Are young people from Granada racist? After posing this question, a group of researchers from the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies of the University of Granada, has carried out a survey among 400 people between 14 and 25, and the results are quite revealing. Two out of three young people (63.1%) think that there are «too many» foreigners in their surrounding area (especially Moroccan and Senegalese people). These figures have increased in relation to 1996, when another similar study was conducted.
Francisco Jiménez Bautista, the lecturer responsible for this study, points out that “people from Granada, although they are not racist, have certain attitudes and behaviour which denote xenophobia”. These attitudes become apparent in different ways in different neighbourhoods. For example, young people from the districts of Beiro (66.7%), Ronda (64.3%) and Zaidín (62.9%) consider that immigration is one of the most important problems in their neighbourhood, while in the districts of La Chana (24.1%), Centre (24.1%) and North (39.6%), the number of people who think that immigration is a problem is much lower.
Jiménez Bautista explains that the problem of immigration becomes more apparent from the centre to the Eastern part of the city, and is less important from the centre to the North West». For this reason, “we can speak of a quasi-division of the city, which coincides with two different opinions about the problem of immigration.”
This study carried out by the UGR also analyses the profile of immigrants according to young people from Granada. When they were asked about the nationality, race and religion of immigrants, 83% of those surveyed say that most immigrants are North Africans (68.7% in 1996). 17.8% of those asked think that most immigrants belong to an Arabic racial group and 63.9% to a black racial group. When asked about the religion most immigrants follow, Islam is the answer of a 67.8%, although it is important to point out that there is an increase in the number of people who think that Judaism is the most common religion among the immigrants (from 0.3% to 9.4% in just a few years).
The North of Africa
The study carried out in the UGR, also reveals that 82.2% of the young people from Granada think that there are “too many” or “many” immigrants who come from the North of Africa. Surprisingly, they do not reckon the same about the people from South America (only 24.1% think there are “too many” or “many”).
The lecturer of the Institute of Peace and Conflicts of the UGR says that paradoxically 87% of the people asked totally disapprove of racist movements which have appeared in countries such as France, Austria or Germany through the importance that extreme right-wing parties are gaining. Francisco Jiménez Bautista states that «it is necessary to avoid the more and more frequent xenophobic outbreaks in our city”. He also points out that the northern part of the city is a ghetto where immigration is a cause for concern, especially in the joint between the quarters of Cartuja and Almanjáyar. Furthermore, he explains that the native people have left the city centre, and therefore there are around 20,000 empty dwellings “which are prone to be used by the immigrant population”. According to the author of this study, “in the outlying quarter of La Chana, which is close to the northern district, the young gangs from Latin America are becoming apparent”.
To conclude, Jimenez Bautista says that, according to the study, the young people from Granada “are not interested in knowing other cultures and races”. “If there were more immigrants, and especially more immigrant of a lower class, the tendency would be a discriminatory attitude and behaviour”.
Reference:
Lecturer Francisco Jiménez Bautista. Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies of the UGR.
Phones: 958 248 355 – 958 248 367. E-mail: fjbautis@ugr.es
