Alt Urgell Migration Plan Reveals School Racism and Youth Mental Health Crisis

A new migration plan for the Alt Urgell region highlights growing challenges in local schools and institutes, including repeated racist incidents and inadequate support for an increasingly diverse student body, while specialists warn of deteriorating youth mental health.

The Comarcal Plan for Citizenship and Migration 2026–2028, commissioned by the Alt Urgell County Council from consultancy La Perifèrica for €11,579, will be presented publicly this afternoon at the Centre Cívic in La Seu d'Urgell. The report details a sharp rise in foreign-born residents, who now make up 15.51% of the comarca's population—3,277 people—according to Idescat data. In La Seu d'Urgell, they account for 17.58%. Among young people, diversity is even more pronounced: 20.16% were born abroad in 2021, with students arriving from countries including Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Morocco, and Pakistan.

Schools and institutes lack sufficient resources to address this cultural, linguistic, socio-emotional, and mental health diversity, the plan states. Teachers are trained for academic content but not for managing the emotional and social complexities in classrooms. In one institute, welcome-class students reported ongoing racism, such as taunts like "go back to your country," "black," or "bad." These include persistent insults, playground exclusion, and rejection during sports, eroding daily coexistence. Many incidents go unaddressed, with victims sometimes normalizing them. The report criticizes the absence of clear protocols for preventing, detecting, or intervening in racism and bullying, along with too few support roles like social educators.

This situation worsens mental health among youth, linked to migration grief, family pressures, identity struggles, and everyday racism. Many feel out of place, forming isolated groups with a persistent sense of non-belonging. The problem intensifies for 16- to 18-year-olds facing administrative barriers, such as missing NIE documents or unvalidated qualifications, leading to educational and social isolation, frustration, and lack of life prospects.

The plan also flags Andorra's restrictive immigration rules, which force families—often expelled from the principality—to relocate to Alt Urgell without stability or support networks. Children of these families may internalize the upheaval as personal failure, creating complex grief that violates the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Intermittent administrative irregularity and job dependence on Andorra breed vital insecurity, leaving families without resources.

The document calls for better data on migration trajectories and Andorra ties to guide integration policies and services.