The Others

Many people immigrate each year hoping to improve their economic situation. Getting a good education for their children is an added bonus. But in Andalusia’s schools, immigrant students are faced with challenges, both academic and social.

The room is dark. There is conversation and laughter. A baby giggles. All of a sudden the curtains open onstage and the crowd grows silent. Twenty children stand in rows, singing about trees and making tree-like movements. They pause often and look at one another to remember the steps. Two walk to the front, one holding the Chinese flag. The other speaks, taking deep breaths. “My dad is from Valladolid and my mom is from Seville and I am Chinese. Some kids call me ‘China,’ but it is what I am. The professor says they aren’t as smart or pretty as I am.” The crowd claps enthusiastically. “Long live China” she shouts, and the other kids cheer. The two girls hug before running back to their rows.

This is a scene from the play My Class is Multicolor, put on by second graders from the school Pedro Garfias in June 2008. It was written and directed by teacher Victoria Sesé Hontanilla. The rest of the play continues in the same manner, spotlighting students from Nigeria, Romania and Colombia, each brief monologue ending by wishing a long life to a particular country.

With 675,180 registered foreigners as of March 2010, Andalusia is the region of Spain with the third-greatest number of immigrants. As of October 2009, in Seville alone there were 11,000 kids from abroad in the school system, primarily of Moroccan and South American origin.

Pedro Garfias Elementary and Primary School is home to some of these immigrant students. It is located in a diverse neighborhood, Las Golondrinas, in the district of Macarena. “There are a large percentage of immigrant families. It has a lot of fame for this, but the neighborhood is very mixed,” says Abdelaaziz Oudidi, the intercultural mediator of the school. Abdelaaziz moved from Morocco to Spain in 1991 in order to complete his doctorate; afterwards he elected to stay to raise a family.

He estimates that out of the 300 to 400 students, between 30 and 50 come from immigrant families, roughly 10 percent of the school’s population. The majority is of Latin American origin, and five or six of them came from Morocco. Their problems are similar to those that any student has when going to a new school, Abdelaaziz says. “Sometimes they do not know the language, but they can learn very quickly since they are so young.”

Eduardo Rico Villada, 18, moved with his family from Bogotá to Seville nine months ago. “In Colombia we didn’t have a future; we didn’t have money,” says Eduardo. “There, we also had problems with war. My first day of school was horrible, because I didn’t know anyone; I was there alone,” a wide-eyed Eduardo remembers. He attends Ramón Carande High School, where 8 percent of students are from other countries.

The classroom is in close proximity to Eduardo’s neighborhood, Las Tres Mil Viviendas, located in the south of Seville. “The people that live there always look at my family as something different — like one part and another,” says Eduardo. Las Tres Mil Viviendas, in the Polígono Sur sector, is widely known for its gypsy population. Eduardo’s experience is ironic, since he feels rejected in a neighborhood that is not itself welcomed by many Sevillians.

Regardless, Eduardo feels that the situation is better in Seville than in Colombia. “Here school is free, and there is a lot of help for immigrants, for Latinos,” he says, though he has not personally utilized this assistance.

Many programs exist in Andalusia to integrate immigrants into society. The autonomous government passed the first Integral Plan for the Immigration in Andalusia in 2002. A second plan was put into action for the years 2006-2009, with a budget of 1,400 million euros. The third was installed in March 2010 and will continue through 2014; the amount to be used is yet to be determined.

The plan aids immigrants in 11 areas, education being one, with the goal of creating “a social climate of coexistence, respect and tolerance… not only in the educational community but also in the neighborhood.”

But this policy has not always improved the social climate, as Eduardo suffers it in Las Tres Mil. “There are people there who think it is fine we live there, but the younger people, many gypsies, always bother me. I am scared, but I can’t show them because then they would think I was a stupid man,” he says.

A study conducted in January 2010 by professor Antonia Olmos Alcaraz of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Granada shows that there is a “new racism” towards immigrant students in the classroom. They are viewed negatively as “a problem”. “Some people think that immigrant students interrupt the normal class,” says Abdelaaziz.

“There is not an issue with social exclusion at Pedro Garfias because the students don’t yet perceive the differences between each other,” the intercultural mediator adds. “However, in social situations, groups are formed in a discriminatory manner. For example, in the park, Latin Americans stand in one group and Africans in another.”

For many, this is a way of self-defense. “I don’t like that people normally associate with others like themselves… But, for example, I came here as a new Latino, and if there weren’t other Latinos in my school, I wouldn’t know what to do,” Eduardo says. Though he is friends with some natives of Spain, the majority of his friends come from Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and Argentina.

“Life here has improved for me,” Eduardo comments, “but for other friends, it hasn’t. They continue fighting with the gypsies and Spaniards. They want us to be afraid and to run, but I am Latino and I am proud.”

For the second grade students at Pedro Garfias, there seems to be a simple solution. As the play comes to a close, a group of the students say, “We are all equal on the inside. But if there are problems, we sing a song: ‘friends…yes, fighting…no.’ ” The singing ends. There is applause from the audience as the students take turns hugging each other.