Homelessness and Immigrants: In Front of the Border Between Spain and France

Abstract

Introduction

In 2006, prior to the worldwide economic crisis which especially affected Western countries, Southern Spain was one of the illegal immigrant gateways from Africa into Europe. The aim of this study is to establish the rate of homeless immigrants in a cohort of 2006 and carry out a follow up until 2015 in order to explore the chronicity associated to the territory.

Methods

Sample: 949 persons experiencing homelessness in Girona, according to official records. Procedure: prospective longitudinal study of the total population of homeless people in Girona. In 2006, a list was made of all the homeless people detected by both specialised and nonspecialised teams, which have been followed until the present day. Instruments: data bases of different official teams. Statistical analysis: measures of central tendency and dispersion and contingency tables were used for the comparison of qualitative variables.

Results

Overall, 64.8% of the population of Girona are immigrants (n = 614), principally from the Maghreb, (χ² = 36.9, df = 4, P < .001) and 333 (36.3%) are autochthonous. The percentage of homeless immigrants in relation to the total immigrant population was 4.4%. Comparing the homeless autochthonous population with the total of the autochthonous population, homelessness among autochthonous population was 0.4%.

Conclusions

The results suggest that homelessness was more incidental in the immigrant group than in the autochthonous group. The percentage of immigrants who still live in homeless conditions suggests that immigration is a risk factor in the chronicity of the problem.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.