Daughters of Maghrebian Muslim and native non-Muslim couples in Spain: Identity choices and constraints

Abstract

This article explores the life experiences of the daughters of mixed couples living in Spain. These adolescents and young adults have one Muslim parent of Maghrebi origin and another non-Muslim native Spanish parent. Drawing on in-depth interviews, we examine the identity processes of this female population and the interplay between factors of origin, location, and gender. We find that prejudices around Maghrebi Muslims in Spain have a constraining impact on the identity choices of females in particular. Social perceptions of Islam immediately place these teenagers and young women in a position of being the absolute Other, giving rise to differential treatment and limiting their identity choices and sense of belonging. However, these respondents also demonstrate resilience, empowerment, and agency in confronting socially imposed categories, such as forming counter-narratives and self-categorising in multiple ways – in turn illuminating the socially transformative aspects of ethnic and religious mixedness.

Introduction

One of the consequences of the intense immigration of the last two decades in Spain has been the significant increase in the unions between immigrants and natives, as well as their descendants, particularly in the region of Catalonia (Rodríguez-García et al., 2021a). And a growing part of this reality is made up of inter-religious families where the immigrant member is of Maghrebi origin (Moroccan in most cases) and socialised into Islam. Unlike other European countries, such as Great Britain (Arweck and Nesbitt, 2010a, 2010b, 2010c, 2011; Froese, 2008), in Spain there are hardly any studies on the social and cultural experiences lived by these emerging generations. In particular, we know very little about how their everyday life experiences and identity processes. Surprisingly, despite the historical, political, geographical and social ties that exist with our Maghrebian neighbours, the daily lives of these new generations have not yet been explored much. This can be partially explained by the fact that Maghrebian populations in Spain have historically been constructed as the ultimate foreigners: a stigma that persists despite processes of mixedness.

With this article, we want to contribute to fill this gap. Drawing on the analysis of in-depth interviews with Spanish daughters of mixed couples formed by a Maghrebian Muslim partner and a native, generally non-Muslim, partner, we will explore aspects related to identity and the sense of belonging, their experiences of stigmatisation and discrimination, and their strategies to cope with these social constraints. Some of the questions that have guided our analysis are as follows: How do these individuals identify themselves, and how do people identify them? Is there a discrepancy between ascribed/imposed religious-ethnic identity and self-identifications? And if so, on what bases? How are these processes influenced by the variables of gender or geographical location?

This article focuses on how offspring of mixed Muslim-non-Muslim couples in Spain (1) manage identity conflict (the difference between their self-identifications and their ascribed identities), (2) react/deal with the experiences of daily discrimination, and (3) how gender affects these processes.

The information we present here draws on, on the one hand, a research project ¹ that analysed the identity processes, discrimination experiences, and sociocultural capital of descendants of mixed couples in Spain; on the other hand, it draws on a recently finished doctoral thesis, conducted within the frame of the above mentioned project, which focuses on the daughters of mixed unions with an immigrant father and mother of Maghrebi origin living in two Spanish cities: Barcelona, in the North, and Granada, in the South.

Theoretical framework: mixedness, multiple identities, and discrimination

Multiple identities: possibilities and constraints

Mixedness, as an encompassing concept that refers to both mixed couples (across national, ethno-racial, or religious boundaries) and their descendants, has been thought of as a space where sociocultural differences (of origin, ethnicity, class or gender, among others) intersect and are transformed (Anthias, 2007; Bystydzienski, 2011; Rodríguez-García, 2006, 2012, 2015; Varro, 2003), and that enables other positions to emerge (Bhabha, 1996). That is, an active ‘third-space’ of intercultural negotiation that disturbs and contests social norms (Rodríguez-García, 2012, 2015: 11), challenging exclusive, static, and homogeneous identities and the assimilation demands of assimilation imposed from the mainstream.

Descendants of mixed unions can develop new ‘multiple’, ‘bi-cultural’, ‘hybrid’, or ‘mixed’ cultural forms and identities (Choudhry, 2010; Edwards et al., 2010, 2012; Le Gall and Meintel, 2015; Østberg, 2003; Phoenix and Owen, 2000; Rodríguez-García, 2006, 2021c), which can reduce the cultural and ethnic differences compared with previous generations (Alba and Nee, 2009) and allow generate new sociocultural capital that can serve as an engine of social transformation (Ali, 2003; Rodríguez-García, 2015; Toguslu et al., 2014). However, society, together with family, also has a very important role in the development of individuals’ multiple identities (Anthias, 2007). For instance, a context of widespread discrimination towards certain groups can largely determine individuals’ cultural maintenance and identity (Choudhry, 2010; Rumbaut, 2008).

Furthermore, according to Jenkins (1997), individuals’ external visible markers, for instance, where physical appearance is stereotyped, can largely determine identity processes, as society can categorise and impose limiting ascribed identities based on those markers. Several studies have shown this to be the case with ethno-racially mixed populations (e.g. Gilliéron, 2017; Rodríguez-García et al., 2021b; Song, 2017).

Racism, Islamophobia, and Moorphobia: the stigma of being Muslim in Spain

Racism (i.e. prejudice and discrimination based on the idea of race) has many forms and manifestations depending on the context: from biological racism (i.e. the belief in a hierarchy of humans based on alleged biological criteria) to what has been called ‘new racism’ (Barker, 1981) or ‘cultural racism’ (Modood, 1997), where culture replaces the idea of biological race as a basis for discrimination or asserted superiority, and differing cultures are viewed as fixed and incompatible entities. Still, as Modood (1997) argues, cultural racism draws on biological racism because unequal treatment and exclusion are based on people’s perceived physical appearance, chiefly ‘not whiteness’.

Meer and Modood (2009) also point out how perceived physical appearance, along with religion, culture, or language are important markers for stigmatisation processes. In this sense, visibility is defined as the difference that is generated (socially constructed) from the interpretation of ‘aspects of physical appearance, either real or imaginary, typically crystallised in ethnic stereotypes’ (Jenkins, 1997: 66), which can be conveyed by aspects such as phenotype, clothing, language or accent, name or surname. In this sense, religion can be racialised and become as essentialised, divisive, and marginalising a force as race (Foner, 2015; Meer, 2013), as is the case with Islam in Spain.

Members of the Muslim population in Spain have historically been stigmatised as perpetual foreigners since the times of the Reconquista, that is, the centuries-long violent conflict in the Iberian Peninsula between Christians and Muslims (‘the Moors’ from the Maghreb) that predated the era of the Spanish Empire and related colonisation (Mateo Dieste, 2018). It is certainly a paradox that, despite the fact that Spanish culture and society cannot be understood without its Islamic legacy (after eight centuries of Muslim presence in Spain), Spanish identity has always been created in opposition to the (Moroccan) Muslim world (Mateo Dieste, 2018). This period of history is still seen as an anomaly and not part of Spanishness (Zapata-Barrero, 2006).

This ideology of islamophobia or ‘moorphobia’ (Zapata-Barrero, 2006) is reflected in the collective imaginary, as public opinion polls ² reveal that anti-immigration sentiment in Spain is mostly directed towards the Moroccan (and Muslim) community. Not surprisingly, immigrants from the Maghreb are also those with whom intermarriage is most strongly rejected (Rodríguez-García et al., 2016). This hatred and rejection has also focused on the religious dimension: most of the conflicts originated revolve around the presence of ‘Muslimness’ in the public sphere and in the use of public spaces, and recurrent themes such as the issue of use of the burqa or the hijab issue provide increasing evidence of this reality.

As a consequence of this context of discrimination, increased by the global stigma of fundamentalism since the 9/11 attacks in the United States (Gottschalk and Greenberg, 2008), and which affects youth in particular (Ramberg, 2004), having Arab and/or Muslim heritage is one of the main sources of discrimination in Spain. Even in present times, certain perceptible (and interpreted) physical traits, such as the darker skin colour of many North Africans, certain ways of dressing (such as wearing the hijab), and foreign Arabic accents or names, become signifiers of ‘being a Muslim’ and elicit social distancing and discriminatory reactions from mainstream society. This particularly affects women, usually easier to identify as Muslim (see Andújar, 2021; Navarro, 2012, see also Rodríguez-Reche, 2020).

Thus, in this context of racialised Islam (Meer, 2013), being ‘recognisable’ as a Muslim becomes a low-status ethno-racial attribute in the Spanish context. Yet, this does not preclude the individual’s capacity for agency. As Toguslu et al. (2014) have shown in their study on multicultural identities in Europe and aspects of religion and ethnicity in secular societies, new generations pose a challenge to static and exclusive (e.g. Muslim vs. European) identities. New generations are de-territorialising religion, reinterpreting the religious values transmitted by their parents – in the event that such transmission has occurred – and adapting them to their local context.

Methodology

This article draws on ethnographic fieldwork (participant observation in public and private spaces, associations, etc.) and semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted in the Spanish autonomous region of Catalonia and in the city of Granada, between 2015 and 2019. For the main research project (see section ‘Introduction’), we have conducted a total of 152 interviews with Spanish-born descendants of mixed couples living in Catalonia, aged between 14 and 29 years, both males (60) and females (92), and from very diverse origins (representing 51 countries). Nonetheless, our intention was not to reach statistical representativeness, but rather to achieve analytical strength and highly contextualised data.

The preferred age group for the interviews was 14–29 years, which is the official age range used in Spain for the purpose of defining youth and is also the most predominant age group for descendants of mixed couples in Catalonia according to the Catalan Youth Survey 2017. However, our sample included some respondents above or below these ages – four above, and three below. We acknowledge that within this fairly wide range of ages, respondents might have been at different life stages (from studying and living at home with parents to being independent adults, possibly with partners and children), which, in turn, may have had an impact on their identity experiences and reflections.

All of the participants were raised in Catalonia, and most were also born there. Most of our respondents had a native ethnic Spaniard parent and a foreign-born parent; others had two parents each born in a different foreign country (e.g. Philippines/Morocco, France/Cameroon); and others had both parents born in the same foreign country. Thus, the sample transcends the majority/minority or native/immigrant dichotomy, by also including mixed individuals with two immigrant backgrounds. In total, 50 respondents had a Muslim background (one or both parents being an immigrant Muslim, that is, socialised into Islam, not necessarily practising), most of them being originally from Morocco, which is the main source of immigrants in Spain (INE, 2019: 6). These interviews have been selected to prepare this article.

To these 50 respondents, we have to add 26 more interviews and 1 group interview, with two ‘mixed’ girls and two ‘mixed’ boys, conducted for a doctoral thesis (Rodríguez-Reche, 2020) that focused on the daughters of mixed Maghreb/native couples in two Spanish cities: Barcelona and Granada. There are certain sociodemographic differences between the two cities that are worth mentioning: in Barcelona, the majority of the Maghrebian population comes from small cities, and the purpose of migration is mostly work-related and mostly male-dominated (Moreras, 2004). By contrast, the city of Granada is a university city. As indicated by Capote (2011), ‘The Moroccan population of the capital of Granada is characterised (…) by the diversification of its socio-professional composition and a greater heterogeneity of socio-demographic profiles’ (p. 36). Moreover, Granada has stronger territorial proximity to and historical ties with the Maghreb than Barcelona, a fact that is very present in the collective imagination of both the native population of Granada and those with Maghrebian background (Martín and Castaño, 2004). In addition to this, in Granada, there is a large number of Spaniards married to Moroccan migrants and converted to Islam, who have formed an important network of mixed families in the city.

Out of these 26 interviews to women of mixed Muslim–non-Muslim background, seven wore hijab, and the rest did not. And 16 of them defined themselves as Muslim, whereas the other 10 did not. Our sample, taking into account both the research project sample and the doctoral thesis, also included 14 Spanish-born descendants of endogamous couples (i.e. with parents born in Morocco), which served as a ‘control group’ and to which we refer occasionally in our analysis. The interviews included questions related to family migration history, daily life and customs, socialising and leisure activities, religious practices, sense of belonging, experiences of discrimination, and so forth. It is important to mention here that for those sons and daughters of mixed unions in which one of the members is Muslim and the other is not, most of them have not acquired religious values, usually because their parents have only transmitted aspects related to the culture of their country of origin (Morocco). Deeper religious transmission (culture and practice) has only been observed among religiously endogamous couples.

In all cases, respondents were selected using personal connections, advertisements, and contacts with different migrant associations. The interviews each lasted 1 hour on average, were usually conducted either in their homes or in public cafés, libraries, or university settings, and were conducted in either Catalan or Spanish, depending upon the preferences of our participants. The interviews were recorded using a digital voice recorder before being fully transcribed and analysed with Atlas.ti software. ³

Results: identity formation, mixedness, and stigmatisation

In general, the narratives of the descendants of mixed couples we have analysed show a great variety of experiences of being ‘mixed’. They display multiple identities and sense of location, which can vary according to where, when, and what they are doing. We have found that experiences of being ‘mixed’ can vary greatly depending on factors such as religion, gender, or geographical location. And that one key factor affecting these outcomes is visibility, that is, external markers shared or not shared with the ‘majority native population’. In this sense, visibility is defined as the difference that is generated from the interpretation of ‘aspects of physical appearance, either real or imaginary, typically crystallised in ethnic stereotypes’ (Jenkins, 1997: 66), which can be conveyed by aspects such as phenotype, clothing, language or accent, name or surname.

Identity mismatch: feeling like a native but being treated as a foreigner

Descendants of mixed couples, whose ethno-racial heritage involves a negatively stigmatised group (particularly of Maghreb descent), experience greater discrimination and racism as well as identity mismatch (where self-identification as ‘Spanish’ or ‘Mixed’ does not coincide with the ascribed stereotyped categories of ‘Foreigner’, ‘Black’, or ‘Muslim’). ⁴ The following is an example of narrative that exemplifies this finding:

Two weeks ago, a man asked me, ‘Where are you from?’ Since I’ve been wearing this [a necklace with the Hand of Fatima], a lot of people have asked me. And he said, ‘Well, you are Moroccan’. And I said, ‘Well, if you think so…’ And he said, ‘Yes, you are dark, and you have traits and their way of speaking, and you certainly don’t speak Catalan’. So, I looked at him… he was an elderly man, and I said politely, ‘Sir, I was born in Barcelona, and my Catalan is undoubtedly better than yours’. (Noor, ⁵ 22-year-old female, Spanish father and Moroccan ⁶ mother; Barcelona)

In the previous quote, our respondent is categorised as a foreigner on the basis of certain visible characteristics (phenotype, clothing, and accent) that are associated with the stereotype of the ‘Moor’. The following quotes show respondents’ experiences of stigmatisation, presuppositions of foreignness, imposed categorisations, and identity mismatch, where physical appearance (in this case skin colour/tone) seems to be a key factor:

People don’t look at me in the same way as they look at my boyfriend, because I’m white and he is black. Next to him, I think most people think I’m white, but when I’m alone, they don’t think I’m white at all. (Ainara, 25-year-old female, Spanish mother and Moroccan father; Barcelona)

My twin sister does not experience it [discrimination] much, because she does not wear the hijab, and she is whiter than me and has straight hair and so on. Of course, because you wear the hijab, you stand out more. I take the subway and I see how people stare at me, every day! (Fátima, 19-year-old female, both Moroccan parents; Barcelona)

What Ainara and Fatima express in the above narratives clearly expresses the degree to which identity ascription is socially constructed, as the ascribed identity changes depending on who are they with (i.e. being compared with). In Ainara’s case, when she is alone, she is perceived as a racialised Muslim, but when she is with her dark-skinned boyfriend, she is perceived as White (native), owning the privilege of whiteness. The following excerpts exemplify the dissonance between the respondents’ own sense of identity and belonging, which may be largely, or even entirely, locally rooted, and the assigned ‘moor’/foreigner identity – with its associated stereotypes – that is projected onto them:

I feel more from here, Catalan and Spanish, although here many people relate me to Morocco (…) Here [in Spain] they make me feel, not always but sometimes, as if I’m from outside, and there [in Morocco] they also they make me feel like I’m from outside. (Samira, 17-year-old female, Spanish mother and Moroccan father; Barcelona)

Samira’s narrative is a clear example of a self-identification that is not socially recognised. She expresses that society here does not recognise her as Spanish (i.e. belonging to Spain) and that when she is in Morocco, people do not make her feel that she belongs there either. When this happens, reactive identities ⁷ can emerge. The next example follows that same pattern:

I feel more from here because my whole life is here; I was born here. I like Morocco because I have family there, but I prefer it here (…) I have put on the hijab, but I have seen that some friends have lost job opportunities because [the employers] did not want the hijab, so I am willing to take it off if necessary. Since putting on the hijab, I’ve noticed that people clearly treat me as an outsider (…) For example, I accompanied my cousin to school – she couldn’t speak [Spanish] – and they said to me, ‘We’ll have to bring you a translator, because you cannot speak [Spanish]’. Or when I go with my mother, they always tell us, ‘We are going to bring you a translator’, and I say, ‘No, I speak [Spanish]!’ They always assume that I have a handicap (…) or when the [terrorist] attack happened [in Barcelona, in 2017], people treated us, my parents too, as terrorists: ‘Terrorists, go back to your own country!’ and so on. (Suhaima, 19-year-old female, Spanish born with Moroccan parents; Barcelona)

Other narratives from mixed descendants of Moroccan ancestry have emphasised that their names or surnames can also become unwanted signifiers of foreignness:

I suffer discrimination when they see my surname, because they say it is not from here. It happens with some professors: ‘And this surname, where is it from?’ It bothers me because they are already tagging me as though I am not from here. (Amina, 22-year-old female, Spanish mother and Moroccan father; Barcelona)

Furthermore, being perceived as a Moroccan/Maghrebian, based on interpreted outward characteristics, is a particular socially assigned ethno-racial category that is loaded with negative assumptions and that ranks lower than any other form of ancestry in the Spanish sociocultural hierarchy, as this next extract shows:

I suffered discrimination when I was at school, but not because I was Belgian or Rwandan but because people thought I was Moroccan. [They called me] ‘Fucking Moor’ [‘mora de mierda’] and things like that (…). They did not know where I was from, but because of my look, they thought, ‘She is Moroccan’. At first, I used to say, ‘I’m not Moroccan’, and then later, ‘So what if I’m Moroccan?!’ (Nabila, 24-year-old female, Belgian father and Rwandan mother; Barcelona)

Our analysis has also shown that, because descendants of mixed Muslim–non-Muslim couples are often treated as foreigners in the country where they were born, religious affiliation to Islam sometimes provides a stronger sense of belonging (to the Muslim community) than territorial affiliation (Spain). The following excerpt is an example of this:

Q: So, your first identification would be Muslim?

A: Yes, I am a person and I am a Muslim.

Q: More than a specific origin, right?

A: Yes. Because I know, my Muslim friends, wherever they are, we are fine because of the fact that we are Muslim. It doesn’t matter where you are from or where your parents are from. In the mosque, this is very clear, because they are people from different places, or from here they have turned to Islam, but they don’t ask you where you are from. (Fátima, 19-year-old female, Spanish mother and Moroccan father; Barcelona)

The fact of being a woman is very important in this regard. When visibility and religion coincide, women experience a higher level of discrimination than men. Men are less susceptible to such experiences of discrimination, partly because they are not ‘visibly religious’:

Of course, if you are a Muslim woman, people identify you easily, [you are more visible] yes. But if you are a man, unless they know you or you wear some typical clothing, they won’t know you’re a Muslim. Moreover, at the labour level… if they hire a Muslim Moroccan, he will be in public view, because there is nothing to represent him, but if you are a girl, they will take your CV and put it at the bottom, the last one. You are definitely more visible. (Nabila, 19-year-old female, Spanish mother and Moroccan father; Barcelona)

In the previous example, a woman described the difference between girls and boys regarding visibility, and how girls are more targeted. In the following interview extract corresponding to a male, we can see how much easier it is for men to go unnoticed:

Q. Have you ever suffered any racist or discriminatory episode?

A. No. In Morocco, women are discriminated against, and whoever tells you otherwise has not been to Morocco; and here (in Spain) they are discriminated against by their family and by outsiders, just because they wear the hijab. My aunt has often had job applications rejected because of wearing the hijab, and as a Muslim she has been unwilling to take it off. So yes, they are discriminated against. Without a doubt, it is more difficult to be a woman than to be a man. (Guillem, 21-year-old-male, Spanish mother and Moroccan father; Barcelona)

Malleable and shifting identities: resilience and agency

One important conclusion of our analysis is that subjects do not remain passive and could resist and challenge negative stereotypes with strategic self-presentations and with countering self-classifications, revealing how individuals are not necessarily victims, but active agents with the capacity for contestation.

The following two interview excerpts, for example, show this capacity of agency when referring to the issue of wearing the hijab, partly as a response to people’s condescending attitudes:

I wanted to wear my hijab so much that when my parents let me put it on, I didn’t care about the teachers, the students… anybody. I just wanted to put it on, and I could, and nothing else mattered. (Nadia, 22-year-old female, Spanish mother and Moroccan father; Granada)

One day my sister [who does not wear the hijab] and I went to the doctor and the nurse told me ‘But why are you wearing it [the hijab]? Do as your sister, do not wear it!’ If I don’t want to wear it, I won’t wear it, but you don’t have to tell me what to do! They think that just not wearing it makes you less Muslim or more modern… (Fátima, 19-year-old female, both Moroccan parents; Barcelona)

Furthermore, the hijab, a piece of clothing that produces social distancing and discriminatory reactions from mainstream society, can also serve to claim religious identity on the part of the young women themselves, as we see in the following example:

Q. Is the hijab part of your identity?

A. Yes, because the hijab made me stronger. Of course, in this society many times you have to show character and fight for yourself. I don’t buy the ‘well it doesn’t matter, I don’t care if they discriminate against me’ line. No, sometimes you have to put your foot down, because there are comments that need a reply. (Naisma, 22-year-old female, Spanish mother and Moroccan father; Barcelona)

Moreover, as shown in the following excerpt from a 13-year-old respondent, very young girls can counter both her schoolmates’ and her parents’ assumptions about their cultural and religious sense of belonging:

Sometimes there are comments in the classroom, when the topic of Islam comes up, they tell me: ‘Uh, you understand it, right?’ And I have told them a thousand times: ‘I am Catalan, that is it, don’t put me in this [group / category]’ Of course, because of my surname. But I don’t like it at all when they call me ‘Moor’ or shit like this, I am Catalan. We [her with her father] had a fight because I said I was an atheist. He got angry with me. I do not know if he expected me to be Muslim, because he tells me sometimes, jokingly: ‘So, next year will you do the Ramadan?’ But I am not Christian, not Muslim, I don’t believe in anything. (Alicia, 13-year-old, Spanish mother and Moroccan father; Barcelona)

In other words, as the next excerpt shows with clarity, not all of the respondents carry their mixed cultural/religious background, or even their identity mismatch, with a sense of heaviness:

Well, yes, when I walk down the street people stare at me; they think I’m from outside. My parents see me as being from there [Morocco] because I follow the religion. My mother sees me as Muslim, but one from here (…) I’ve always been told [by people outside the family] ‘You are from here, right?’ [laughs]. One day [when she was wearing the hijab] I remember it was the lamb party [Eid al-Azha, or the ‘Feast of the Sacrifice’], and my friends passed by me and didn’t even recognise me. They said to me, ‘So, are you wearing the hijab now?’ and I said, ‘No, I’m just going to pray’. They thought I had converted [laughs]. They’re always asking me, ‘Can you eat this? Can you do this?’ There is always a doubt, right? [But do you feel respected?] Yes, yes. (Norma, 16-year-old, Spanish mother and Moroccan father; Barcelona)

Positive sentiments and the benefits of mixed belonging were also common in our respondents’ narratives, as shown in the following excerpt by the same person, who talks about the benefits of having access to multi-sited family connections, the knowledge of multiple languages, and the overall exposure to a diversity of cultures:

I don’t identify as just one thing, but as many. I know things from here thanks to my mom’s family [Spanish]. And I know things from there thanks to my dad’s family [Moroccan]. I have the advantage of knowing two languages, two cultures . . . (Norma, 16-year-old, Spanish mother and Moroccan father; Barcelona)

Finally, we have also found that location/context is a key component in shifting identity processes. Many of our interviewees expressed variations in their self-identification(s) depending on the context (when, where, with whom, and doing what), revealing how identities are engrained in a constant redefining process.

In our comparison of Barcelona and Granada, for instance, we found significant differences in the sense of belonging and geographical attachment. Space limitations here do not allow a full discussion of all the results in this respect. Suffice it to mention that, whereas our interviewees in Granada had experienced a greater religious transmission from their parents (both Muslims, with many cases of conversion) and were more religious overall and were more attached to their place (city) of residence, in Barcelona, our interviewees expressed a much lower level of religious transmission (in part due to the fact that in many cases their parents had separated or divorced) and also a weaker sense of geographical belonging. This finding endorses the idea of the context-bound and shifting nature of identity and categorisation (Deaux, 2018; Jenkins, 1997).

Conclusion

The aim of this study was to shed some light on the experiences of descendants of Maghrebian Muslim and native non-Muslim couples in Spain, particularly women, analysing their identity processes, social constraints, and strategies when facing an identity mismatch. Our interviewees expressed multiple experiences of being mixed, depending on factors such as phenotype, religion, language, gender, or geographical location. All these can operate as markers of difference/foreignness and can be intertwined, but can also work independently.

One of the most important factors affecting these outcomes was origin and visibility in a context of islamophobia. Due to the deeply rooted history of stigmatisation of Maghrebian Muslims in Spain, stereotyped visible markers such as the phenotype (perceived visible differences in skin tone and other physical features), languages/accents, names/surnames, or clothing that denote ‘Muslimness’ (being or appearing to be ‘Moor’ (Mateo Dieste, 2018)), immediately place the person in an inferior social category that gives rise to differential treatment and limits their ability to self-manage their identity and belonging, particularly among women. Hence, descendants of mixed couples whose ethno-racial heritage involves a negatively stigmatised group (particularly of Muslim descent) experience greater stigmatisation, discrimination, lack of recognition, as well as identity mismatch (where self-identification as ‘Spanish’ or ‘Mixed’ does not coincide with the ascribed stereotyped categories of ‘Foreigner’, or ‘Muslim’). Indeed, in Spain, the ‘Moor’ is a social category equivalent to those ‘culturally non-assimilable’, in Taguieff’s (2001) words; that is, incompatible with and a threat to society and the national project in general (see also Bravo López, 2013).

Mixedness here constitutes a crucial test of whether the socially constructed difference between an ‘us’ and ‘the others’ is diluted through mixedness, or if, on the contrary, it is perpetuated, as appears to be the case in Spain. In a context where Islam has historically been discredited by the majority society, the stigma of Muslimness persists throughout generations and despite processes of mixedness. And being a woman, based on the analysis of the research, further determines these processes of identity formation.

In line with Halliday (1999), we have analysed religious affiliation as intersecting with another set of identities (e.g. work, place of residence, gender) that should not be overlooked or given less relevance. We have found that these women, who are usually easier to identify as Muslim, experience more racialisation and discrimination than men, and also sometimes greater family control and restrictions (in leisure, values, sexuality, marriage, etc.), as women are traditionally attributed the role of ‘carriers of tradition’ (McGrath and McGarry, 2014; Ramji, 2007; Rashid, 2016; Rodríguez-García, 2006). So, once again, living mixedness is easier for some than for others. When there are no interpreted external elements that help identify someone as part of the minority and stigmatised group (principally Moroccan Muslims in our research), it may be easier to experience a feeling of recognition by, and belonging to, mainstream society.

The children of mixed couples who are not perceived as different from the majority have more leeway to identify as Spanish or Catalan, or even shift their self-identification according to the context. This outcome shows the need for an intersectional approach, in order to better understand the ways in which gender intersects with other variables and identities (Crenshaw, 1991). Nonetheless, some of our respondents expressed that having a Muslim background and/or being Muslim was a very important part of their identity. Identifying primarily as a Muslim can be crucial to their feeling of belonging, even more than the purely territorial attachment.

Moreover, many of the interviewees also expressed variations in their self-identification(s) depending on the context (when, where, with whom, and doing what), revealing how identities are entrenched in a continual redefining process in which individuals are active agents with the capacity for contestation. This finding calls for an agency-based and multidimensional view of identity processes, one that acknowledges the complex, dialectical, multifaceted, context-bound, and shifting nature of identity and categorisation (Deaux, 2018; Hagerman, 2016; Song, 2019). As also noted by Ryan (2014), it is important to keep in mind the heterogeneity of youth negotiations of religion and identity. Narratives do not always show a univocal reality, but often one that is complex, sometimes contradictory, and always in process. Identity positions can fluctuate depending on the context (when, where, and with whom). In other words, our interviewees’ experiences of discrimination do not mean that women remain passive victims, lacking agency capacity.

On the contrary, as we have shown, they develop strategic tools, such as counter-narratives and self-representations, which empower them in their identity choices. It would be a mistake, then, to assume only negative outcomes in the identity construction of mixed youth, as these processes can also be a catalyst for new contesting identities and new strategies for agency and empowerment (Deaux, 2018; Hagerman, 2016; Song, 2019). This was the case of Nadia, Fátima, Naisma, and Norma, who explained their strategies to counter condescending and imposing identity categories and cultural affiliations – for example, in relation to the wearing of the hijab, re-appropriation of which can become an element of reassertion of ethnic identity.

This finding is in line with other studies, such as Cerchiaro’s (2020) analysis of inter-religious families in Italy, which shows that rather than a weakening or dissolution of religious identities in the next generation (Voas, 2003), a ‘remodelling’ or ‘reconfiguration’ of practices may exist. Despite this, it is important to keep in mind that a positive narrative – which shows agency, empowerment, or resilience – does not imply that there is no discrimination, that is, the problem has disappeared. As Modood (2016) noted, ‘we cannot require all minorities to wear their identities lightly, flexibly and contextually – to do so becomes a kind of postmodern assimilationism’ (p. 18). Agency, empowerment, resilience, and strategic tools are all practices to confront discrimination, a reality that should not be minimised.