Self-Identification in a Spanish barrio and a French banlieue: The Case of North African Second Generations

Abstract

This comparative and qualitative research examines the types of ethnic, racial, religious, and social identification that North-African second generations adopted in a banlieue of Paris and a peripheral barrio of Madrid. Four types of self-identification were detected in the neighborhood of Les Bosquets (Paris) and three in the neighborhood of San Cristobal (Madrid). In Les Bosquets, isolation, Islamophobia and the relationships with the police give rise to a "reactive ethnicity"; a new conservative Islam gains many followers ("Muslim self-identification"); race appears for the first time as an element of self-identification ("indigenous self-identification”) and secularism has waned (“laïc self-identification”). In San Cristóbal, a significant share still feels like immigrants (“immigrant identification”); a new Spanish-Muslim generation (“hybrid self-identification”) is born, and the most vulnerable youth adopt a conservative Islam while simultaneously developing a sense of “neighborhood pride” and identification with the working class (“neighborhood identification”).

Controlling civic engagement of youth spanish muslims

“…Accessing the Muslim community, especially leaders, is not easy. Prior ethnographical research by the project's PI, (anonymized name) with young Muslims in deprived areas in Madrid (Eseverri-Mayer, 2015;2019;2021a) and the engagement of (anonymized name) in the Muslim community facilitated connections to major leaders and activists. Additionally, the possibility of speaking Arabic was key to getting the opinions of elder leaders.…”

“…Islam was recognized in 1989 as one of the essences of Spanish cultural heritage. A positive step in a period when diversity was not yet an issue of public concern (Astor, 2014;Eseverri-Mayer, 2021, 2021a.…”