‘Back in order’: the role of gatekeepers in erecting internal borders in Barcelona

ABSTRACT

Designed and implemented by public servants and NGO workers, local inclusion programmes in Barcelona result in the exclusion of illegalized migrants. Access to city provisions is gained by means of a ‘work plan’ applied by the local authorities. Bureaucratic processes divide potential clients between those who ‘deserve’ to access rights and those who do not. Much of the legal framework provides leeway to practitioners to decide the fate of those left ‘here, but nowhere’ (Fieldwork 2019). Bureaucrats, acting as ‘gatekeepers’, often become ‘annoyed’ with their ‘users’. This annoyance has the potential to illustrate how banal but resourceful emotions end up playing a key part in the exclusion of migrants from the city, strengthening institutional cohesion and a moral order. Focusing on bureaucratic processes and street-level interventions, this article tries to shed light on how borders inside the city are created not only by municipal regulations, but also by bureaucrats´ emotions.

KEYWORDS:

• Annoyance
• Barcelona
• emotions
• internal bordering
• racism

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Bridget Anderson and Ioana Vrabiescu for their helpful feedback and suggestions, as well as the editors and two anonymous reviewers for their comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. All names have been changed in order to preserve the anonymity of the interviewees.

2. Usuario: is a person who makes use of a service. He/she is not considered a direct beneficiary of charity, and neither are they directly a client.

3. I use the term ‘illegalized’ migrants, which was coined by scholars in order to underline the fact that this status is the result of an institutional practice applied to migrants and refugees (Kalir 2019b).

4. https://www.idescat.cat/poblacioestrangera/?b=10&geo=mun:080193&lang=es.

One contested method used to estimate is to compare the number of foreigners with a residence permit with the number of foreigners registered in the municipality register, called padrón.

5. Report from Arrels Foundation.

https://img.arrelsfundacio.org/wpcontent/uploads/2019/11/2019_Diagnosi_XAPSLL.pdf

6. The majority of Roma people in Barcelona interviewed were coming from Romania, an EU country. As EU citizens they are granted the right to circulate and to stay, but I include them in my analysis with other migrants with irregular status. As I will explain, even if they have access to mobility, they face barriers in accessing basic rights such as access to labour market or housing facilities. Being allowed to stay in Spain does not imply access to rights.