The interviews are conducted in Spanish and these are the summaries of the interviews.
(Second generation)
Interviewee No.1 and No.2
This interview is conducted with two interviewees at the same time.
Interviewee 1 is born in Spain and has Spanish nationality. She doesn’t feel the need to adapt in Spain because, “I never feel the need to get used to something because I was born here and I have lived here practically my whole life, I was raised as anyone else.” There are problems that she face in alimentation, but her parents always inform the school cafeteria of things that she cannot eat and they will give her food that she an eat. Her friends actually try to adapt to her diet and try to make it comfortable for her instead.
She has no problem making friends at school and she believes that she doesn’t need to think about adapting because it is the environment that she grew up in. She faces some culture shocks when she visits Morocco. “Morocco is the place when you go for vacations. You go there for a week or fifteen days and come back to your home, which is Spain. And it’s true that there are some shock, some cultural shock.” She also mentioned that she goes back to Morocco less often than she used to when she was younger, but her parents still go back to Morocco regularly.
She has faced some comments from others because of her hijab. She didn’t have this kind of problem at school, but it is common on the streets. There will be people commenting the hot weather besides her when she is wearing the hijab. She also has experienced personally a comment from a woman that wanted her to take off her hijab because that woman believed that she is pretty and should not wear the hijab.
She believed that the problem is with elder generation, the younger generation are raised in a multicultural environment and they do not have problem to accept people from different ethnic, racial or religious background. She believed that immigration in Spain is something new and the elder generation are not used to the idea of a Spanish person that is a Muslim at the same time. “I think older people that are still not assimilated with the idea that one can be Muslim and Spanish at once have the biggest problem with us. It’s like…No! You, where are you from? Don’t tell me that you are Spanish!”
She thinks that the terrorist attacks really affected the Muslim community and its image in the society and in the world. She has had experience with people that were scared of her when she was in the train to Madrid just because she wears the hijab. She believed that people generalize and put everyone in the same category without getting to know that there are varieties within the same group.
Interviewee 2 is born in Spain and has Spanish nationality. She is similar to the first interviewee, she doesn’t feel the need to adapt because she was born and raised in Spain. She commented that she actually have to “adapt” when she goes back to Morocco because the culture is different there. “Well, it’s a bit different because the
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Arab culture is a bit…Girl should be well-mannered, there are more things that you can’t do…there is a bit of shock (cultural shock). Or with your cousins or your family, that you see, are very different to you, therefore this is what I tell you; for me, I have to adapt when I go there (Morocco) and not when I am here (Spain).”
She also has experience with people commenting her hijab to her in person and she thinks that these comments comes from people who in reality has not interacted with second generations that are already Spanish and Muslim at the same time. They are shocked when they know that she is Spanish and they will interrogate her to find out where her origin is from and why she is a Muslim.
She believed that she will have problems soon in the labor market because she just graduated from university. She commented that, “…in the resume the photo is taken with hijab, they will not call you in for the interview…” She even mentioned that it is very common for people in Spain to tell you in person that they won’t hire you because you wear hijab.
These two interviewees are currently working at a Muslim organization that is consisted of Muslim girls mainly from second generation, they will organize meet-ups, trips for young Muslims to meet and get to know each other. There are variety of girls from different countries. They both speak Moroccan and they learned Arabic when they were young and they stopped at one point and now they decided to go back to take Arabic classes. They speak Spanish and Arabic at home with their parents but they usually don’t speak Arabic that often.
Interviewee No.3
The interviewee is 21 years old and has Moroccan nationality, she has lived in Spain for 19 years and her parents came to find a job, her father came first and then the rest of her family came through family reunification law. She is used to living in Spain because she has always lived here. She actually have more cultural problems with her country than with Spain because she is used to the life in Spain. She doesn’t feel observed in Spain and she doesn’t have many problems in the society. Her friends actually adjust according to her diet when they dine out. The difficulty that she has is with the bureaucracy of Spain, for example in terms of gaining Spanish nationality.
She believes that she will have more difficulties when she is searching for a job in the future, but if there are more of Muslims in the society that are looking for a job, well trained and have the profile just like her, it will help to break the barriers slowly. She also commented that she might go abroad after graduating from university.
She observed more hostile reactions at public transportations after terrorist attacks, but it is not that serious. She hope the government can homogenize laws that are out there and make them more effective. There are laws, such as 1992 Agreement, but it was not implemented well and it was not effective.
62 Interviewee No. 4
The interviewee is 24 years old and has Moroccan nationality, she has been in Spain for 17 years. Her mother came to Spain for economic reasons, like the majority.
She is used to living in Spain and she identified herself as mixed cultures, she doesn’t feel solely belonging to one place. However, if she has to choose only one culture, she would lean towards Spanish. The relation she has with Moroccan culture is only limited to the culture that is provided by her parents and the summer vacations in Morocco, whereas the Spanish culture is present in her everyday life.
She believes that there are still stereotypes, especially towards Muslim women because of the hijab she wears. However, when they get to know her personally, the stereotypes will break down, it is just the unfamiliarity that people have towards Islam.
She mentioned that Spanish people is just like anyone else, when there is something that is unfamiliar, we would always establish stereotypes based on their physical appearances, things that they wear or what we have heard about them, but when we get to know them in person, these stereotypes will be broken down.
She did not have any difficulties wearing the hijab in school, but when she is looking for jobs in the labor market, she has faced many obstacles. She has been asked to remove her hijab in job interviews, she understood the unfamiliarity and lack of knowledge towards Islam in the society; therefore, she stared writing her resume without putting a photograph and some people called her in for interviews. Now she is working at a company with her hijab. Many people asked her, “Do you speak
Spanish?” and they were surprised to find a Muslim woman that speaks Spanish and other languages fluently.
The latest terrorist attacks have affected the treatment and visions of the Muslim community, there are people that told her in person, “Go back to your country!” and also says things like, “Muslims are all terrorists!” She feel
discriminated in society due to the attacks. She believes that the government can do more to help immigrants to integrate better in the society. They can deal with discrimination through medium of communication.
Interviewee No.5
The interviewee is 23 years old and has lived in Spain for 16 years. She has Moroccan nationality and is waiting for her Spanish nationality. She came to Spain through family reunification law, her father came to Spain first, found a job and did not want to go back to Morocco. She came to Spain when she is 6 years old and she is used to the life here because she is practically raised in Spain. She identified herself more as Spanish because she has more knowledge of Spain than her country of origin.
She identify herself with both cultures because at the end of the day, her family is Moroccan, the culture is present everywhere; but she is closer to Spanish culture because she lives in it from day to day.
She faces stereotypes in the society, people categorize her because she is a woman and Muslim and wears a physical identification, which is the hijab. “The society not only know the religion from ignorance, but also believe that it’s a sexist
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response towards Muslim women. This is called gender Islamophobia.” She doesn’t feel the need to explain to people her choice of clothing, it is something personal, and it is her own form of expression.
She thinks Spanish people are friendly and it is very fast for them to become friends with them. They are open-minded people but it is difficult for them to say what they think because they do not want to offend others, especially with the issue of religion because Spain has a short history of immigration and people have limited knowledge of Islam.
There are many difficulties that she face in the society, from alimentation to the job market. She has to call food factories constantly to know if she can eat
something because they put codes of alimentation without specifying what is included in the food. In terms of the labor market, there are less opportunities for Muslim women, especially if they wear hijab and if the job is working to face the public. The companies perceive hijab as negative and sexist. She tried to educate people and demonstrate to them that these stereotypes are not real. She is currently studying in university and working in a center for adolescences. She will continue to find a job later on and hopes to work in Spain.
She believes the terrorist attacks damages the image of Muslims, because the media uses terms like jihadist, Islamist, they identify terrorism with perception or practices of a religion which herself identify with. “The media communication is the means of information of people, using terms like these and people will associate with them. The society just starting to understand that this is the reality. And before this there were unfamiliarity, they are ignorant, they don’t find true sources of knowledge and they are only limited to reproduce what they see on the TV. The society respond negatively, vexatious attacks, attack the mosques, attack you people, insults, dirty looks…many things.” She can feel the differences of treatment from the Spanish society after terrorist attacks.
She believes that the Spanish government is an indirect copy of French
integration model and it has been disastrous, it created ghettos instead and nothing has been achieved in the end. There are agreements, such as 1992 Agreement that is established, but they are not implemented in anything. Recently the campaign of yielding a cemetery land for Muslims has just began. In the month of Ramadan, the government is investing money for activities related to Ramadan, but the money is invested badly. As stated by the interviewee, “Because the people that are going to work with this money, they have nothing to do with Moroccan population, nor with Muslim population. They are taking the money to an institution called Casa Arabe (Arab House), and it was not built by Arabs, but by Spanish…. If you really want to invest the money, invest it well. Don’t give it to Pepe, nor Juan, because they don’t even have the idea of what they are doing, nor what they have to do with this, nor the necessities of the population.”
64 Interviewee No.6
The interviewee is 21 years old and has lived in Spain for around 18 to 19 years.
She was born in Morocco and now she has Spanish nationality. She is used to the life and culture in Spain, she doesn’t notice a lot of differences between the two countries.
She didn’t wear hijab, so she didn’t experience any discrimination or stereotypes from the society. But she did mention that she has friends that wear hijab and are treated differently. She explains to her friends the reasons of her diets and they respect her decisions, so she didn’t really have any difficulties in making friends and eating outside. She believed that terrorist attacks do affect the treatment Muslims receive in society. She didn’t experience this kind of treatment personally, but she is aware that there are cases of vandalism of mosques in the mosque that she goes to. She has a classmate that is being treated differently in class because she appear more
“Moroccan” while she does not look like Moroccan.
She believes it is hard to find a job now because of the economic crisis in Spain, so she might have to keep on studying. She hopes that the government can help the immigrants in terms of the workplace. “No one would give you a job. In other words, in a job that is working towards the public, they usually wouldn’t give you a job. You hand in your resume and no one will give you a job wearing a hijab.” In order to deal with this discrimination, the society should also try to understand the meaning of the hijab to change their perception and judgement towards Muslims. She believes that wearing a hijab in the society and with the support and positive image that is received by the society, it would actually help the immigrants integrate better in society.
She identified herself as Moroccan because she believes that it is her culture, the culture of her parents and she speaks Arabic at home.
Interviewee No. 7
The interviewee is 18 years old and was born in Madrid and has a Spanish nationality. Her father came to work in Spain first, then married her mother in Morocco and then they came back to Spain to work. She is used to live in Spain because she has been educated and disciplined in the Spanish education system.
However, she has always been aware of what her culture is and where she comes from.
She always like to learn about her own culture and religion and also like to teach a little to others and let other people learn more about the differences of culture and religion. She identified herself as Moroccan and Muslim because she is aware of who she is, she doesn’t feel different from other Spanish people because she believes that she has the same rights and lives in the same country as them. She believes the only difference is the origin of where they came from.
She hasn’t feel discriminated in the society, neither ethnically or racial, she has always been respectful and does not have any conflict with others. She believes that Spanish people are very open-minded, some are curious and ask questions in relation with the religion. However, there are people who are ignorant or afraid of finding out new things and the media doesn’t help Muslims.
She has faced some difficulties when it comes to eating outside, for example when they have field trips in school, what she does is inform the school and they will make special food for her. But honestly she believes that she did not have any
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difficulties because she manages to overcome these difficulties. There are some stereotypes that Muslims face in the society. “There are stereotypes. I, being Muslim at a European country, where the majority is atheist or secular. There are certain stereotypes that they say about women with veil, with hijab, that they are oppressed.
They don’t have capacity to obtain degrees. They don’t have, let’s say, sufficient intelligence. But I don’t think it’s like this, because the religion give a series of rights to women.”
She believes that finding a job in Spain might be difficult because there are not many generations of Muslims or Moroccans, like in other countries. But she consider these difficulties as challenges instead, and the younger generation of Muslims that are in universities now can be seen as pioneers in Spain and change the situation and creating the new image of Moroccan Muslims in Spain.
She recognize the difficulties of Muslims that wear hijab in the job market, but she has a counter-example. A girl she knows did not mind taking out her hijab when asked in the interview and was denied to offer her the job because the company said,
“If you turn your back on your God, who says that you wouldn’t turn your back on me in my company.”
She believed that the terrorist attacks have affected the vision of what Islam is, so she believes that as Muslims we have the role to defend the image of Islam and when terrorist attacks, there will people that organize silent protests on the streets to show condolences of the attacks and to show that these attacks do not represent Islam.
She thinks the topic of government actions is a bit broad, so she decided to focus more on a local level, because Spain as a country has a majority of atheists and Christians and will be favor of Christians. She mentioned that there are universities that will offer Muslims a room to pray. She believes that the freedom of religion should be applied in all levels because it is common human rights, both at daily level
She thinks the topic of government actions is a bit broad, so she decided to focus more on a local level, because Spain as a country has a majority of atheists and Christians and will be favor of Christians. She mentioned that there are universities that will offer Muslims a room to pray. She believes that the freedom of religion should be applied in all levels because it is common human rights, both at daily level