Selected co-development processes: different localities in origin and

There was an exploration of the database, secondary sources, contacts with experts (Senegalese migrant representatives, Fons-Català officers) and municipal officers, together with interviews during fieldwork. After this process, there were 18 (3 in Dakar, 15 in Kolda) projects complying with the above-mentioned criteria that were still in progress and not closed during the fieldwork in Senegal (during Summer 2012).

Not all of these projects were visited. For instance, in the region of Dakar I only visited one project. Finally, in Kolda I visited five, but only four appear in Table 8 below. There were other experiences related to other associations or civil society in origin that are mentioned during the analysis because they are important for the purposes of the dissertation even if they are not in the final selection. In some cases, some of the representatives were interviewed. Other unexpected questions – that were related to how the fieldwork actually occurred – affected the collection of data entailing the visits to villages, but this is discussed later on.

Overall, the cases are representative of the type of Catalan municipalities likely to fund migrant associations through co-development projects (Østergaard-Nielsen and Acebillo-Baqué, 2016). The Figure 3.2. shows the location of the selected process. As can be seen in the figure, the name of the villages, to which the projects in the region of Kolda are linked, are not mentioned for reasons of confidentiality’s (different hometown associations have their corresponding village’s name in their organisation's name). Below, Table 3.7. synthesizes the type of projects and main

characteristics of the localities linked to the chosen co-development processes in residence and origin. Within the selection there are: three hometown associations (Girona, Lleida and Mataró migrant associations, signalled as HTA); one religious migrant association (a Tijani brotherhood that I call Girona religious migrant association); and a federation of Senegalese associations (I call it Barcelona migrant association).

Populations in each municipality are a visible indicator of the extent to which the case associated to Barcelona’s migrant association, at first sight connecting Barcelona and Dakar, is different to the others. All of them link medium-size towns in Catalonia to small villages in the region of Kolda. The main differences between Barcelona’s migrant association and the others are that, first, Barcelona’s migrant association is a federation (it gathers associations at a regional level in Catalonia, and not individuals). Second, the projects that Barcelona’s migrant association has undertaken with the support of Barcelona city council aim to either: respond to Senegalese citizenship that want to migrate to Europe from around the country or to structure Senegalese abroad (by promoting an umbrella organisation for the Senegalese diaspora). Therefore, whereas Barcelona’s migrant association plays out and imagines its actions at a multilevel scale, the other associations’ projects (basically focused on the agricultural sector) are pre-eminently conceptualised in a narrower territory.

Besides, apart from the importance of Barcelona's migrant association within the sphere of migrant associations (not only in Catalonia, but also at national level in Senegal (mostly) and Spain) the main reason to retain this association in the sample was the possibility that it might unveil the very different dynamics entrenched in central and urban Dakar and peripheral and rural Kolda.

Figure 3.2. Selected localities and co-development processes between Catalonia and Senegal

Source: Own elaboration with Google maps.

It is also of interest to highlight that the localities in residence all share similar percentages of foreign population (the lower being Mataró, with a 16,62%) but the weight that Senegal-born citizens have in each of them is quite different (see Table 3.7.). Thus, despite Mataró being a smaller town compared to Barcelona, it had, in 2010, almost the same number of Senegalese residents as in the capital of Catalonia, accounting for the 7% of total Senegalese living in the region. In fact, Mataró and Lleida are localities with proportionally bigger shares of a Senegalese community. In terms of population, the Senegalese in Mataró represent the third foreign group, while they are the 5^th largest in Lleida. In contrast, the numbers of Senegalese in Barcelona and Girona are quite low with regards to how numerous they are in comparison to other foreign groups. Indeed, by number of residents, they are ranked in positions number 40 and 18, respectively, when compared to other immigrant groups. As mentioned, this variation, in terms of the proportion of migrant Senegalese within the total population, confirms the dynamics found in previous research

(Østergaard-Nielsen and Acebillo-Baqué, 2016, p. 377). The demographic data in residence refers to 2010, a year taken as a mid-point in the studied period.

Two aspects are worth mentioning if we look at the last three columns of the Table 8.

First, that the related villages in Kolda are very small and official data regarding the number of people residing in one has not been available for the other studied cases. It only has been possible to access the population counted at the rural community level (i.e. at the municipality level). In some cases, interviewees gave the number of households living in the village (as the measure they use for the size of the community). The second point is that the ethnic configuration of villages in the selected cases are different. In three of them the majority are Fulas and, in one of them, the majority is Soninke. Finally, the map also helps us in visualising that the two selected co-development processes in Girona are both linked to villages in the same commune or municipality which, at the time of the fieldwork, was a Rural Community (Commonauté Rurale or CR, that is, rural municipality). The project of the religious migrant association in Girona was focused on a village only, while Girona migrant association had a wider scope, and covered the commune (or municipality, which is configured by villages).

Before concluding the section, it is worth highlighting that the choice of migrant associations provides special insights regarding certain dynamics. Nevertheless, some of the research findings were obtained by observations undertaken beyond the specific chosen migrant associations. This is the case, for instance, in the analysis of the policy environments of the chosen Catalan localities in residence. Similarly, in origin contexts, I also note when there are processes that are attributed to the overall migrant associations’ collective (and not only to one in particular).

Table 3.7. Main demographic characteristics of localities linked to units of study in residence and origin

Source: Own elaboration. *Data from Idescat, data from 2010, excepting municipal GDP (from 2012). **Data from Local Development Plans and fieldwork, excepting ^ from UN data.

3.3 Methods throughout the research process