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This paper analyses differentiation processes between non-native groups in a stigmatized peripheral neighbourhood of Barcelona. Its more established dwellers – internal migrants from the South of Spain – have set in place differentiation processes between them and the more recently arrived international migrants. To substantivize differentiation processes, in a context where race has been largely silent, they appropriate the "civic terminology" that has become popular in the city in the last decade. In the global context of hyper-regulation and increasing privatization of urban public spaces, this group's discursive strategies, based on the civic/non-civic divide, aim to ensure control over accessible open public space, a resource that is locally scarce. Using the ethnographic example of the tensions around "proper behaviour" in the area's main square, the article explores processes of identification and differentiation in a context where autochthony cannot be unproblematically called upon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ethnographic research presented in this paper consists of two parts developed chronologically. The first part is based on a study (Corona, V., Nussbaum, L., & Unamuno, V. [2012]. The emergence of new linguistic repertoires among Barcelona's youth of Latin American origin.International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism,16(2), 182–194) conducted between the years 2005 and 2008 that shows how ‘lo Latino’ in Barcelona is closely linked to an identity that is tied to certain linguistic varieties, with a particular fashion outfit, and a set of school attitudes and styles specific to youth such as hip-hop. The second part is based on data collected more recently (2013) by recording the discussion, six years later, with three adolescents who participated in the previous stage of the study. The analysis allows us to observe how their attitudes towards ‘lo Latino’ have changed during this time after having lived different experiences outside the school. It is especially interesting to see how these young people construct their personal paths with a view towards what, in their opinion, means to be Latino in the context of Barcelona. In contrast to the previous study, ‘Latino’ becomes important not only in the youth and school context, but it is also related to other social issues, such as the labour market and job insecurity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper provides data from individual interviews conducted with 15 and 16 year-old non-immigrant students from a highly multiethnic secondary urban school in Barcelona, Spain. In this school, mixed classrooms (immigrant and local) and small linguistically heterogeneous working groups are frequent in the mathematics lessons. The focus is on the non-immigrant students’ perspectives on the notion of learning. Findings show that these students interpret certain whole-class and small-group interactions among local and immigrant students as not constitutive of learning. In particular, I explore some of the meanings associated with the representation of the multiethnic classroom as a conflictive place for learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After Ecuador's worst economic downturn in 1999, women left the country in the thousands. They migrated for economic reasons but also hoping to distance themselves from gendered duties and obligations that confined them to oppressive feminine roles. Less than a decade later they bought into Spain's housing bubble in an effort to 'make up' for their departure. I argue that Ecuadorian migrant women's decisions to buy mortgaged homes in Barcelona were in part informed by their conceptualizations of domesticity, care giving, and motherhood. For women portrayed as culpables or 'culprits' for leaving Ecuador and failing to upkeep their caregiving responsibilities in their country of origin, the promise of homeownership became a way of accomplishing complex forms of transnational caregiving as well as upward mobility. This article focuses on gendered conceptualizations of care, motherhood, and kinship amongst Ecuadorian migrant women and the relationship these notions have with housing financialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, a discourse of Spanish exceptionalism has arisen, whereby Spain has managed to integrate over five million immigrants in a very short period of time without the kind of social upheaval witnessed in other European countries over the past several decades. Overtly racist and xenophobic discourses have generally been, with notable exceptions, absent in the public domain. However, under the radar, visible minorities frequently suffer 'racial micro-aggressions', that is, racially-loaded verbal and other behaviours that are seemingly innocuous but are uptaken as offensive and insulting by the micro-aggressed. More specifically, these racial micro-aggressions are often raciolinguistic in nature, that is, they reflect the confluence of language and race in the unequal positioning of individuals in interactions. In this article, we focus on how young people from immigrant backgrounds tell 'school stories', embedded in normative Catalan/Spanish bilingualism in Catalonia, which are raciolinguistic in nature and relate to racial micro-aggressions experienced by tellers. We do this with a view to showing how all is not as well in Spain as many might think as regards the integration of immigrants, and that greater attention to racism is in order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of ethnic economies owned by migrant communities is changing the urban landscape of many cities around the world. In Barcelona, the Pakistani community has developed an ethnic economy based on small businesses in different trade sectors which are spreading all over the city, taking advantage of vacancies and exploring new markets. This article contributes to ascertaining the scope and internal functioning of businesses owned by Pakistani immigrants, taking the neighbourhood of Raval in Barcelona as a case study. The research concludes that the high concentration and rapid development of Pakistani enterprises in this area are explained by the interplay of contextual and ethnic strategies which are connected to a favourable structure of opportunities in the current context of economic crisis and the sharing of ethnic resources through the networks of the community. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This contribution elaborates on the role of local governments in the implementation of EU anti-discrimination policy by taking as an example the work of Barcelona's Office for Non-Discrimination (OND) and its practice in dealing with issues of race and ethnic origin. First, the OND is presented as a local counterpart of state equality bodies. Second, in order to make a more solid argument around the incorporation of cities into EU anti-racial discrimination policy, the OND's broad and intersectional approach to race discrimination as part of migrant human rights is discussed, as well as the way in which the OND performs legal assistance. Based on these findings and drawing on concepts of governance and subsidiarity, the last part of the article reflects more generally on the position and added value of cities in a multi-level system of implementation of the EU racial anti-discrimination policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent emergence of raï music among Moroccan immigrants living in Spain marks a new moment in the history of the form. However, it was not altogether unexpected. Since its inception in the cities of Algeria around thirty years ago as a result of increased rural to urban population flows, raï has been a musical form arising from the experience of migration. As such, it opened a space for the articulation of displaced, uprooted North African identities and is marked by traces of difficult and disjunctured encounters with new forms of modernity. Raï, as it is currently being constructed in Barcelona, offers a discourse for immigrant Moroccans living in Spain with which to construct specific transnational and transcultural identities in their new socio-cultural and economic surroundings. This new strand of raï moves beyond lyrics of love to underline the unmistakeably physical risks attendant on illicit migration across the Straits of Gibraltar. It is this overt emphasis on physical risk that specifically distingishes Spanish/Moroccan raï. In recent years, risk as a defining feature of late modernity has been the subject of considerable theoretical exploration. In the light of such theorizations, this essay examines the first raï CD released in Spain, Chab Samir (Afro-Blue Records, 1999), from the perspective of its music and lyrics, and personal interviews with the lead singer, Samir, and other members of his band. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the obvious effects of transnationalism is the geographical dispersal and fragmentation of families. Few scholars have looked at this aspect in depth, beyond a mere recognition of the existence of so-called transnational kinship groups. Fewer studies still have considered the implications of transnationalism for women, even though they represent a growing percentage of the migrant population world-wide. The aims of this article are threefold. First, to show the key role that women play in the maintenance of their families and transnational groups; attention is paid to their contribution to the interlocking spheres of productive work, kin work and caring work. Second, to draw attention to the differentiation of transnational practices among two different migrant groups. Third, to spell out some of the consequences that the transnationalisation of social life has for migrant women and their families. These considerations are based on an analysis of the everyday experiences of Moroccan and Filipino women residing in the Southern European city of Barcelona. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]