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ABSTRACT
This article uses academic literature on acts of citizenship and performative citizenship to investigate the contestation, protest, and resistance actions carried out by the Marea Granate collective in defence of the citizenship rights of Spanish citizens living abroad. Marea Granate (Maroon Wave) is a transnational network of young Spanish emigrants that emerged in 2013 as a result of the recent widespread emigration provoked by the economic crisis and austerity politics in Spain. Based on their shared identity as economic exiles and demanding the right to participate in Spanish political life to change the conditions that led them to emigrate, the members of this organization have been carrying out innovative, creative citizenship acts that are breaking conventions and causing ruptures in the Spanish citizenship regime. These ‘transformative acts of recovering’, the term used to refer to Marea Granate’s demands and struggles for citizenship, have proven to be capable of being a driving force for change and also reveal the fluid and contested nature of citizenship in the contexts of austerity and emigration.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. http://mareagranate.org/2015/05/convocatoria-para-el-24-de-mayo-emigrantes-vuestro-voto-ha-muerto/.
3. Despite official statements, the main macroeconomic indicators show that the Spanish economic crisis had already begun in the first half of 2008. Experts have described this crisis through a series of milestones, including the collapse of the construction sector in 2007, the banking crisis of 2010, as well as the sharp increase between 2007 and 2011 of public debt and the risk premium that led to fears of a bailout like those in Greece, Portugal, Ireland and Cyprus (Bentolila et al. Citation2010). The statistics reveal how devastating this crisis has been for the living conditions of the Spanish population. According to the Economically Active Population Survey, between 2012 and 2014 the unemployment rate reached 25% of the active population, surpassing 50% among under 25 year olds. In 2015 the percentage of the population at risk of poverty was 22.1% and more than 720,000 households had no income according to the Living Conditions Survey. This economic and job crisis, along with the austerity policies that have heavily eroded the Spanish welfare system (Lorenzo Citation2014) has produced a deep crisis of confidence in Spanish institutions and the political class, which largely explains the vitality of the social mobilization and the appearance of new political parties.
4. Spanish statistical sources substantially underestimate Spanish emigration. Based on registries in Spain and some receiving countries, a study in 2013 estimated the number of Spaniards who had emigrated between 2008 and 2012 to be close to 700,000 (González-Ferrer Citation2013). Regarding the desire to emigrate, in 2012 data provided by the Sociological Research Centre indicated that 17% of the people surveyed had thought about living abroad and that 48% were very willing or somewhat willing to live outside of Spain. More recent reports show that this tendency has been consolidated among young people. A survey of people between 16 and 29 years old carried out in 2016 indicated that 53% thought that they would have to emigrate to be able to work (Megías and Ballesteros Citation2016).
5. Regarding other destinations for Spanish emigration see Domingo, Sabater, and Ortega (Citation2014), Observatorio de la Juventud en España (Citation2014), and more recently Pérez-Caramés et al. (Citation2018). These publications also present information on the sociodemographic characteristics of Spanish emigration.
6. This narrative has been reflected in many movies and documentaries that present the new situation of young Spanish emigrants abroad (En tierra extraña, Iciar Bollain, 2014; Expats, Pedro Fernández Lajara, 2013; Perdiendo el Norte, Nacho Velilla, 2015). In his 2015 song ‘Adios España’, the rapper Nach denounced the forced exile of Spanish youth (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHXqaaUxqnY).
7. In Spain the economic crisis has given rise to an indignant anti-austerity and anti-precarity activism (see Casas-Cortés Citation2014). This activism includes sectors directly affected by this multicrisis, as well as people unhappy with the social, economic and political direction of the country. There are three catalysts to this new activism: a) the cuts to social rights, which has produced general impoverishment and increased inequality; b) the rupture of the social contract that the welfare state had managed to maintain in other periods of economic instability; and c) a consensus that political parties are responsible for the situation by choosing to protect banks and big businesses, while turning their backs on the interests and wellbeing of citizens (see for example, Tejerina and Perugorría Citation2017a, Citation2017b). The majority of this activism has revolved around collaboration and coordination between different social platforms that focus on specific demands. Some examples of these platforms include the aforementioned mareas ciudadanas (citizen waves) and PAH (anti-eviction platform), YoSiSanidad (fighting for the recovery of healthcare rights), YayoFlautas (a platform fighting to improve pensions) and the Oficina Precaria (Precarity Office, centres that provide information about the labour rights). Over the past few years this activism has also focused on defending civil rights and the freedom of expression and protest that have been seriously curtailed through the approval of a new Public Safety Law in 2015 (referred to as the ‘Gag Law’) giving rise to new platforms such as No Somos Delito (We’re not a Crime).
8. The mareas ciudadanas (citizen waves) are various platforms focusing on specific areas. They include Marea Blanca (White Wave), in defence of healthcare rights and against the privatization of the healthcare system, Marea Verde (Green Wave), in defence of public education and Marea Roja (Red Wave) in defence of publicly-funded research.
9. The response of the former Spanish government to the increasing emigration of young Spaniards has been referred to as a policy of ‘disengagement’. As I mentioned in a previous work, the attitude of that government had oscillated ‘between indifference and denial’ (see López-Sala Citation2017).
10. This questionnaire included 16 groups of open-ended questions classified by five areas (structure, coordination, cooperation, activity and communication).
11. (@mareagranate). Twitter’s advanced search feature was employed to carry out multiple searches based on various filters (topics, hashtags, time period, etc.). This tool also allows content to be filtered and to eliminate retweets (see https://twitter.com/search-advanced?lang=es). The Marea’s Facebook account was also used to find further information on campaigns regarding the right to vote.
12. These three newspapers have provided the most coverage of the actions of Marea Granate. El País is the daily newspaper with the largest circulation and El Diario and El Público occupy the third and sixth positions among national digital periodicals. The analysis covered all the news published between January 2014 and December 2017.
13. Although quantifying the exact number of Spanish political exiles has been difficult and generated various controversies among experts, today there is a broad consensus among historians that there were over 500,000 political refugees (see Vilar Citation2006).
14. In a context in which Spain was beginning to modernize its economy and experience rapid demographic growth, for many Spaniards emigration was an escape from unemployment and poverty, thereby alleviating many potential social problems.
15. The Franco regime imposed strict requisites for emigration in these bilateral programmes (men had to have completed military service, single women had to receive permission from their guardians, married women from their husbands, etc.). So although during this period part of the emigration to Europe was supervised, there were also unauthorized flows to Europe and Latin America (see Babiano and Fernández-Asperilla Citation2009).
16. Law 40/2006 of External Citizenship. The regulation of external political rights was done through the Electoral Laws of 1985 and 1995 (LO 5/1985 and LO 3/1995).
17. According to Turner, ʻas a result of these socio-economic changes, the modern citizen is increasingly a mere denizen with thin, fragmented and fragile social bonds to the public worldʼ (Turner Citation2016, 685). On the concept of denizen and the discussion between citizenship, austerity and migration, see, for instance Hammar (Citation1990) and, more recently, Standing (Citation2014). Regarding the erosion of citizenship rights from a legal perspective, see Gordillo (Citation2013).
18. The electoral reform was broadly rejected by the General Council of Spanish Citizenship Abroad (Ministerio de Empleo, Citation2012). In its November 2016 report, the Central Electoral Commission highlighted the difficulties involved in exercising the external vote since the 2011 reform and the need to establish legal and procedural modifications to facilitate it (Central Electoral Commission, Agreement 261, 16 November, 2016).
20. See for example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVF0PXClyBU; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3qnUN7CdqQ.
21. Some of these groups focus on organization and logistics. In order to improve the distribution of their campaign and demands, produce and distribute material, interact with the press and collaborate with other social platforms, various social network and communication work groups were created (graphic design, audiovisual editing and press office), coordination, IT and outreach (communication with social organizations, political parties and institutions).
22. Different nodes of the Marea collaborated to help pre-register for the vote by organizing what they called ‘electoral trips’, which allowed Spanish expatriates living in different cities to travel together to cities where consulates were located.
23. In the second half of 2015 the DosMillionesdeVotos platform was created, a platform of jurists that arose with the objective of providing legal and technical aid to Spanish citizens residing abroad so that they could exercise their right to vote (See https://politica.elpais.com/politica/2015/11/02/actualidad/1446470274_229480.html).
24. These campaigns sought to promote the reformation of the election law with the collaboration and involvement of Spanish citizens, an objective that has become central to its demands. The nature of this network created around the common objective of improving the political and social rights of the new Spanish diaspora, explains the motives behind its actions and strategies, which include seeking alliances with other citizen and non-citizen-based social movements.
25. This obstacle can be largely interpreted as an attempt by the conservative government to limit the political and electoral influence of Spanish communities living abroad. It must be highlighted that the transformation of the Spanish diaspora has included a significant change in its voting tendencies. According to data from the Ministry of the Interior, Podemos and its electoral alliances (Unidos-Podemos, En Comú, Podemos-Com and Podemos-En) were the most voted parties in the 2015 and 2016 general elections by citizens living abroad.
26. In December 2017, the speaker of Marea Granate’s voting group appeared before the Sub-commission for the reform of the Electoral Law that had been created the same year to present the Marea’s proposals, which can be summarized as follows: to reform the registration system abroad, to repeal the voto rogado system, to increase the deadlines for mail-in ballots, to provide resources to consulates and to establish an electoral district abroad.
27. See the release published on 8 November of this year https://mareagranate.org/2018/11/una-propuesta-cosmetica-y-vacia-la-reforma-del-voto-exterior-del-psoe-impedira-el-voto-a-cientos-de-miles-de-migrantes/.
28. Using the data collected in this registry, in 2016 Marea Granate published the report, Emigrar Sin Derechos. La exclusión sanitaria como forma de deterioro de la ciudadanía (Emigrating without Rights. Healthcare exclusion as a form of deteriorating citizenship). (See http://yosisanidaduniversal.net/noticias.php/emigrar-sin-derechos-la-exclusion).
29. This reform has limited healthcare rights to immigrants who are unaccompanied minors, pregnant women, refugees, asylum seekers and victims of human trafficking. Other irregular immigrants can only gain access to emergency healthcare. Before the 2012 legal reform basic healthcare was guaranteed to everybody residing in Spain, regardless of their administrative situation (Moreno Citation2015).
31. This last example is particularly representative of the strategic alliances between Marea Granate and other social collectives in defence of citizen rights, and of the rights of immigrants and refugees in Spain.
32. The interviews revealed that the precarity offices have also been a way to contact other immigrant collectives in the destination country. Many of the people who go to these offices are from other southern European countries that have been seriously affected by the economic crisis, such as Italy and Greece, as well as Latin American immigrants settled in European countries or who re-emigrated to Europe after residing in Spain for a few years.
33. ‘Exiliados y explotados’ (‘Exiled and exploited’) is the slogan activists use to define and explain the work of the Berlin Precarity Office.
34. https://mareagranate.org/2016/10/marea-granate-expresa-solidaridad-las-personas-refugiadas-exige-respuestas-politicas-reales/ https://mareagranate.org/2018/07/marea-granate-denuncia-el-racismo-institucional-en-las-fronteras-del-norte-global/.
35. https://mareagranate.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Peticion-sobre-expulsiones-directiva-200438.pdf.
36. These actions have also included the production of a great deal of graphic material distributed through their website and social networks that uses a suitcase, airplane and passport as symbols of forced emigration.
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Ana López-Sala
Ana López-Sala, Ph.D in Sociology, and Tenured Research Fellow at Institute of Economics, Geography and Demography, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). Her current research interests include irregular migration, immigration control and borders, immigration and activism(s), and vulnerable immigrants.