Nobody chooses where they are born. We do not choose the family that awaits us, the passport we will have, the opportunities we will find, nor the political, economic, or social circumstances that will surround our existence. Being born in Lanzarote or thousands of kilometers away is, to a large extent, a matter of chance. However, that geography can condition almost everything.
It can mean growing up in peace or trying to survive in the midst of a war conflict. Having guaranteed food and water or seeing how extreme poverty, hunger, or drought make it impossible to remain in the place where one has always lived. Enjoying rights and freedoms or suffering persecution for political ideas, religious beliefs, origin, or belonging to a minority. That is why, when faced with someone who undertakes such a journey, perhaps we should ask ourselves what they have had to leave behind.
Canary Islands knows emigration well. For generations, it was our fathers, mothers, grandfathers, and grandmothers who crossed the Atlantic seeking the opportunities that these islands could not offer them. Human mobility is not an anomaly of our time: it is a constant in human history. The routes, causes, and circumstances change, but a profoundly human aspiration remains: to find a place where one can live with dignity.
That is why I am concerned that words like invasion, occupation, or siege are so easily installed in public debate. Words matter. If we talk about an invasion, we need invaders. If we talk about a siege, we need enemies. And when we turn thousands of different people into a single "other," we stop asking who they are, what happened to them, and what story lies behind each one.
Social sciences have been studying for some time how places change with people. The geographer Doreen Massey questioned the idea of territory as a closed and immobile reality and defended a conception of places marked by relationships, movements, and the multiple histories that converge in them. The Spanish researcher Ricard Zapata-Barrero continues today to analyze migration, diversity, and the ways in which societies incorporate these movements into their own narratives of belonging.
These references help us explain the current reality and understand that coexistence is what distinguishes territories that progress and develop from respect and equal opportunities.
Our municipality of San Bartolomé is an example of all this. We are around 20,000 inhabitants and we coexist daily with more than 80 nationalities. We have not had to give up our identity to integrate other origins, cultures, or ways of understanding the world. We continue to be San Bartolomé without ceasing to recognize ourselves in our history.
“In San Bartolomé, people from more than 80 nationalities coexist, and this reality shows that a society grows when it is capable of integrating, offering opportunities, and lending a hand to those who arrive”
Contemporary social psychology also offers us an interesting fact. Research published by Judit Kende, Linda Tropp, and other specialists analyzed more than 27,000 people from nine countries, including Spain, over five years. Their results link friendship with immigrants to more positive perceptions of immigration and also point out the importance of inclusive policies in fostering these relationships.
In much simpler terms: getting to know each other matters. It is easier to feed fear towards a category called "foreigners" than towards our work colleague, our daughter's friend's mother, the owner of a nearby shop, or the family we meet every morning. When a name, a face, and a story appear, prejudice has a harder time.
A progressive society must strive for precisely that: to defend its identity without being afraid of other identities; to combat inequalities; to guarantee equality between women and men; and not to exclusively enjoy the rights and opportunities that we were fortunate enough to 'inherit' at birth.
Nobody chooses the geography in which they begin their life. Some people are fortunate enough to be able to stay. Others have to leave to find a future. When their lives reach ours, we can erect another barrier and feed hate speech, but in San Bartolomé we choose to extend a hand.
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