The housing market is one of the biggest obstacles in the way of the migrant population in Barcelona, which reaches 30% of the population. On the ground, day after day, it is clear that the worst conditions of access to the house prevent going up the floors of an elevator which takes a long time to reach and reproduce poverty, thus worsening inequalities in the city. The studio explains it Migration, housing and inequalities in Barcelonafrom the Metropoli Institute, which indicates that 70% of the migrant population lives on rent (compared to 20% of natives), devotes 49% of their income to paying for the house and triples the risk of poverty.
“The home is a key vector for understanding how inequalities are transmitted and worsened,” say the conclusions of a study which warns that “Barcelona is facing a scenario of increasing social polarization.” “An imbalance that affects the capacity for consumption and savings on the ground, which generates constant pressure on other spheres of daily life,” say researchers Albert Sales, Frederic Romea, Mercè Cortina and Pau Alarcón.
To fill this gap, work is underway: while the indigenous population would benefit from retirement pensions or unemployment benefits resulting from years of contributions or employment in the formal economy, foreigners mostly receive emergency social assistance that does not always meet their needs. An example: 60% of people who work in the care sector outside the regulated market are of migrant origin and most of them are women, who are not entitled to any subsidies if they leave their job, with the drama that can contribute to their residential stability.
The coordinator of the Social Rights and Public Policies sector of the Institute, Albert Sales, explains that although the study is centered in Barcelona, the inequality that designates the house as the center is extendable to the rest of the metropolitan area: “This is not the subject of the study, but we have to wait for it to happen like this, for the dynamic to repeat itself, because there is no labor market at all. The house has borders and administrative dynamics, and the weight of the migrant population is also very important in the Greater Barcelona”, quarter of its inhabitants.
The text also emphasizes the fact that the real estate market on the ground makes it difficult every day for the migrant population, which “builds its possibilities for social mobility”. In other words: “Limited access to decent housing acts as a mechanism for the reproduction of poverty and exploitation, in an era which accentuates inequalities between groups, functioning as a tool for regressive transfer between social classes (from those with low income to those with higher income)”.
The report begins by explaining that net migration has been the main driver of Barcelona’s growth in recent decades: in 2000, the city’s resident population born abroad represented only 5%, while in 2023 it reached 31.1%, according to the National Institute of Statistics (2024). And it is clear that the Catalan capital is the first Spanish city with a migrant population: Barcelona concentrates 3.45% of the Spanish population, but 6.34% of those born abroad.
When you detail your situation, negative data appears. Foreigners make up the majority of households in the poorest segment of the population (54.2) and 40% of low-income households. Only 15% of high-income households. Another data, the percentage of people at risk of poverty is more than double among foreigners (39%) compared to natives (12.7%), according to the survey on living conditions.
A deadly cocktail: less income, more poverty and real estate racism
But the question arises in the migrant population and in the rental market, where at the time of access there are difficulties due to a triple departure: a lower level of income, greater exposure to the risk of poverty and losses which lead to what is called real estate racism. A deadly cocktail when those who want access to a villa present themselves to the casting of heads of family.
The survey on living conditions also shows that foreigners live in 70.5% of housing cases, compared to 18.1% of natives. An exit position which places them in a situation of much greater vulnerability, given the jungle into which the rental market has transformed. At the same time, the majority of natives (57%) have a paid floor and 21% pay a mortgage. Among migrants, only 10.8% are homeowners and only 16% pay a mortgage.
“The relationship of the population born in the territory with the house in the country is not conditioned by the evolution of the prices of the tenant like that which comes from abroad. Taking into account the recent evolution of prices, it has a direct effect on the stability of the residence, the availability of economic resources and the risks of poverty and social exclusion”, indicates the study, which also shows that the percentage of over-indebtedness among households formed by Spaniards is 9.5% and that the number of households whose members are born abroad is 9.5%. 42.7%.
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