On Tuesday, 28 March, the League of Professional Associations of Catalonia—of which the Architects’ Association is a member, along with 100 other professional associations—and Barcelona City Council signed an agreement to bring refugees and immigrants living in Barcelona into contact with the professional associations in their areas of professional activity, with the aim of improving those groups’ personal and professional integration in the city. The spokesman for the Governing Board of the COAC, Enric Mir, represented the Association at the signing of the agreement.

Joint efforts in support of social inclusion
With the common goal of helping refugees integrate into the labour market, the League of Professional Associations and the City Council will develop protocols to help asylum seekers to contact their respective professional associations. There will also be qualitative and quantitative follow-up focused on the actions undertaken.

With these efforts, the City Council hopes to promote the participation of all interested associations in providing support for refugees and immigrants. Given the difficulties experienced by those groups in accessing the labour market, the aim is to join forces to improve their employability.

The dean of the Architects’ Association of Catalonia, Lluís Comerón, has very positive views of the initiative, which will help to build bridges between immigrants and professional associations and their members.