Structural associations of Senegalese in Spain

Abstract

The need to create an associative reference among Senegalese immigrants as a means of sociability and identification led them to initially organize themselves around objectives of welfare nature, essentially in case of illness or death and/or for purposes such as administrative regularization and search for jobs and housing. As time passed by, these initial objectives brought together the awareness on certain aspects of culture and cooperation and co-development with community associations in Senegal. The objectives of these Senegalese associations have proven over time its dynamic nature, and only the economic difficulties or the lack of funding have forced them to slow down or move away from more ambitious goals and objectives. Senegalese associations have also a supportive component closely linked to the teranga or hospitality, which is the existential principle of the networks of solidarity that Senegalese associations recreate based on links and relations of kinship, friendship and, above all, community identity, thus becoming a symbolic element of their culture. It is no wonder, therefore, that along with cooperation and co-development projects, these associations maintain strategies of solidarity and mutual support, even more so in this time of economic downturn.