Miguel Pajares

Miguel Pajares, born in Palencia in 1950, holds a degree in Biological Sciences and a PhD in Social Anthropology. He is also a researcher with the Research Group on Exclusion and Social Control, part of the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Barcelona, where he also contributes to European studies for the European Social Research Unit. He is currently Chair of the Catalan Refugee Aid Commission. He has helped to found other associations and was one of the leading figures at SOS Racisme between 1991 and 1996. From 1996 to 2000, he headed the trade union structure of the CITE (Information Centres for Foreign Workers). He also served as an external adviser to the European Economic and Social Committee from 2000 to 2012.

He is the author of several essay collections, as well as numerous articles published in academic journals and the media. His essays focus on subjects such as immigration, asylum, human rights and the fight against racism. Between 2007 and 2010, he authored the Annual Report on Immigration and the Labour Market, published by the Permanent Observatory on Immigration. As an external expert to the European Economic and Social Committee, he contributed to the drafting of several opinions on immigration and asylum.

With Rayo Verde he has published Refugiados climáticos (Climate Refugees) (2020) and Bla-bla-bla. El mito del capitalismo ecológico (Blah-Blah-Blah: The Myth of Green Capitalism) (2023). He is also the author of the novels Cautivas (Captives) (2013), La luz del estallido (The Light of the Blast) (2015), Aguas de venganza (Waters of Vengeance) (2016) and Crímenes de hambre (Crimes of Hunger) (2018).