Citizenship, identity and otherness: the orientalisation of immigrants in the contemporary Spanish legal regime

Abstract

Spain is one of the few countries in the EU where Islam has had a historical role in the social and cultural construction of its identity. However, its modern history is marked by acts of repudiation of non-Christian cultures. Opinion polls indicate that certain groups of immigrants from North Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe, but mainly Muslims, are considered to be incompatible with the popular conception of Spanish identity. The reason for this perception is related to the social construction of the immigrant as the ‘other to govern’ by political, academic and media discourses. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that immigration law also plays a fundamental role in this strategy of ‘orientalisation’, namely the attribution of certain qualities to immigrant groups (illegal, antisocial, criminal, inassimilable, terrorist), the aim of which is to legitimise the selective control of immigration. The Spanish immigration and citizenship regime contributes to the construction of otherness, and therefore to the political and legal (re)definition of what ‘being Spanish’ means.

Constructing ‘race/ethnicity’ and nationality in Spanish media: a content analysis of international football coverage

“…However, when looking at larger geographical regions, South Americans represent the largest group of foreigners (18%), and Africans are the second largest group (15%). These groups are often labelled as ‘immigrants’ and presented as either victims or as a threat in media and political discourses (Barbero, 2016; Toasijé, 2009). These discourses extend not only to individuals with a recent migration history, but also to individuals that are perceived as foreigners by the White majority.…”

Mobility and Post-Socialism: Cross-Border Shaming and Un-Belonging in a White Europe

“…Both forms of shaming, through exposure and through ignorance, work on the same principle of denying rights or access to a certain person or group while configuring a less visible order based on perceptions of belonging and un-belonging. In this way, access to citizenship is subjected to an evaluation process (the language and integration tests) but at the same time to long years of waiting and shaming, driven not only by the Immigration Law itself, which requires ten years of residence as a worker in the Spanish state, but also in the way in which the law is put into practice, contributing through selection and a continuous evaluation to a construction of "what being Spanish means" (Barbero 2016).…”

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“…The author also maintains that Muslims-presented, unfortunately, as a monolith-remain in a mindset where they relate to Spain as Muslim foreigners, not as Muslims of Spain. This is a generalization; to the extent to which it applies, it may have a lot more to do with how society defines and treats them than with how they see themselves (see, for example, Barbero 2016).…”

“…Despite the efforts of local and regional organizations such as the OAR, "social tensions surrounding Islam's presence in the region have persisted" (Astor 2015: 259). Barbero (2016) also provides useful insights about how the legal framework in Spain addresses immigration and Muslim immigrants in particular, and how regulation of citizenship contributes to "othering" the Muslim community. For him, Spain's approach is part of a larger strategy of "orientalization" of this group by government, politicians, and the media, which in turn legitimizes the "securitization of immigration, " and relies on the construction of an image of the "immigrant as criminal" and of the "Muslim immigrant as terrorist. "…”