A diasporic right to the city: the production of a Moroccan diaspora space in Granada, Spain

Abstract

In this paper, I bring together ideas of 'diaspora space' and 'the right to the city' and empirically demonstrate how the formation of diasporas is frequently dependent on migrants attaining certain rights to the city. These rights, I argue, are conditioned and attained by the interplay of urban structural context with the place-making strategies of migrants. Drawing on 8 months of ethnographic fieldwork, I demonstrate that Moroccan migrants in Granada, Spain, have achieved a partial right to a neighbourhood of the city, producing a multi-sensory, selforientalised diaspora space. First, I show that certain urban conditions in Granada provided a foothold for Moroccan migrants to begin to form a diaspora and transform urban space. Second, I demonstrate that through the mobilisation of a strategically self-orientalised cultural capital, the diaspora have partly appropriated the valuable history of Al-Andalus, a key component in the city's tourist imagery. These factors and strategies have enabled Moroccan migrants to gain a right to have a visible presence in the city, a right to produce and transform urban space and a right to spatalise diverse identities -all key rights, I argue, in the formation of a diaspora.Un droit diasporique à la ville : la production d'un espace de diaspora marocaine à Grenade en Espagne RÉSUMÉ Dans cet article, je rassemble des idées « d'espace de diaspora » et de « droit à la ville » et je démontre empiriquement comment la formation d'une diaspora est fréquemment dépendante de l'obtention de certains droits à la ville de la part des migrants. Je soutiens que ces droits sont conditionnés et atteints à travers le croisement du contexte urbain structurel avec les stratégies d'aménagement des migrants. En m'appuyant sur 8 mois de travail ethnographique sur le terrain, je démontre que les migrants marocains à Grenade en Espagne sont arrivés à un droit partiel à un quartier de la ville, produisant un espace de diaspora multi sensoriel et auto-orientalisé. D'abord, je montre que certaines conditions urbaines à Grenade ont permis une implantation aux migrants marocains pour commencer à former une diaspora et à transformer l'espace urbain. Deuxièmement, je démontre qu'à travers la mobilisation d'un capital culturel stratégiquement autoorientalisé, la diaspora s'est approprié la précieuse histoire d'AlAndalus, un élément clé de l'imaginaire touristique de la ville. Ces 2019, VOL. 20, NO. 6, 785-805 facteurs et stratégies ont permis aux migrants marocains d'obtenir un droit à la présence visible dans la ville, un droit à la production et à la transformation de l'espace urbain et un droit à spatialiser diverses identités -qui, je le soutiens, sont tous des droits cardinaux à la formation d'une diaspora.Un derecho de la diáspora a la ciudad: la producción del espacio de la diáspora marroquí en Granada, España RESUMENEste trabajo reúne ideas de 'espacio de diáspora' y 'derecho a la ciudad' y demuestra empíricamente cómo la formación de las diásporas con frecuencia depende de que los inmi...

We Have Come Back Home: The Spanish-Moroccan Community, Collective Memory, and Sacred Spaces in Contemporary Spain

“…These meanings reinforce historically rooted memories that undergird the identity of Spanish-Moroccans as Spaniards and Muslims (Finlay 2017;Rogozen-Soltar 2017). In acknowledging the differentiation between poetic power and the politics of space (Robin and Strath 2003), this paper explores Muslim sacred sites in contemporary Spain.…”

“…The centrality of religion, memory, and identity politics in a Europe that is increasingly shifting right has forced the Muslim communities to develop identities that resist and subvert the dominant narratives about their presence (Rogozen-Soltar 2012; Martin-Marquez 2014). The Spanish sacred sites not only empower the Spanish-Moroccan community but also evoke diasporic consciousness (Finlay 2017) and "meanings assigned to the place" (Luz 2008, p. 103).…”

Entangled histories of place and reconfigurations of diasporic home: Al‐Andalus history and the Moroccan diaspora in Granada, Spain

“…For instance, the contemporary place-making strategies of the Moroccan diaspora, especially in the central districts of the city, have involved appropriating the valuable history of Al-Andalus, a key component in the city's tourist imagery (see Finlay, 2019). Therefore, the history of Al-Andalus, alongside the ingenuity of the Moroccan diaspora, has shaped and enabled the construction of a contemporary place of diasporic belonging and home (Finlay, 2019). However, a distinctive feature of the place-belongingness engendered by the history of Al-Andalus is it can also produce a nostalgic homing desire for multiple places, including the diaspora space of Granada, which reconfigures the more normative notion of a nostalgic homing desire for a faraway symbolic place to incorporate a homing desire for the diaspora space of dwelling.…”

The Religious Identity Perception of the Egyptian Muslim Diaspora in the West: A Case Study of Postgraduate Students

“…Being a member of this global group is considered a way of religious self-identification (Rytter, 2010;Maliepaard et al, 2010;Karim, 2016;Ali, 2018;Degia, 2018). Therefore, this is a type of social identification through a religious group or a collective identity (Finlay, 2019). These studies assign the religious identity of the self, mainly to the social group, which makes it less subjective to personal variation.…”