The Hijab and the Integration of the Muslim Other in Spanish Schools

Abstract

The social integration of migrant populations has been defined as an intercultural, mutually enriching process, and can be distinguished from processes of assimilation that involve a more unilateral adaptation on the part of immigrants to the norms of the host country. In Spain, this distinction has become blurred in both political and educational policy discourses. In this article the authors analyse an incident that occurred in 2011 in which an 11-year-old girl was expelled from her school for wearing a hijab, one of two such cases in Spain and the first of its kind in the autonomous community of Galicia. The initial argument as expressed in the school policy reveals an essentialist and assimilationist understanding of culture in terms of the norms of the host society: students were expected to 'keep their heads exposed' in class as a 'sign of respect'. Based on press reports, policy documents and legal proceedings, the authors interrogate the discourses deployed by the school and the local educational administration officials, politicians, Muslim community representatives and the family directly involved in the case, focusing on the ways in which they reveal an overall assimilationist vision of Spanish-Muslim intercultural community relations at the level of school policy.