Race and Living in Spain
Posted: 22 June 2007 03:29 PM  
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I’ve wondered what the ethnic, cultural and racial backgrounds are of the people who post here. After reading about some of the racism/nationalism going on in Spain and how the government/police are black-maling residents, I was wondering if anyone had any insight on how the various races, trans nationality, are/have been treated in Spain.

For example: What’s is the disposition of a Gypsy versus a recent Moroccan or North African immigrant. What about recent Sudanese immigrants verses the Sierra-Leonie, Senegalese, Nigerian, Equatorial Guinea and/or people of those groups who have been there for decades.

i was reading an article two years ago about a West African worker who arrived in Spain as a refugee after war broke out in his native country 25 years ago. He arrived with a degree in accounting from an African university. He has been a cab driver in Spain for 15 years because his degree and experience was not being honored, thus he could not find work. He felt that the discrimination was based on race, then age since he was now an old man.

on the other token, I know many African-Americans and Afro-Latinos who have moved to Spain and made a good living/lifestyle for themselves, both with and without degrees. Most don’t experience racism/discrimination as some of the recent African immigrants, or even some of the British Nationals seem to have had.

What is the disposition of other groups there: the East Indians, other Asians; or nationals from France, Italy, and other countries.

Do you think people experience less social adversity if they are of higher social economic status, all around? Or does it depend?

And what is your insight on how the ETA fits into all of this? Don’t the Basque consider themselves the original race of Spain?

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Posted: 22 June 2007 06:28 PM   [ # 1 ]  
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Looks you are trying to cause an arguement to me.

Not biting, sorry.

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Posted: 22 June 2007 08:56 PM   [ # 2 ]  
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I don’t understand how you would accuse me of something like that.  My inquiry is sincere. Perhaps the topic is controversial, but so are many topics discussed on this board and otherwise. By no means do I intend to start an argument. I find it pathetic that people would get heated over anything ‘online’ and not be able to discuss things in a calm, logical, and mature manner.

That’s what I’m inciting here, a reasonable, formative discussion. This is the same as any of my other posts would indicate, and as well as the overall tone of this forum.

Furthermore, since I plan on moving to Spain racism, nationalism, terrorist, and government corruption are things that I am very concerned about. I know they exist there, and everywhere, but like the issues going on in Murcia and Alicante things change and circumstances are more dangerous in certain parts of the country than others. Sometimes reading the papers and talking to people isolated from other social circles within Spain doesn’t give you a good idea about what’s going on, the overall feel of the country.  I have done this and the people I know seem a little sheltered to me. Some are a little aware, but say “don’t worry, you’ll be fine”. But I’m not sure as I’ve been reading a lot of articles that indicate things aren’t THAT fine and that there are things I should be cautious of.  Mind you, I am a ‘minority’ by American standard.

If you can’t contribute to this thread, don’t care about the topic, the topic makes ‘you’ feel uncomfortable (maybe guilty), or you just don’t know - fine. Leave it alone. But don’t try to sabotage my thread.

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Posted: 22 June 2007 09:35 PM   [ # 3 ]  
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Who’s getting heated, certainly not me. You just seem to be asking a broad spectrum of contraversial questions.

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Posted: 22 June 2007 09:54 PM   [ # 4 ]  
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we’ll how as that different from say questions about police or government corruption? These are things pertinent to living in Spain, for foreigners, why wouldn’t i want to know/gather information about it from other expats?

Are you even a foreigner?

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Posted: 22 June 2007 10:12 PM   [ # 5 ]  
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You know, about a week ago I would’ve said to just look at the homepage of the site. It used to have a list of the number of visitors on a per country basis. Basically it averaged:
- UK 34%
- US 30%
- Spain 20%
- Canada 5%
all the rest…

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Posted: 22 June 2007 10:16 PM   [ # 6 ]  
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The Expatriator - 22 June 2007 10:12 PM

You know, about a week ago I would’ve said to just look at the homepage of the site. It used to have a list of the number of visitors on a per country basis. Basically it averaged:
- UK 34%
- US 30%
- Spain 20%
- Canada 5%
all the rest…

ok, that gives me an idea of site traffic, but what is the racial makeup of Spain.

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