ABSTRACT
An understanding of Barcelona's associative background is necessary to understand the place where most 'foreign immigrants' coming originally from impoverished countries landed. A classification of 'foreign immigrants' associations in Barcelona according to large regions of origin – but separating the Japanese association from the other Asians and the North American and Western European – seems appropriate. In autumn 1996 a platform of organisations was created in Barcelona as a response to massive expulsions of foreign immigrants in late June. To understand the creation of some instances of the social organisations some historical antecedents and recent developments have to be taken into account, including some basic features of the 'capitalist class' social organisations in Catalonia. One of the characteristic features of the increasing world capitalist integration is the increasing transnationalisation of companies, both at the production level and in the opening of new markets for their products.
