Intercultural mediation in Spain was born in the mid-1990s and is linked to the migration phenomenon. Spain has extensive experience as having worked for centuries with gypsies, gitanos. At the national level, there is still no specific legislation for intercultural mediation, no national laws. In some regions there are laws concerning family mediation, but not for intercultural mediators. As in Italy, each Region and each town independently regulates the trainings for the intercultural mediators, the admission requirements and the timetables.
There are two ways to access training for the profession: institutional and non-formal. The main school for mediators(institutional), Emsi, organizes courses lasting 4-5 months based on a very participatory, inductive and socio-affective methodology. The UAM instead (Autonomous University of Madrid), offered courses lasting 200 hours, of which 140 in the class room and 60 in a practical environment.
