The image of Barcelona is characterized by cosmopolitan tourist life, long-term gentrification processes and progressive political perspectives, such as for the reception of refugees and immigrants. To find out to what extent the self-drawn image of Barcelona as a ‘Refugee City’ reaches the living realities of the people affected by the European border regime, this ethnographic documentary focuses on the local political strategies that define and regulate the treatment of migrants. It also shows the alarming deficits and precarious living conditions of those who have come in search of more humane living conditions and how, due to the Aliens Law, most of them spent years without the prospect of a right to stay or a work permit.
Due to a one-and-a-half year anthropological research with a collaborative approach, this documentary provides an in-depth insight into the daily life, functioning and networking of diverse immigrant communities and documents their persistent struggle against prevailing racist power relations.
It consists of the presentation of the self-organized Union of Street Vendors of Barcelona, the human rights initiative ‘Tanquem els CIEs’ that fights for the closure of Immigration Detention Centers throughout Spain, the campaign against racial discrimination ‘Parad de Pararme’, the collective ‘Frontera Sur’ (Southern Border), and the human rights initiative ‘Tanquem els CIEs’ that fights for the closure of Immigration Detention Centers throughout Spain, the campaign against racial discrimination ‘Parad de Pararme’, the collective ‘Frontera Sur’, which accompanies refugees after their arrival at the southern border of Spain and in their asylum process, and the self-organized protest of migrants and refugees ‘Encierro Migrante’, which occupied an old Art School in Barcelona to reach out to local politicians and fight for their human rights. These collectives have been involved in the research, filming and editing process of this ethnographic documentary, which aims to show the social struggles against institutional racism from a BPOC and migrant perspective.

Nonviolence themes: RACIAL, MORAL, ECONOMIC