The Adult Learning Project (ALP) presents:
The New Spanish Community in Edinburgh ; Situations and Needs
Presentation and Discussion Event
Monday February 9th 1-4pm
Edinburgh City Chambers Business Centre
The Spanish community residing in Edinburgh is one of the biggest broader communities of immigrants and has been increasing in the last years, currently being an important part of the population of the city. Unemployment has continued to rise in Spain since the credit crunch and the ensuring economic crisis. During the crisis, the UK has continued to remain a privileged destination for Spanish immigrants. There has been a steep increase of 50% of Spanish immigrants’ arrivals in the 2012-2013 period compared to the previous period 2011-2012, making it the second largest foreign nationality in terms of NINo application, after the Polish (NPS, 2013).
In 2013-2014 three Spanish researchers part of ‘EL Puente’, an ALP project, carried out extensive research into the experiences and needs of the Spanish community in Edinburgh . As a consequence they developed a very detailed (103 page) report analysing how Spanish residents in the city of Edinburgh since 2011 are integrating, and possible interventions that could be made to improve this situation.
This event will involve presenting the conclusions obtained during the research about the motivations and expectations of the Spanish people when going to Edinburgh and the experiences and barriers of integration, paying special attention to the needs detected.
The aim of this presentation is not just to share the research and work but to try to build solutions through gathering together different associations, charities, councillors and representatives from authorities, both Spanish and Scottish, related with the Spanish community and interested on this issue. Our idea is for people to talk about their different points of view and putting together the political, theoretical and practical work.
There will be hard and electronic copies of the report available for people attending.
It is a free event, with light refreshments, but there is a limited capacity.
If interested in attending please RSVP at spanish.community.event@gmail.com.
