From Moors to Muslims: evolution of the Spanish public debate

Abstract

How and when did the religious category “Muslim” replace ethnic and migration related terms in the Spanish public debate? What main public issues have accumulated to signify the new category? In this article we review journalistic and academic production around a selection of events that have ignited each of the main controversies about immigrants from Muslim majority countries and their descendants in the last three decades. By focusing on what cultural tropes are mobilized to frame and interpret such events we aim to account for the sociogenesis of a category that deeply influences these migrants’ incorporation into the Spanish society.