Growing poverty threatens to divide Barcelona into “two cities”

Even though general figures of economic growth and the job market confirm that Barcelona “is coming out of the crisis”, the annual Employment Report for Barcelona, presented by the Social Council of Barcelona (CESB) on Monday, shows that there is a clear trend towards “two cities”: one that is recovering from the crisis and one that remains “deeply embedded” in permanent unemployment. In declarations to the press, the CESB’s acting president, Vicenç Tarrats, explained that while in 2008 25,000 people were living below the poverty limit in Barcelona (making less than 60% of the minimum wage), in 2015 this situation already applied to 222,581 people, almost nine times more than in 2008. Poverty has also expanded geographically, from 5 to 17 neighborhoods, concentrated in the northeast of the city. Tarras assured that the CESB will pay special attention to these “vulnerable” neighborhoods in order to maintain “the model of social cohesion that characterized Barcelona before the crisis”.

The figures for the city as a whole “are starting to be positive'' and “in general terms it can be said that Barcelona is coming out of the crisis,” stated Tarrats. However, he warned that this “recovery” '”is leaving marks behind”, which translates into the consolidation of poverty zones in the city. 

The report indicates that although in 2008 there were five neighborhoods below the poverty limit, the 2015 figures show that this number has risen to 17 neighborhoods: 11 in Nou Barris, two in Sant Andreu, two in Sant Martí, one in Sants–Montjuïc and one in Horta-Guinardó. Tarrats added that the neighborhoods most affected by poverty are located in the northeast of the Catalan capital and coincide with the zones where permanent unemployment has become ''deeply embedded”.