Mayor in the spotlight N. 3 - Ricardo Corredor, Municipality of Tardelcuende (Soria), Spain

Welcoming migrants as one of the keys to the revitalisation of Rural Spain

Mayors in the Spotlight: a Share Network series featuring short interviews with Mayors making tangible contributions to receiving refugees or supporting newcomers in European smaller and rural communities.

Ricardo Corredor has been mayor of Tardelcuende, a rural municipality of 432 inhabitants in the province of Soria, Spain, for 14 years. To revive the local economy, the mayor of Tardelcuende has  attracted labour migrants to the village, countering the trend of demographic decline and an ageing population. With the arrival of migrants from Latin America, Eastern Europe and North Africa, the population has grown, and the village has begun to thrive again. The example of Tardelcuende is an inspiring illustration of how migration strategies can contribute to the demographic and socio-economic revitalization of small rural communities.

In an interview with the SHARE Network, Tardelcuende’s mayor shared with us his experience and views on key considerations and challenges of migrant integration in small and rural towns.

Originally from Tardelcuende, Corredor spent several years outside the municipality before returning, forty years later, ‘to his roots’, as he describes. He then entered local politics, won the municipal elections and has been re-elected four times since then.

Ricardo's greatest pride is that "Tardelcuende is now a rejuvenated village, with children running around the streets, and not an ageing population, condemned to be a large retirement home". This year, three newborns have been added to the population, two of them from families of migrant origin, a figure that has not been seen in the municipality for many years.

Ricardo is passionate about Tardelcuende. He explains it is a rural village, comfortable to live in. Just 24 km from the town of Soria, it has all the basic services one needs; from a school to a nursing home, a pharmacy, a doctor's surgery, bars, a bakery, butchers, a state-of-the-art sports centre and it even has its own football team. Further, its proximity to nature and its unique landscape attract rural tourism. "You cannot get bored” he shares; “you just need to come and see it for yourself".

 “In the last decades we have experienced a real bloodletting: the village has lost many of its inhabitants, especially young people who have left in search of better opportunities”.

Things have not always been easy in Tardelcuende. The village suffered an economic decline in the early 2000s. Tardelcuende is known for its historical production of natural resin, extracted from pine trees, which in the 1960s was the main sector and source of wealth for the municipality. During that time, the village had more than 96 professional resin producers. Since then, a series of crises - the resin crisis in 2000 and the global crisis in 2010 - has led to the disappearance of the sector and the decline of the village. "In the last decades we have experienced a real bloodletting: the village has lost many of its inhabitants, especially young people who have left in search of better opportunities”. In 2009, a critical moment was reached, when the local primary school was about to close due to a lack of pupils.

This led the inhabitants to look for solutions to ensure the survival of the village and to cope with demographic decline. "Something had to be done", says the mayor. Ricardo, who as a child had accompanied his father to extract resin, was convinced that the key to recovery was to return to its origins and revive this sector. Moreover, resin was a product that at that time Europe consumed more than it produced. Thanks to information campaigns, they managed to attract migrants willing to work in the resin sector for a living wage. "People became convinced that this was what we needed", says Ricardo. Since then, through word of mouth the number of arrivals in the village has continued to grow.

 « Resin has been the driving force behind the village's recovery, but we could not have achieved this without migrant labour »

Currently, 41 people work in the forests of Tardelcuende, 9 months a year, clearing them to prevent the risk of fire, but above all extracting resin. Its annual production reaches 500,000 kg. "Resin has been the driving force behind the village's recovery," explains the mayor, "but we could not have achieved this without migrant labour. We have had Argentinians, Ecuadorians, Senegalese, Algerians, Turks, Moroccans, Bulgarians and Romanians living side by side". The town council together with former resin workers, developed training courses for the new workers. The Spanish government also contributed to the organisation of annual training courses. Today, the new ‘resineros’ have taken over and train the newcomers. "I really enjoy seeing the solidarity; how they help and interact with one another," explains Ricardo. Moreover, the local school thrives and now counts 22 pupils. "We have managed to stop the villagers from leaving the village because we have been able to provide work for the young people in the forests" explains Ricardo.

The new migrant families attend Spanish language classes every Thursday organised by the municipality in collaboration with an association. However, as the mayor explains, much remains to be done and "civil society organisations have a very important role to play in helping to improve coexistence". Corredor adds that "communication is essential; it is about explaining to the local population that people of immigrant origin are not a threat, but on the contrary: they help us to subsist, to survive".

Funding is an ongoing concern. The pace of arrivals makes it necessary to buy land and renovate more houses. As the mayor says, "we want to welcome the next migrants well, and want to be able to give them decent housing as well as a decent salary so that they are on an equal footing as the local population”. Finally, Ricardo insists on the need for infrastructure to strengthen mobility, including a better rail connection with other destinations besides Madrid, a motorway exit and better access to the public hospital network.

 « It is not only a moral obligation to support them. Migrants also represent a capable workforce and an opportunity to rejuvenate our societies. »

Ricardo stresses that Tardelcuende's experience does not have to be unique and that all villages have a singularity that can be turned into an advantage, as they did with the resin production. As for the migrant workers, he explains that “they are not looking for charity. Instead, they contribute a lot to the life of the village, paying rent for the houses and land in Pinares, and maintaining the public services. They are now an integral part of Tardelcuende".

The mayor concludes with a final thought: "In Europe, we need migrant workers, including refugees. Alongside the moral obligation to support them, they represent a capable workforce and an opportunity to rejuvenate our societies; otherwise, we are doomed to disappear. Moreover, rural labour is indispensable; as else who will supply the big cities?"