Barcelona’s public schools are seeing sharper segregation as more children from high-income expat families enrol, according to a new study on school gentrification.
The research, titled An approach to school gentrification in Barcelona: mechanisms and implications for public policy, was written by Marcel Pagès of the University of Barcelona, Andreu Termes of Institut Metròpoli, and Xavier Bonal of the Autonomous University of Barcelona. It says urban change, driven by tourism and transnational migration, is shaping family choices and school competition in the city.
Termes said the result is a split between “winning” schools, which attract expat families, and “losing” schools, where stigma and segregation worsen. He added that families with lower cultural and economic capital often make fewer demands, while expat families, even when their children perform well academically, place pressure on schools to innovate, use more English, and adopt more child-centred teaching.
One area affected is family associations, or AFAs, which Termes said become “strongly unbalanced in favour of gentrifying profiles”. He said this class bias also appears in other associative, cultural and political spaces, and can mean that the views of a minority of families end up shaping the school’s direction.
The article is part of the GENTRED project, coordinated by the UAB, and appears in the monographic issue Education and territorial justice: the role of municipalities in reducing inequalities in the journal Papers, published by Institut Metròpoli. The fieldwork covered six unnamed public schools in gentrified Barcelona neighbourhoods, including Poblenou, Poble Sec and Ciutat Vella, with Poblenou cited as a key example.
The researchers also call for integrated public policies that connect urban planning and education. They argue that educational equity should guide housing and city policy, so that changes in the housing market do not push out students with fewer resources. For readers following wider coverage of local public policy, see our news page.