plan states that an intercultural city also implies the participation of diverse citizens in the different spaces of representation, organisation and decision-making from various spheres of civil society. Citizen participation, understood as a mechanism for building active democracy that implies a sense of belonging, knowledge and mutual recognition, has to reflect the existing diversity in the city and ensure that all voices are heard and taken into account.

Within the framework of Sabadell's Strategic Plan for Participation - Horizon 2025, the diversity of participants must be promoted through specific actions, not only with the presence of people from different contexts and origins, but also with the inclusion of diversity in the different participatory mechanisms.

More precisely, the Plan includes the following objectives within the axis ‘Promoting intercultural participation’:

• Promoting the civic and political participation of foreigners. Special attention should be paid to facilitating the political participation of foreigners with the right to vote in municipal elections through information campaigns and the promotion of registration on the electoral roll.
• Strengthening the participation of people of different origins and cultural backgrounds in the city's spaces for participation and network of associations.

Process:

Migrants consultative body

The city has a consultative body where migrants and associations representing migrants discuss integration and inclusion issues.

Reception Table/Board

This Table (previously called New Citizenship Table) is made up of representatives from different organisations representing newly arrived citizens. This roundtable is chaired by the representative of the municipality responsible for welcoming and intercultural policies. In this space, issues related to the citizenship rights and duties, or the legal difficulties encountered by migrants are discussed. Proposals then are transferred to other political, judicial, and social bodies.

At the same time, this space allows to elaborate proposals of collective and open activities to the whole citizenship, to put in value and to make visible the diverse cultural groups that coexist in the city and to facilitate exchange, boost respect and knowledge.

Finally, the Reception Table is an advisory body that includes different immigrant associations and organisations that work in the migration field as well as representation of the local administration. Its functions are: the transfer of information, to find consensus on lines of work, to detect the interests, concerns and problems of the migrants and ethnic minorities and to address those issues in cooperation.

Roma Table /Board

Another participatory space is the Table of Roma People, which, among its functions, monitors the programmes that are developed related to issues of interest to the Roma people of Sabadell: Trade, Health, Public Space and Education. Extraordinary working meetings are also held on specific issues.

Other participation spaces

Mechanisms to promote participation focus mainly on the definition and design of public space. However, the city cannot keep track of the diverse profiles of this participation. The design of a new local infrastructure or service is done through the online platform 'Decidim Sabadell'[MOU3] . As an example, a participatory process was organised for the configuration of the old Vapor Cusidó space, taking into account the demands of neighbours and taking into account all existing visions. Another community process promoted by the City Council was "We are Torre-Romeu " with the aim that residents, associations and professionals work together to plan actions and projects to improve life in the neighbourhood.

It should be noted that projects that promote community processes facilitate the creation of intercultural links in the territory, because they promote mutual knowledge and recognition between neighbours from different cultures, entities and services.

Key reference documents: https://participa311-sabadell.diba.cat/