Josefina Domínguez admits that it is a source of “conflicts” and highlights the link between tourist apartments and evictions in some neighborhoods
SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 23 Jan. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The professor of Human Geography at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Ulpgc), Josefina Domínguez, has warned this Monday that “it is easier to make the moratorium than to regulate the holiday home” given the heterogeneous profile of the owners since it is jurisdiction of the town councils via ordinance.
“Ordination is very complex”, he indicated in a speech in Parliament before the commission to study the demographic challenge in which he stressed, however, that the impact of this type of tourism must be studied in depth in the Canary Islands because the model It is not the same as that of the Balearic Islands and therefore it cannot be simplified in limiting the purchase for non-residents.
In fact, he has indicated that according to a survey carried out by the University, 20% of residents in the Canary Islands have a second home.
Domínguez has warned of the relationship between the rise of holiday homes and evictions, giving the Guanarteme neighborhood, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, as an example, while at the same time he has influenced the increase in home purchases in El Hierro –“the island is in fashion”– or the rise of this modality in Los Llanos de Aridane or Santa Cruz de La Palma.
He has admitted that vacation home “generates conflicts” and has insisted that “it is not so easy” to regulate it because the property is very complex, even in the hands of large investment funds.
“They escape our control and make territorial planning more difficult, it is no longer just a moratorium, it seeps invisibly into the territory, it is a new stage of digital capitalism,” he added.
Domínguez has pointed out that the archipelago “is not a box where a certain number of people fit, it depends on consumption and production patterns”, and for this reason, he is against taking demographic measures in a unidirectional way but always in relation to the territory .
He has pointed out that “the most precious asset” of a territory is the population, “like human resources in any company” for which he has asked to move away from the “apocalyptic visions” that the media show about immigration and population growth .
Along these lines, he has indicated that aging and immigration “are a challenge” but also an “expression of social modernity” and that it reflects the “health” of society.
SOCIAL CHANGES MODIFY REPRODUCTION
He has pointed out that the Canary Islands are experiencing negative vegetative growth, among other things due to the change in the “role” of children in society, since until the 1950s they were incorporated as “productive” agents, especially in agriculture, and now “they are dependent” and demand greater investment in their future.
Likewise, she has said that women have gone from being “governed by a man” and reduced to “agricultural proletariat” to becoming businesswomen and “leading economic transformations.” “She changes her attitude towards reproduction,” she has highlighted.
He has also pointed out that families are less numerous but more housing is needed due to divorces and that the elderly collaborate in raising grandchildren while in the field of employment he has called for a “qualitative and not only quantitative” vision, given that the Immigrants occupy jobs in construction, agriculture, dependency, domestic service or the least qualified in tourism.
He has lamented the “inability” of the Canary Islands to generate a more productive economy due to competition between territories and their remoteness and fragmentation, which has led to a “sustained increase” in the service sector, with more than 80% of workers.
Domínguez has underlined the high demographic growth of the Canary Islands during the change of silo, in the heat of the development of construction and tourism, the “aggressive impact” that the ‘brick crisis’ had and then a recovery now cut short by the pandemic.
He has highlighted that the island capitals lost population during the pandemic in favor of remote and rural municipalities, although this phenomenon “is deflating”, and although there is a trend towards aging on the islands, everything will depend on how the young population and immigration behave. .
He has admitted the “densification” of the coastal areas –although it came from before due to export crops–, the growth of the peripheries –he has given the example of Candelaria– and the aging of towns and large cities, where, in addition, housing regeneration policies are needed. “Real estates age badly”, he has indicated.
AVOID THE “GUETIZATION” OF MIGRANTS
He has appealed to avoid the “ghettoization” of immigrants, as occurs in some cities with low-quality housing rentals for Latin Americans and Africans and against the opposite case of “urbanizations of British and Germans who exclude themselves.”
Regarding the limitation of work permits, he commented that it is “difficult” from a legal point of view because “doors cannot be closed to Italians who want to create a pizzeria”, while he has defended the contribution to towns on the islands of many businesses of foreign entrepreneurs.
“Immigration generates entrepreneurship and makes the local economy more sustainable”, he commented, stressing that “it can no longer be said” in a simple way that the green islands “are aged and poor” off the south of Tenerife and Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura.
The professor has not hidden the “geostrategic pressure” of Morocco on the Canary Islands, which makes it “obvious” that the archipelago continues to receive African immigrants and unaccompanied minors, although they conceive of the islands as a “place of arrival” and a “springboard” to pass to the Peninsula. “Latin American emigration is more important,” she stressed.
