Institutional Solidarity: Barcelona as Refuge City

Abstract

In opposition to the obstacles introduced by the Spanish government to receive refugees, Barcelona sets up the ‘Barcelona Refuge City Plan’ to prepare the city to take in refugees. This plan creates an innovative framework to foster institutional solidarity in which the City Council maintains a contentious relation with the government and tries to cooperate with social entities and organizations. The main goal of the plan is to channel urban solidarity and foster the cooperation with civil society and the participation of migrants and refugees. The plan also represents the adaptation to the sense of emergency in 2015 and to the existing realities of migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees in the city. To overcome the restrictions of the government, Barcelona establishes a Spanish Refuge Cities network and develops, together with other European cities, the initiative ‘Solidarity cities’. The underlying idea is to develop a new multilevel governance where the cities take more responsibility.