Opening Doors, Opening Borders

How and why was the Open Borders Coordinator born?
The Open Borders Coordinator was born in 2015 to join the cry for welcome of refugees, at that time, mainly from the conflict in Syria. At that time, several people who were already active in different spaces and had common sensitivities, began to meet to think about what they could do in the face of the arrival of refugees in their territories and how to accompany them in their reception in order to offer them a feeling of welcome.
Thus, little by little, the network has grown both in the number of people and organizations that are part of or collaborate with the Coordinator and in its presence in the Catalan territory.

What are the main objectives and values ​​that guide your action?
Our main objectives are to organize ourselves collectively to accompany and guarantee the exercise of the rights of displaced people who arrive in Catalonia, promote their inclusion and participation in all areas of life, raise awareness about the situations that push them to leave their homes and the situations they face once they arrive in Catalonia and denounce or advocate for the violations of rights to which they are often subjected.
Therefore, these are values ​​of respect, solidarity and responsibility. We understand that as a group made up mostly of white and European people or with the privilege of having basic rights covered, we have the responsibility to share this privilege and work so that everyone has the same rights and opportunities for a dignified life. Furthermore, we are aware that the causes of migration are found in the global north and in the policies of the governments of northern countries. Therefore, we have some responsibility for the need or decision to migrate of many people. Consequently, we also decide to assume the responsibility, within each person's possibilities, to work to offer a dignified welcome to all people who arrive in Catalonia.

What are the main difficulties you encounter in your work of welcoming and supporting migrants?
The obstacles and violations experienced by displaced people range from difficulty in accessing registration, access to health services or schooling, to real estate racism that denies the rental of apartments due to appearance, name or possible membership of an ethnic or religious group; also the expulsion of minors from the protection system and, therefore, from juvenile centers by applying age tests in a way that is contrary to the law; or the same process of regularization that leads them to years living on the margins before being able to obtain a residence or work permit.

How do you collaborate with other entities and groups to achieve your objectives?
Much of our work is based on grassroots networking. We coordinate with dozens of local groups and associations that support a dignified welcome for people of diverse origins. By sharing experiences and challenges, we reach more people more effectively.
For example, we firmly believe that experience on the street, in direct support of people made vulnerable by institutional racism, allows us to know and experience up close the violations of rights that occur every day in our towns and cities and thus be able to ask for and think about the responses that administrations should give.

What are the main demands you make of the public administrations?
A clear demand for the City Councils is that they register all the residents who
live in the municipality, regardless of their residential, administrative, origin or other circumstances. The register has become in recent years a tool for social control in municipalities when, in reality, it is a tool for knowing the reality of the municipality and being able to plan the services it needs to respond to its population and have cohesive, strong and safe cities and towns for everyone.
We also ask DGAIA, Social Rights and the Prosecutor's Office to stop carrying out age tests on minors with non-invalidated passports, since this contradicts the regulations on child protection and leaves children and young people on the streets calling their way towards autonomy. These are young people who come to study, work, play sports, and be part of a community, and who, from one day to the next, are taken out of juvenile detention centers without any support. We understand that this is neither legal nor makes any sense, because we are losing a huge potential of people who want to continue pushing society forward and progress together. We also demand decent working and residential conditions for farm workers, often migrants, whose rights are violated year after year while they bring food to our tables.
Lately we have also been insisting on the need to review the call for ACOL subsidies. Its origin was to promote the hiring of migrants in order to regularize their administrative situation. The idea stems precisely from social movements and would allow people who are accompanied by associations, groups and organizations throughout the year to maintain a work relationship and, therefore, participate in it without having to suffer from the coverage of their basic needs. Increasingly, however, this call has become another tool to finance free workers for City Councils and large entities, without guaranteeing the continuity of the workers or the link with the contracting party. We cannot forget two basic demands: The first is for the Spanish government to recognize the ILP once and for all and regularize all migrants living in Spanish territory. The second, to the European Commission and the Member States to rethink the objective of their migration policies and build a European pact on migration and asylum that promotes legal and safe routes and the free movement of people.

How do you connect your work with international movements defending the rights of migrants and refugees?
On the one hand, we try to network with organizations and groups that work in border areas and that are in contact with people who later arrive in Catalonia.
We work with organizations and groups from the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla, the Balearic Islands, but also from the south of France.
We believe that it is important that people on the move and the people they accompany know the context of the different territories and being all connected helps us to be able to coordinate better to respond to possible needs.
We also network with organizations and groups that work in countries of origin of these migratory movements, such as different regions of Morocco or Senegal.
Finally, in the last year in particular, we have linked up with other organizations and groups to make complaints and advocate in relation to the European Pact on Migration and Asylum. We believe that it is precisely networking, coordinated and interdisciplinary work that can help us confront the current populist discourses and anti-migration policies.

What parallels do you see between the situation in Catalonia and what is happening on the Southern Border, in Greece, or on the US-Mexico border?
The parallels are many, especially in terms of rights violations: lack of legal and safe ways to undertake migration projects, expulsions of people who already reside in the territory and, above all, increasingly, a racist and discriminatory discourse that determines the value of people based on their skin color, their name, their faith or their origin.
Although in the US the discourse is more evident and they flaunt the policies that threaten the lives of migrants, many practices are shared. We are alarmed by the deportations in the US when Spain also locks men and women in CIEs to deport them.
The Mexican Wall shocks us, but we have forgotten the people who died at the Melilla fence.
It's all part of the same system that dehumanizes people to strengthen the business of war and security technology.

How do European migration policies —such as the European Pact on Migration and Asylum— affect your daily work?
The PEMA legalizes many violations of rights that already occur today in Europe. In Spain, for example, since COVID access to asylum appointments has become more and more difficult, making the procedure almost impossible. With the Pact, it will be decided at the border who has the right and who does not have the right to request this protection. The foundation of this pact is already being laid with the designation of supposed safe countries, to which our neighbors are already being deported without taking into account their individual situation.
We will have to be much more organized and prepared to continue working for the right to migrate and for a dignified life for all.

What message would you like to send to the international community regarding the right to migrate and to be welcomed with dignity? 
The key point is that once here, the rights of people who come to live in our neighborhoods and cities benefit us all. That they can work, that they can access housing, that children can be educated, that women can decide about their bodies... only when everyone's rights are respected and guaranteed will we have truly healthy, free and safe societies. Even from a practical point of view, in an aging society like Europe, people of foreign origin and especially those who have experienced a migration process, contribute more than they receive from an economic and labor point of view, but also socially and culturally. Facilitating and guaranteeing the right to migrate for anyone, to leave their home for any reason and settle in another place, where they can have a full life, helps us all to build a stronger and safer future for everyone.