The municipal participation website, Decide Madrid, has launched a consultation with Madrid residents on the reception of immigrants. It has been active since Monday and will collect responses until September 16, according to a decree signed by José Luis Martínez-Almeida published a few days ago.
The questions aim to “prioritize” the lines of action of the next Strategic Immigration Plan prepared by the Madrid City Council, whose objective – according to the area of Social Policies – is “to build a diverse society that welcomes, includes and generates coexistence in its neighborhoods and districts. The form posted on the municipal participation website includes four questions focused on the different groups that should be addressed first.
“What are the three lines of action of the future Plan that you consider to be the most important?”, asks the city council in the questionnaire to the residents of Madrid, both for those who come and for immigrants who already reside in the capital. And then it asks to choose “the 3 groups that, in your opinion, should receive special attention in the future Strategic Plan on Immigration”. Finally, leave an open question to give a motto or title to the plan prepared by the council.
The Social Policy Sector is launching this consultation as part of the bureaucratic process of approving a new plan after more than a decade without having a similar tool. The last one was in 2012. Today, the department headed by José Fernández is committed to this tool so that Madrid becomes a “reference city in promoting respect and defending the full citizenship of the Madrid population, regardless of their diversity of origin.” the obstacles that prevent them from accessing all the rights recognized and guaranteed in the city through the integration of the intercultural perspective.
Almeida speaks of an “invasion” in the Canary Islands
The intentions of the municipality contrast with the words of its mayor, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, who, in his first statements to the media after the holidays, took the opportunity to attack the national government which, according to him, “has not yet put in place a single global measure to combat the phenomenon of immigration without blaming everyone.”
Almeida went so far as to use more extreme language, speaking of “there is an invasion, because it is a migratory invasion at the moment in the Canary Islands” and assured that Pedro Sánchez attributes the responsibility to the PP. “We are not going to go through that,” he added before accusing him of creating a “call effect”.
“When there are certain political phenomena in Europe that should worry us and we should know the causes for which they vote, it is obvious that immigration is one of them,” said the mayor. “And when Pedro Sánchez rejects immigration by saying that those of us who do not agree with what the left says about immigration are racists, he simplifies the debate and opens the way to populism,” he said before accusing the president of being “excluding a very good part of society, which is not racist, but which understands that there must be legal immigration and that illegal immigrants, in short, we must try to prevent them from reaching our shores.”
The mayor of Madrid advocated acting “in the countries of origin, of course” and explained that his party defends “that immigration must be legal, orderly and linked to the world of work.”
