Citizenship, deservingness, and the city: Challenges for migrants with an irregular legal status in Barcelona to obtain a work contract suitable for regularisation through arraigo social.

Abstract

In this research, I critically analyse the challenges that irregular migrants residing in Barcelona face in obtaining the work contract that is obligatory for the regularisation mechanism arraigo social. The arraigo social is set by Spanish national law, whereas some competencies are handed over to the region or the municipality. I argue that although cities take essential steps to improve the situations of irregular migrants on their territory compared with the national level and often grant forms of urban citizenship, there are still many challenges that irregular migrants face in getting regularised. Secondly, I argue that the requirement of a work contract and the mechanism arraigo social in general work as an instrument applied by the state to “silently exclude” individuals from citizenship without harming the self-image of the liberal state. This goes hand in hand with forms of deservingness, filtering the “good” from the “bad” migrant. I argue that on the national level, these dynamics are produced and then partially reproduced on the city level of Barcelona. The research design is a case study focusing on a snapshot of the experiences of irregular migrants in Barcelona. I collected empirical data through eight semi-structured interviews with (former) irregular migrants living in Barcelona. In this paper, I combine the literature on citizenship, irregularity, and multilevel migration governance, focusing on the concepts of deservingness and urban citizenship. I work out relevant results that can fill gaps in this body of literature, and guide NGOs, city governments and stakeholders in promoting regularisations. There is room for improvement toward more humane migration governance if we understand the main challenges for irregular migrants to get regularised and, in this case, to obtain a suitable work contract.