DURATION: 8 MINUTES 40 SECONDS

JUNE 2001

0.03 Gaudi architecture in Barcelona - the Catalan capital of Spain. It's a city proud of its unique culture. But today there's a new threat to its identity.

0.20 At the immigration office hundreds queue outside to apply and renew their working visas.

0.28 Fears are mounting among them as Spain plans to expel more than thirty thousand illegal immigrants under the new Foreigners Law.

Here in Barcelona many could face deportation. Only two per cent of the region’s inhabitants come from outside. The vast majority of them, Muslims from North Africa and Pakistan. In the last two years the Islamic community has increased in Catalonia. For a region almost exclusively Catholic, it's potentially extremely divisive.

0.57 UPSOUND

1.01 Thousands of applications are being processed; not all of them will be accepted. Officials say the law makes a clearer distinction between legal and illegal immigrants.

1.09 Eduardo Planis, deals with Immigration in Catalonia. He believes there is more religious discrimination towards Muslim immigrants but nothing they cannot overcome with time. He says Catholics have strong feelings about their own faith as do the Muslims.

1.29 EDUARDO PLANIS, CHIEF OF IMMIGRATION IN CATALONIA, IN SPANISH WITH ENGLISH TRANSLATION:

"There is a phenomenon of fear focused in certain origins of immigration, we are taking about immigration from Arab countries were the cultural differences produce fear in some people because there are substantial differences in religion and customs, but in the way that we integrate, that fear will disappear, and the same as other countries on the western hemisphere we will get used to different races and religions.”

2.10 No one is sure how many Muslims there are in Spain.

2.39 Estimates range up to five hundred thousand in a population of forty million. But in Catalonia the number has swollen in the past years. For its inhabitants, Muslim immigration is a recent thing and there is reluctance to adjust.

2.27 UPSOT BELL

2.35 In Ciutat Vella it is common to see shop signs in different languages. Mohamed arrived from Pakistan to Barcelona nearly eight years ago.

2.48 UPSOUND: MUSIC

2.55 Life here is different. But he has managed to work hard to bring his family over. Now with them here he feels at home and he still firmly maintains his Muslim roots. His cafe is a small piece of Pakistan translocated to Spain - even down to the coffee.

3.14 MOHAMED, BAR OWNER, IN SPANISH WITH ENGLISH TRANSLATION:

"We cannot mess with our culture, it cannot change, there are people that change but for example myself I haven’t changed, I have never drunk alcohol or eaten pork."

3.35 Most immigrants live and work around their own ethnic communities. Working here is hard and making money takes all sorts of forms. Some would call these places enclaves others would say it's a ghetto. Those who oppose immigration accuse them of not integrating into Catalan society.

3.57 Recently, the wife of the premier of Catalonia, denounced Muslim incomers for wanting to impose their culture on the region.

Her views had been echoed by a senior figure in Catalan separatism. The former regional parliamentary president of the Catalan Republican Left

Eribert Barrera, thinks that the region’s identity would disappear under the weight of immigration and that immigrant workers should be progressively expelled from certain regions.

In his book he suggests that those who oppose Catalan separatism are more open to immigration, in order to dilute the region's culture.

4.43 ERIBERT BARRERA, POLITICIAN AND WRITER, IN SPANISH WITH ENGLISH TRANSLATION:

“For centuries they have tried to homogenise the language in the Peninsula. If the immigration continues this process will happen faster isolating the Catalan language and the Catalan identity. The immigrants are not responsible directly for this but it is an objective thing that with immigration the number of Catalan speakers is reducing and with only one third of Catalan speakers in Catalonia the future is very compromised."

5.24 Immigrants say Catalan nationalism is motivated by a deep sense of cultural superiority. Illegal immigrants are demanding the necessary papers to allow them to work. These men are among those who carried out a hunger strike in Barcelona’s churches. They feel that there's been no fair hearing for their applications. Even those lucky enough to have a work permit feel uncomfortable.

5.52 MOROCCAN IMMIGRANT, IN SPANISH WITH ENGLISH TRANSLATION:

"I think there is racism here, I do not feel very comfortable and I know they treat me worse than an immigrant in the sense that it looks like I don't have any rights. I feel lonely because if I have a conversation in my job for example, my boss will treat me different than anyone else."

6:33 This is one of a few mosques in Barcelona, an important place of worship for many immigrants. Muslims from the middle East and north Africa come together and pray here several times a day. No fabulous domes here for their mosques, they are small rooms in rented houses that fulfil their basic religious needs.

UPSOT

6.59 As a religious minority this is an important place of worship for the different Muslim communities that meet here. It's a vital place for them to make sure THEIR cultural identity isn't being lost... and Muslim leaders fear for their places of worship. The leader of Catalonia's Muslim community is Iqbal. He's lived in the region for more than fifteen years. He says it's difficult to even get a humble house like this for Muslim Prayer. Even these mosques come at a cultural price.

7.37 IQBAL, MUSLIM LEADER, IN SPANISH WITH ENGLISH TRANSLATION:

"Politicians are using Muslim people as they sacrifice lambs to gain votes from all those who are not Muslim. This is not right because religion is for humanity and if I don't respect myself I can't call myself a Muslim. We Muslims here respect Hebrews, Catholics, any religion that exists."

8.13 This clash of two cultures mirrors the centuries old conflict when the Moors brought Islam to Spain. These children will no doubt hear of the legend of El-Cid and how he expelled the Moors from the Spanish peninsular. Maybe they'll be given a different line on the story... but their problem will be how to integrate into a Catalan society which is itself fiercely nationalistic without losing their own cultural identity.

8.40 ENDS