https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12328/3483 2026-06-10T02:23:09Z https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12328/3771 Immigrants’ employment and integration in Barcelona: a qualitative study Schappo, Patricia The research addresses the role played by employment in the Integration process of immigrants in Barcelona, Spain. It regards two main identified aspects of Integration: 1) legal insertion (related to the institutional ‘right to stay’); and 2) the sociocultural integration (development of bonds and a ‘sense of belonging’ with the host society). Integration became a growing concern throughout European countries since the 1980s, due to the meaningful demographic changes caused by the arrival of ‘new’ foreign collectives in those ‘culturally consolidated’ nations. Neoliberalism advent resulted in a ‘migration boom’ to regions understood as economically central and concentrating work opportunities, e.g. Western Europe. The fact led to the development of migration regulatory frameworks that, on the intention of containing harmful migration effects, define ideas of ‘legitimate belonging’ and ‘deserving integration’ in the mindsets of host societies. Those oftentimes, drawn on the basis of immigrants’ economic contribution. The research draws on ethnographic methods, delivering a qualitative study that complements a body of quantitative researches over the immigrants’ reality in Spain. The findings support the literature indication of socioeconomic segmentation, where different immigrants’ collectives tend to be driven to specific sectors of society, according to their ‘national profiles’. Conversely, the research advocates for ‘less deterministic conclusions’, once the influence of the fruitful cosmopolitan environment and progressive Integration policies of Barcelona. 2017-05-18T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12328/3769 Are we exporting problems or solutions? A model for Transitional Field Hospitals in Natural Disasters Wilson, Matthew Natural disaster and conflict scenarios present challenging environments for healthcare treatment. In remote or underdeveloped areas where already scant healthcare services exist, this need is exacerbated - particularly when much existing healthcare infrastructure is destroyed by the disaster. Field Hospitals have been traditionally viewed as an attractive proposition, both in their efficiency of delivering a ‘package’ solutions of tools and infrastructure, as well as their tangibility to donors wanting to provide visible solutions. However, they have sometimes been hastily deployed with little regard for contextual factors and a lack of transition strategy to support long-term recovery. This thesis investigates the transitional role of Field Hospitals, drawing lessons learnt from transitional shelter guidelines along with best practice principles current in Field Hospital literature. The 2010 Haiti Earthquake has been used as a case study to analyse both how Field Hospitals were used, how well they responded to the context and the gap between their withdrawal and more permanent facilities opening. Further data was collected through interviews with key actors involved in Haiti across a range of different disciplines. The key findings were that there needs to be greater emphasis placed on the design and operation of semi-permanent health facilities (Transitional Field Hospitals) that can bridge the gap between initial relief and long-term recovery, responding to contextual factors and empowering locals to take back control. 2019-05-20T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12328/3768 Female consciousness and social activism: a gender análisis of the Plataforma de los Afectados por la Hipoteca de Barcelona Vasconcelos, Paola This thesis examines the role of women in the Plataforma de los Afectados por la Hipoteca de Barcelona (PAH BCN), a movement fighting for the right to housing. While the female presence in the PAH BCN has been noticed mostly in the media, there is still a need to understand from a gender perspective their participation going beyond the question of representation and paying attention to the voices of these women, their experiences, and daily routines in the movement in order to contextualize the PAH with previous women´s and urban movements in Barcelona during the early democratic period. The research explores how the presence of women in the PAH BCN contributes (or not) to existing discussions about the influence of women´s movements in proposing new visions (and transformations) of the city. In order to analyze the specific role of women in the PAH, this research relies in a literature that discusses how women have been appropriating and transforming urban spaces through political engagement and by doing that, these women become political actors motivated by a female consciousness at the same time that they build a collective identity in order to self organize around the discussion of gender needs. In order to understand the specific experience of women in this gender mixed social movement the research adopts a qualitative approach based in primary methods to collect data: in-depth semi-structured interviews and systematic observation. The results will show the important role women are playing in the PAH BCN, even if it is a mixed gender movement. 2018-05-22T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12328/3767 Social and physical integration of refugees: comparing models of urban integration in Barcelona and Athens Vargues, Sara The current humanitarian crisis in the Middle-East has enhanced the long process of forced migration over the last decades. The effect of this massive emigration has affected the physical nature of the European Union urban contexts, specifically regarding the models of social and spatial integration of refugees, and generated a significant concern and challenge for policy-makers, aid agencies, scholars and civic society organizations. Therefore, the knowledge gap for urban planners, policy-makers and development agencies is still related to how to address the relationship between displacement and urban integration models. Consequently, urban contexts have become important sites to interrogate the spaces of and for refugees in European cities. With this in perspective, this paper intends to shed new light on what are the key components of integration in resettlement settings by examining and questioning the social and physical integration strategies and policies in place. With this objective, this paper examines two models of refugee integration strategies led by different stakeholders with singular approaches. The first case is focused on a case in Barcelona with a model of government-led integration through temporary housing, and the second case, in Athens, is a grassroots refugee/migrant-led process of integration. Through a social and physical assessment of both cases the objective is to analyse how urban integration is or isn’t enforced as well as question their effectiveness. The analysis encompasses the physical aspects of the urban integration model, as well as the refugee and local community perspective. As a result, findings will support the hypothesis that counter-hegemonic movements and refugee-led initiatives should be considered as a tool to facilitate refugees’ social and physical integration in urban contexts in Europe. 2018-05-28T00:00:00Z