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Ambivalent inclusion:
anti-racism and racist
gatekeeping in Andalusia’s
immigrant NGOs
Mikaela H. Rogozen-Soltar Yale University
ThisarticleexploresencountersbetweenAndalusianNGOworkersandimmigrantclientsinsouthern
Spain.Ittraceshowlocalambivalenceaboutpluralism,rootedinlong-standingdebatesaboutthe
legacyofAndalusia’smedievalMuslimpast,producesbothinclusionandexclusionofmigrants.On
theonehand,AndalusianNGOstaffhavedevelopedadiscourseofanti-racisminwhichcarefor
immigrantsisameansofconstructingamodern,progressiveidentityforahistoricallymarginalized
Europeanregion.Ontheotherhand,widelycirculatingracializedandgendereddiscoursesabout
immigrantsalsoresultintheexclusionofthosedeemedundeserving,particularlyMuslim,Moroccan
men.TheAndalusiancasethushighlightsthevagariesofsociallifethatcomplicateimplementation
ofpoliciesandprogrammesformigrantincorporation.Intheprocess,itdemonstratesthatmodesof
immigrantinclusionandexclusioninEuropearedeeplyintertwinedwithregionallyparticular
anxietiesaboutsocialdifference.
Oneafternoonin,aSub-SaharanAfricanmancamethroughthedoorof‘Immi-
grantServices’(IS),anNGOinGranada,Spain,andaskedmycoworkerandresearch
participant Gema1 about obtaining a ‘tarjeta sanitaria’. These ‘health cards’ granted
undocumentedimmigrantsaccesstohealthcareotherwisereservedforlegalresidents.
Handingoverhispassport,heexplainedthathehadenteredSpain‘enpatera’,meaning
illegallybyboat,andhispassportthuslackedadatedstamptoprovehehadthethree
months’ residence required for the health card. Gema was undeterred. She often
granted health cards to undocumented immigrants with unstamped (or fake) pass-
ports,claimingshefeltfortheSub-SaharanAfricanswhotravelledinlong,precarious
boattripstoSpain.Despitethepassportproblem,shecontinuedtoprocessthisman’s
request.
Days later,Gema responded in an entirely different manner to a Moroccan man’s
request.Mimo informed us that he needed help renewing his temporary visa,which
wasabouttoexpire.BeforeleavingMorocco,hehadpaidalargesumtoaSpanishjob
placementcompanytoprocurehimayear-longworkcontract,makinghimeligiblefor
acovetedresidencevisa.HearrivedinSpaintofindthatthecompanywasasham.Now,
with no work contract, he was ineligible for a residence visa, and would become
undocumentedoncehistemporaryvisaexpired.Gemaindicatedwithraisedeyebrows
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androllingeyesthatshedidnotbelieveMimo’sstory.Shetoldhimshewouldnotbe
able to help, explaining,‘That’s what happens when you go about things the wrong
way’.
Gema cast the Sub-Saharan African man’s undocumented status in Spain as
emblematic of his victimhood and broke the rules of the health card programme in
order to help him.In contrast,she assumed that Mimo,a Moroccan,had knowingly
brokenthelawbypurchasingafakeworkcontractandsherefusedtohelphim.What
ledhertoseethesecasessodifferently,andtofeelentitledtomakesuchdistinctionsin
judgementandservices?OnecouldassumethatGemasimplysawhealthcareasamore
vital service than visa renewal, and thus was more inclined to prioritize health card
requests over legal problems. However, during my fieldwork, it became clear that
Gema’s and other NGO workers’ decisions followed a social logic in which they
evaluatedthepeoplemakingrequests,nottheservicestheyrequested.
ThisarticleexploresencountersbetweenSpanishNGOstaffandimmigrant(mainly
Muslim) clients who seek their services. It shows how, despite the self-consciously
pro-immigrant,anti-racistpoliticalstancesthatNGOstaffespouse–indeed,thatthey
constructasemblematicof theirownmodernity–subscriptiontowidelycirculating
imaginaries of essentialized racial and gender categories often shapes their decisions
about whom and how to help. This results in both inclusionary and exclusionary
outcomes,asstafffindwaystobendtherulesofpoliciesandprogrammesinorderto
help sympathetic clients not legally eligible for certain services,while simultaneously
excluding clients deemed undesirable or undeserving even from those services for
whichtheyarelegallyentitled.Gema’sadmonishingof Mimoturnedouttoreflecta
larger pattern in which NGO staff invoked notions of Moroccan men as dishonest,
criminal,or oppressive,and refused them services routinely procured at all costs for
Sub-SaharanAfricanmenandimmigrantwomenfromaroundtheworld,understood
moresympatheticallyasvictims.
For several decades, social scientists have been calling for more analysis of how
immigrants are officially incorporated into European life (e.g. Soysal ). Ethno-
graphic research on migration has been particularly useful in demonstrating how
incorporation is not necessarily opposed to exclusion, but rather can entail its own
exclusionarydimensions(Partridge;Silverstein).Thismaybethecasewhen
immigrants and refugees are included at a cost – that is,on the condition of leaving
certainpracticesoridentificationsbehind(Ong;)–orwhenthoseincluded
on‘extraordinary’ grounds such as medical asylum are dehumanized in the process
(Ticktin;).Moreover,scholarsof immigration,andof socialbelongingand
exclusionmorebroadly,havedemonstratedthattheprovisionofpoliticalrecognition,
benefits,and social services,ranging from medical care to refugee asylum to human
rights advocacy, has depended on discourses about what kinds of people constitute
humanityworthhelpingorsavinginagivencontext(Agamben;;Asad;
; Bob ; L. Dubois ; Fassin ; Hunt ; Malkki ; Mehta ;
Quillen).IfoundthistobethecaseamongAndalusianNGOstaff,whoalternately
defended, ignored, bent, or subverted laws and programmes, basing decisions about
services and care on notions of racial, cultural, religious, and gendered difference
amongclients.
YettheAndalusiancaseispeculiarforthedegreetowhichNGOstaffconceptualized
and enacted their encounters with immigrant and minority clients as a means of
engaging with ideas about their own regional identities within Spain and Europe.In
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manyEuropeancontexts,NGOstaffandothergatekeepersarticulateanethicof care
forimmigrantsorrefugeesthatisrootedinpurportedlyuniversaldiscoursessuchas
humanitarianism,humanrights,orinternationallaw.Theythenassessclients’claims
andneedsusingmeansthatrangefromlinguisticmarkers,asinthecaseof UNHCR
interpretersinterviewingpotentialKosovarrefugees(Jacquemet),toevidenceof
illness or suffering, as in asylum cases in France (Fassin & d’Halluin ; Ticktin
).Refusals to provide services often stem from disjuncture between gatekeepers’
explicit subscription to universalizing moral discourses and their unreflexive use of
nationally particular understandings of race, ethnicity, gender, or religion in their
judgementsofmigrantsandrefugees.InGranada,NGOstaffsimilarlymadedecisions
about which clients’ claims were valid and deserving of services.Yet my Andalusian
interlocutors’ ethic of care was rooted in a discourse explicitly about Andalusia’s
historyof debatingpluralismandregionalparticularity,whichIexplorebelow.Their
articulation of a moral imperative for social inclusion and care for immigrants was
overtly a discussion of how to conceptualize regional history and how to enact new
waysof beingmodernAndalusians.
Ambivalentregionallogicsofraceandhistory
Scholars have argued about how to understand discrimination in Europe and the
United States in the wake of scientific racism’s demise, parsing the meaning and
analyticutilityof termslike‘neo-racism’,‘culturalracism’(Balibar&Wallerstein;
seeStolcke;butalsoOng),or,increasingly,‘Islamophobia’(Shryock).In
Spain,ongoingdebatesaboutmulticulturalismmakethesetermshighlyvariable–race,
religion, culture, nationality, gender, and other dimensions of social difference are
constantlymeldedbutnotalwaysinuniformways.Ifinditlessnecessarytodiagnose
a root or‘type’of discrimination that governs all Spanish practice than to pay close
attentiontohowdifferentcategoriesareimaginedanddeployedinencounters,andto
whatends.InAndalusia,myNGOinterlocutorsconceptualizedsocialdifferencelargely
in terms of what they called race and racism, though this category subsumed many
others and contained a strong religious dimension as concerns about immigration
oftenzeroedinonMuslims.
In fact, a language of racism characterized both Andalusians’ discourse of anti-
racism and the racially motivated allocation of services they enacted. This seeming
contradictionbetweeninclusiveandexclusionarypracticesisanextensionof along-
standingambivalenceaboutracialbelongingandalterityinAndalusia.Known(some-
times pejoratively and sometimes jokingly) as the ‘Muslim’ or ‘Arab’ part of Spain
owingtoitsrelativelylongMoorishperiod,Andalusiahasstruggledtoreconcilenar-
ratives that both celebrate and silence that history (Soifer ). Both inclusive and
xenophobic discourses about social difference have resurfaced periodically, always
transforming to reflect the contexts of their manifestations at different historical
moments.Today,rejectionofoutsiders,particularlyMuslims,clearlycarriesgendered
andfear-drivenvalencesthatsuggestcurrent,globallycirculatingdiscoursesofthewar
onterrorandIslam’ssupposedmisogyny.Callstopluralismsimilarlyreflectcontem-
porary concerns with managing social difference in a way that marks Spain as Euro-
peanandprogressive,inoppositiontoitsrecentfascistpast.
Despitetheresonanceofglobaldiscourses,IfoundthatresidentsofGranadamost
oftenapproachedquestionsofimmigrationanddiversitybymakingexplicitreference
toAndalusia’sspecifichistoryofpluralism,butindecidedlynon-uniformways.Some
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subscribed to a Castilian narrative of Spanish homogeneity that denies the place of
religious or cultural difference in the country’s history,casting medieval Muslims as
invaders, and migrants, particularly Moroccans, today as reinvaders. This view is in
conflictwithnarrativesthathavecastSpain,especiallyAndalusia,asraciallyandcul-
turally non-European owing to its Muslim past. My Andalusian interlocutors spoke
oftenof theirregion’srecenthistoryof politicalmarginalityandexpressedsensitivity
about perceptions of regional‘Muslimness’.Under Franco,Andalusians found them-
selves stigmatized within long-standing racial hierarchies that cast southern Spain as
the ‘most Moorish’ region, and marginalized by high levels of political repression,
poverty, and mass emigration that further fed essentializing notions of ‘Andalusian
backwardness’whichmyinterlocutorswerekeentoleavebehind(cf.Collier;Mozo
González&TenaDíaz;Suárez-Navaz).
OtherAndalusianshavearticulatedalternateviewsofpluralism,castingMuslimand
Jewishinfluenceinparticularasadistinctiveandpositivefeatureoftheirregion.After
yearsofenforcedCatholicism,duringdemocratizationthisviewreturnedtotheforein
politics and public debate. Many Andalusians came to see themselves more fully as
members of the nation, their legal citizenship for the first time seeming to imply a
legitimaterelationshiptothestate,repletewithrights,benefits,andcivicresponsibili-
ties. As Liliana Suárez-Navaz () has convincingly argued, particularly for those
AndalusiansinvolvedintheexpandingarenaofNGOwork,thisnewsenseoftheirown
belonginginSpaincametofigureasakeypointofdifferencebetweenthemselvesand
foreigners,animportantdistinctionastheregiontransformedfromoneofemigration
to a destination for immigrants (Caballero ; Cornelius ; de Lucas & Torres
).
AsAndalusiansthemselvesbecamelessmarginalinSpain,thosevoicinganarrative
ofregionalhistoryandidentitythatembracedpluralismbecamelouder.Some,includ-
ingleftistpoliticiansandlocalconvertstoIslam,advocatedthecelebrationofMuslim
heritageasasourceofregionalpride,abasisfordemandsforpoliticalautonomy,and
athemeforthegrowingregionaltouristeconomy(Dietz).InGranada,celebra-
tions of the city’s history of convivencia, the supposedly harmonious coexistence of
Jews, Muslims, and Christians, do more than positively value pluralism in regional
history.Suchaffirmationsof‘al-Andalus’(MuslimSpain)alsostakeaclaimforAndalu-
sianhistoryasthemodelformulticulturalismandtoleranceparexcellence.Itisperhaps
ironicthatthishistoricalnarrativefoundrenewed,vocalsupportinthewakeofdemoc-
ratization,asthisperiodsawnew,exclusionaryimmigrationlawsandthefirstepisodes
of racismtowardsNorthAfricanimmigrants(Suárez-Navaz).
Thecominglingof thesedivergentideasof howbesttoapproachcurrentregional
diversity,alwaysinrelationtothepast–eitherbyrelegatingIslam’shistoricalrole(and
Iberia’s plurality in general) to‘perfunctory’status,by celebrating it as central,or by
myriad positions in between – weighs heavily on how Andalusians think about and
engage with immigrants. They are seen as both a dangerous ‘return’ of the Moors
(particularly visible in the greater antipathy expressed towards Muslims than others)
and as an opportunity to showcase the region’s ‘natural’ capacity for tolerance
(Rogozen-Soltar).
Thisambivalencesuffusesmediaproduction,socialencounters,andeventhephysi-
cal landscape of Granada, pervading many scales of daily social life. On a societal,
city-widescale,thisambivalenceisinstantiatedinelectoralpoliticalcampaignsforor
against immigrant rights, and in annual debates about local festivals. Every January,
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neo-fascists and history buffs celebrate the Catholic ‘reconquest’ of Muslim
Granadaincostumedbattlere-enactmentsattheToma(Taking)festival.Meanwhile,
self-declared progressives hold a counter-celebration called the ‘Day of Tolerance’.
Regional colloquialisms reflect this ambivalence in daily language use, with racially
inflectedphraseslike‘tohaveMoorsandChristians’(tohaveafight)existingalongside
aplethoraofArabictoponymsthroughoutthecitycentre.Emergentdebatesaboutthe
merit of Muslim requests for halal food options or permission to wear the hijab in
schoolssharenewspaperpageswithphotographicreportsontheinterceptionofclan-
destineor‘drug-smuggling’migrantsatGranada’scoastline,eachelicitingbothsym-
pathy and outraged fear from different readers. Sometimes ambivalence about
pluralismcoloursindividuals’attitudesandpractices.Forinstance,thesameGranadi-
nos who proudly shuffled global tourists (and me) to the Moorish-built Albayzín
neighbourhood,recommendingfalafelstandsandMoroccanpotteryshopstovisit,also
encouraged me to avoid Moroccan neighbourhoods because of the dangerous‘moro’
(epithet for Muslim) men there. In short, ambivalence about outsiders – especially
migrantsandMuslims–shapesdebatesbetweenopposingpoliticalsectors,aswellas
individualGranadinos’complexeffortstoconsume,display,butalsoregulatemigrant,
Muslimpresence.ThisambivalencealsoplaysapivotalroleinconceptionsofAndalu-
sian history and identity, circulating widely and permeating everyday social interac-
tionsinGranada.
Suchambivalencealsoclearlystructurestheinterplayof anti-racistnarrativesand
racistpracticesinGranada’simmigrantNGOs.Thisarticlethusmaintainsthattrans-
formationsinAndalusians’understandingsofregionalidentity,andthecomplexinclu-
sionandexclusionofnewresidentsoftheregionapparentinNGOcontexts,cannotbe
understoodapartfromoneanother.Theremainderof thisarticledescribestheNGO
fieldworkcontext,thereshapingofNGOworkers’understandingsofwhatitmeansto
beAndalusianthroughNGOwork,andtheirstratifiedcaregivingforandgatekeeping
of immigrantclients.
NGO fieldwork
SpanishNGOsemergedonagrandscaleduringthesands,alongsideSpain’s
transitiontodemocracy,thecreationofawelfarestate,andthenation’sfirstcompre-
hensive immigration law. The ‘Alien Law’ marked new legal divisions between
citizens and non-citizens, establishing visa requirements for foreigners. Subsequent
revisionsofthelawhaveincludedlarge-scaleamnesties,butalsogreaterrestrictionson
immigration, increased detentions and repatriations, and more militarized border
surveillance(Calavita&Suárez-Navaz).
Immigration-focusedNGOshaveemergedandevolvedinthispoliticalpanorama.
Many arose in response to new legal restrictions on immigration that systematically
pushedimmigrantsintosocial,political,andeconomicmarginality,creatinganeedfor
specialized social services (Alegre Canosa ; Blanch ; Calavita ). The
foundersof manyNGOscamefromsocialsectorsdisillusionedwiththe‘pact’of the
democratic transition.Fearing resurgence of the bitter polarizations that had fuelled
thebloodyscivilwar,transitionleadersembracedapoliticsofreconciliationand
consensustosecuredemocracy(Aguilar;Benedicto;Edles).Theresult-
ingpoliticalcentrismanddemobilizationofSpanishsocietydisappointedthosehoping
for radical change,and many turned to non-governmental frameworks for activism.
New NGOs were nevertheless linked to the state: they depended on subsidies, were
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conditioned by immigration laws, and had to collaborate with local politicians for
programmeimplementation(Dietz;García-CanoTorrico).
IwillcallthetwoNGOswhereIconductedresearchfromtoImmigrant
Services (IS) and Pro-Equality (PE). IS is a prominent organization with excellent
connections to government agencies and local media outlets. With lawyers, social
workers, language instructors, and job training specialists on staff, IS offers more
servicesthansmallerNGOs.Thelargestgroupsofclientsduringmytenuretherewere
Moroccan men and women and Sub-SaharanAfrican men,but clients also included
immigrantsfromelsewhere.PEissmalleranddevotedmorebroadlytofightingracism.
Its clientele thus includes, but is not limited to, immigrants. Despite offering fewer
services,PEisquiteactive,organizingmulticulturaleducationprogrammesinschools
andprovidingtechnologyeducationandaccessforimmigrants.
At both places I interviewed staff members, volunteers, and immigrant clients,
observedmeetingswithclientsandlocalgovernmentactors,attendedmediaappear-
ancesandsocialevents,andworkedasavolunteer.Igainedadetailedsenseofthekinds
of scenarios, questions, and crises that staff faced on a daily basis, as well as the
emotionalfatigueandstresstheyaccumulated.Thus,whilethisarticlecriticallyanaly-
ses how,despite good intentions,NGO-immigrant encounters were often shaped by
racialandgenderedprejudice,Idonotwanttoerasethoseintentions.Ididnotagree
with all of my coworkers’/research participants’ actions,but I respect their commit-
ment to providing necessary, sometimes lifesaving services that the Spanish govern-
ment‘outsources’,asNGOstaffersliketoputit,totheseunderfunded,hard-working
organizations.
NGOstaff:performingregionalmodernity
ThroughavarietyofactivitiesattheseNGOs,staffself-consciouslyreconfiguredtheir
narratives of regional identity, positioning themselves as new, transformed Andalu-
sians whose modernity lay in shouldering the responsibility for care and defence of
immigrants.NGOstaffincludedageingnuns,formerpoliticalagitatorswhohadpro-
tested against Franco,and middle-aged,left-leaning professionals.The vast majority,
however,werecollegestudentsorgraduatesintheirtwentiesandthirtieswhobecame
newly politicized in the NGO context. Most described themselves as politically apa-
theticpriortoenteringtheNGOworld,andashavinglittlepreviousknowledgeofor
interest in issues of social justice or immigration. Reiterating common tropes about
Andalusian ‘retraso’ (retardation or slowness), these young people explained that
because their parents had been labour emigrants,or had suffered unemployment or
politicaloppressionunderFranco,theyhadbeenraisednottolookbeyondwhatsome
called Andalusia’s ‘closed’ (cerrado) society. Indeed, Andalusians often mapped the
distinctionbetweenbeingcerradoorabierto(open)ontobeingoldoryoung,historical
or modern, identifying‘abierto’ attitudes as a marker of a new, democratic, cosmo-
politanmodernity.
ManyNGOstaffmembersdescribedtheirinvolvementinNGOworkasinitiatinga
transitionfromapathytoactivism.Despitetheirupbringings,myinterlocutorsfeltthat
becausetheywerethefirstgenerationinAndalusiatoexperienceupwardmobility,to
reasonablyexpectemployment,andtoliveinademocratic,EuropeanSpain,theywere
uniquely suited to creating a modern, ‘Andalucía abierta’. At the same time, many
confessed to feeling disempowered by their own experiences in the labour market.
Despite widespread teleological narratives of economic and social progress under
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democracy,most of these young adults still experienced underemployment.Prior to
comingtoNGOwork,manyhadworkedseveraltemporaryjobsatonce,orhadbeen
unemployed for long stretches. As a result of government subsidies to NGOs that
stipulatehiringfromlocalunemploymentoffices,manyof myAndalusianinterlocu-
torswereunexpectedlythrustfromunemploymentintoNGOwork.Theypinpointed
findingworkinNGOs,wheretheybecameengagedinpoliticalandsocialprojectsand
forthefirsttimesawthemselvesas‘theprivilegedones’(losprivilegiados)inrelationto
immigrant‘havenots’,asthecatalystforfullyrealizingasenseof ownershipoverand
motivationforshapingAndalusiansociety(forCatalanandFrenchcomparisons,seeV.
Dubois ; Peró ). The Andalusian NGO workers who participated in my
research thus moved from being economically disempowered and relatively unin-
formedaboutimmigration,discrimination,andstateandlocalgovernance,toseeing
themselves as outposts of the government, on the front lines of shaping Andalusia’s
culturalandpoliticalfuture.
Agents of the state
NGO staff quickly began to see themselves as lay agents of the state,as they became
familiarwiththemazeoflocalgovernmentbranchesthroughoutthecitywhosework
pertainedtoimmigrationpolicyand/orsocialservices.ShortlyafterIbeganfieldwork
atPE,Mirai,anewvolunteerandrecentcollegegraduate,broughtmealongtoaseries
of meetings with politicians and funcionarios (state employees) one week.We spent
most of the week lost,on the bus or on foot,trying to locate government buildings.
OnceMiraimanagedtomeetwiththeofficialsshewaslookingfor,theyoftentoldher
she actually needed to go to a different office, far away, to speak with someone else
instead.Whenthishappenedathirdtimeinoneday,Miraisaidtomeinexasperation
aswetrudgeddownyetanothergovernmenthallway,‘Mikaela,howamIsupposedto
helpimmigrantswhenIspendalldayinthehallway!?’Butwithinafewmonths,Mirai
knewtheseofficeswellandoftenreturnedrathergleefullyfrommeetings,armedwith
‘free stuff’ – pens, notepads, and calendars stamped with the Junta de Andalucía
(regional government) logo. She revelled in amassing and dispensing these bits of
paraphernalia,joking,‘Theymakeusseemsoofficial!’
WhileMirai’sexperiencesledhertoenvisionherselfasanextensionofthegovern-
mentauthoritieswithwhomshefrequentlyconferred,Nieve,apaidstaffmemberatIS,
reluctantly became an extension of local government’s surveillance of immigrants
through her work with an employment programme. Nieve matched prospective
Spanish employers with immigrant job-seekers.Her government-subsidized position
required that she enter information about each immigrant client into a spreadsheet
made available for government perusal. Nieve was astounded by the extent of this
government oversight, and remarked, ‘They ask you for so much information, it’s
incredible’. She explained how officials analysed the data on clients when making
decisionsaboutgrantingresidencevisasorcitizenship,saying,
There’vebeencaseswhenthey’vereaditandsaid,‘Hey,yousaidthispersonwasworkingatsuchand
suchplace,anditturnsouttheyaren’t’.Ohyes,goodness,theyhavethisthingverysecured,controlled.
SoIhavetobecarefulwithwhatIputanddon’tput!
Nieve tried to protect and help clients by entering information that achieved the
appearanceof aproductiveworkhistory,attimesfinessinghowlongclientshadheld
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certainjobs,orthecircumstancesunderwhichtheyweredismissed.Yetshealsotried
tokeepinformationaccurateenoughthatthestatewouldnotbecomesuspiciousand
declinerequestsforpapersorcutherfunding.
Nievethusbecameareluctantagentoftheincreasinglygovernmentalizedincorpo-
rationofimmigrants.MichelFoucaultidentifiedtheintersectionofsecurityandpoliti-
caleconomyasthecornerstoneofgovernmentalizedpower.Nieve’sworkexemplified
what he called ‘the ensemble formed by the institutions, procedures, analyses and
reflections’(Foucault:)thatpolicepopulationsthroughregulation,particularly
throughscrutinyofthedegreetowhichindividualsbecomeentrepreneurial,economi-
callyproductivesubjects.Yetevenasshewasrequiredtoparticipateintheemployment
programme,sheroutinelyattemptedtosubvertitbymanipulatingwhatshereported
aboutclients.
Experts on race
AnothercrucialaspectofmyNGOresearchparticipants’re-creationofthemselvesas
responsible for, and capable of, mediating between the state, immigrants, and wider
Andalusian society was their self-conscious cultivation of an enlightened sensibility
about race and racism.In encounters with clients and conversations with coworkers,
NGO workers learned about racism. In the process, they developed politicized anti-
racist sensibilities that helped them solidify new understandings of themselves as
responsible,modernAndalusians.
In fact, NGO staff explicitly linked the development of anti-racist sensibilities to
their new conceptions of themselves as a kind of vanguard of modern Andalusian
identity, drawing on the ambivalent discourses of regional identity and pluralism
discussedabove.TheyoftendecriedracismamongtheirfellowAndalusians,chalkingit
up to lack of education, insular life experiences, or poverty, all familiar tropes from
long-standing,essentializingSpanishnarrativesaboutAndalusians.Inthisway,NGO
staff members’ construction of new selves was as much in relation to ideas of their
region’spast,andtootherAndalusians(thosedeemedunmodernandunsophisticated
for their racism),as it was in relation to clients,state agencies,or identification with
universaldiscoursesof anti-racism.APEvolunteerinherearlytwentiesexplainedto
methatAndalusiahadalonghistoryofracism,specificallytowardsMuslims,causing
localMuslimhistorytobesystematicallyerased.Shewentontosaythatworkinginthe
NGO context had encouraged her to meditate on issues of racism, and argued that
Spain’sMuslimpastwasnotsomethingembarrassingtobesilenced.
Instead,shefeltitwaspreciselythissilencingoftheregion’sMoorishrootsthatheld
Andalusiansocietyback.Sheargued,‘Granadahasbeenal-Andalus.Sothereshouldn’t
beracismhere’.FormanyofmyAndalusianNGOinterlocutors,akeystepinsolidifying
Andalusianmodernitywastoapplythisanti-racistcorrectivetohistoricalreadingsof
theregion’spast.Byappreciatingthecoexistenceof Jews,Muslims,andChristiansas
foundationaltoregionalhistory,theypositionedAndalusiaasuniquelysuitedtotol-
erance, which they saw as a hallmark of modernity and a disavowal of the ‘closed’,
Franco-eraintolerancethattheyfelthadisolatedSpainfromEurope.
These self-consciously progressive attitudes about race were not natural to NGO
staff, but rather were purposefully taught and learned, policed, and performed.
ThroughtheirinteractionsatNGOs,stafflearnedhowtotalkaboutraceinnewways,
nudgingeachotheralongwhenanyone’sunderstandingofracismwasdeemedlacking.
One morning at PE, a volunteer named Alba excitedly told me and several other
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volunteersaboutsomeclientswhohadcomeinearlier,whoseraceshewastryingto
decipher.‘TheyweresomegroupI’veneverevenseenbefore!’sheexclaimed,describing
indetailtheirskincolour,theshapeoftheirlipsandnoses(whichshedemonstratedby
contortingherownface),andtheirheights.Shewasconfusedandfascinatedbythese
clientswhoseemed‘black,butnotblack;indigenous,butnotindigenous’.
Xavi,afellowvolunteer,interrupted,‘Youknow,thewayyou’retalkingaboutraceis
very problematic. Race doesn’t actually exist. I don’t believe that there are different
races,justethnicities,nationalities,Idon’tknow’.Albaandtheothervolunteerstaredat
him,dumbfounded.Xavicontinued,‘If youreadanythingaboutanthropology,you’ll
seethatraces,forexample,aren’treal’.Sittinginachairatthecornerofthetablearound
whichweweregathered,Ihadbeenobservingsilentlyuptothispoint.Atthemention
of anthropology, all heads suddenly swivelled in my direction and stared, waiting.
Reluctanttointerjectwithanykindofpronouncement,IwascajoleduntilIconcurred
with Xavi that, as far as most anthropologists are concerned, race is a socially con-
structed rather than scientifically valid biological category. Everyone nodded and
another volunteer, Cecilia, launched into an extended speech about the social ills of
racism.ShemovedfromadenunciationofslaveryintheNewWorld–‘Slaves!Howcan
onepersonlookatanotherpersonandseethemasaslaveandnotasahuman?’–toan
admonishmentof Europeans’failuretoaddressproblemsplaguingtheAfricanconti-
nenttoday.Throughconversationslikethisone,inwhichtheycritiquedoneanother’s
expertiseaboutracism,andinmediatingbetweenclientsandotherAndalusians,NGO
staffcultivatedperformancesofanti-racism,understoodascrucialtotheirauthenticity
andauthorityasmodern,professionalAndalusians.
Caringforclients
NGOstaffmembersalsotookonthenewroleof‘pastoral’caregivers,regulatingclients’
behaviour, and this in turn solidified their new understandings of themselves as
modern,forward-lookingAndalusians.In‘Omnesetsingulatim’,Foucaultdescribedthe
socialrelationshipsinheringinpastoralpowerasakindofmutationofthoseobtaining
betweenachurchandits‘flock’,inwhichacaregiverorleadersecuresnotholysalva-
tion,butanidentityandpurposeforlife,throughthecareandmanagementofothers.
This care is achieved largely through constructing detailed knowledge about, and
regulatingtheconductof,thosebeingcaredfor(Foucault).Alooseinterpretation
oftheconceptishelpfulforthinkingabouttheNGOinstitutionalsetting,wherestaff
cametoconceptualizethemselvesascaregiversforagroupwhoseneedstheyclaimedto
understandbetterthandidgroupmembersthemselves.
NGOworkers’mostcommonstorieswereofstrugglingtomanage‘difficult’cases.In
NGOparlance,thetermdifficultmodifiedclientswhosephysicalself-presentationand
behaviour(dress,speech,hygiene,punctuality,ordecisionsaboutparenting,whereto
work,andwheretolive)didnotalignwithstaff’sconceptionsofhowmodern,respon-
sible,integratedresidentsofAndalusiaoughttobehave.Staffoftensawscoldingclients
asthemosteffectivewayof helpingthembecomeless‘difficult’.AvolunteeratIS,for
instance,interruptednearlyeveryonewhocamethroughthedoorbyorderingthemto
signupforSpanishlanguageclasses.UponlearningthataMoroccanmanwhospoke
verylittleSpanishhadlivedinSpainfortwoyears,sheaskedhiminaslow,sing-songy
voice,‘But what country are we in?What is the language here? Is it French? No.Is it
Arabic?No.No,it’sSpaaannnniiiish,that’sright’.
JournaloftheRoyalAnthropologicalInstitute(N.S.),-
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642 Mikaela H. Rogozen-Soltar
Thisvolunteer’spersistencesubtlyenactedwhatscholarsofneoliberalgovernmen-
talityhavecalled‘responsibilization’,atacticinwhichsocialillslikepoverty,immigrant
illegality,andotherformsofinequalityareconstructedasresponsibilitiesofindividu-
alsorsocialgroups,ratherthanthestate(Dreyfus&Rabinow;Rose).Blame
is placed on individuals’ improper self-care,rather than on structural problems that
requirepoliticalsolutions.Thecontentionthatimmigrants’liveswouldbeeasierifthey
could communicate in Spanish was certainly valid. But when clients arrived with
pressingconcernsaboutworkplaceexploitation,financialwoes,orpolicebrutality,only
to be lectured that the root of their troubles lay in their own failure to master the
Spanishlanguage,theybecamefrustrated.Inreorderingtheseconversations,thisvol-
unteersubstitutedattentiontothesystemicinequalitiesthatconditionedimmigrants’
lives with an insistence on instead blaming immigrants’ (linguistic) self-presentation
fortheirproblems.
Elena: from unemployment to indignant activism
ThestoryofElena,aPEvolunteer,illustratestheroleofencounterswithclientsinNGO
workers’ processes of self-formation,as well as the interaction of their simultaneous
rolesasnewagentsofthestateandoccasionalcriticsofstatepolicy.Likemanyofher
colleagues,ElenacametoPEdespiteadegreeinanunrelatedfield.Nearthebeginning
of myfieldworkatPEin,shedescribedgettingherjobthere:
Iendedupworkinghereinasuper-randomway.IcamefromINEM[anationalemploymentoffice]
...Ithought[PE]waslikeanurses’officeorsomething.ButIcamein,andtheyreallywantedsomeone
withotherqualifications,Imean,I’malibrarian![Laughs]
Elenaexplainedthatwhenhercontractended,shewouldgobacktolookingforlibrary
work.Butlikeotherstaffers,Elenagraduallycametoseeherselflessasanout-of-place
librarian, and more as a person interested in creating a more just Andalusia, and
importantly,assomeonequalifiedtodoso.ThecontrastbetweenElena’sinitialviewof
herplacementatPEashaphazardandherultimatesenseofauthorityandexpertiseis
clear when comparing the quote above to her handling of a case near the end of my
fieldworktwoyearslater.
WhenIarrivedatPEonanearlysummereveningin,Elenawasintheoffice
with two -year-old Moroccans and a colleague. The Moroccans had entered Spain
clandestinelyasboysseveralyearsearlier,werepickedupbythepolice,andheldata
state-run centre for unaccompanied, undocumented immigrant minors in Granada.
Uponturning,theywerenolongerwardsofthestateandhadleftthecentre,butdid
nothavejobsorhomeswaitingforthem.Elenahadbeenonthephoneforoveranhour
trying to find them beds at a homeless shelter. Eventually, she found a shelter that
wouldbeopeningitsdoorsinthenexthour,andiftheboysgotinline,theymighthave
achanceof beingadmitted.
Elena immediately began a long speech, coaching the boys about how to behave
whentheyarrivedattheshelter,evenasshehurriedthemoutthedoorsotheywould
notbelate.Inastern,motherlytoneshesaid:
Youreallyhavetobehavewell.Youhavetobeontime.Iftheytellyoutobethereat,youbethereat
:.Andyouhavetostandinlineandwait.Doyouknowwhat‘line’means?Youhavetobepolite,
anddon’tsmoke,andlisten–youcan’tbegettinginanyfightswithanyone,orgivinganyonebad
JournaloftheRoyalAnthropologicalInstitute(N.S.),-
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Description:legacy of Andalusia's medieval Muslim past, produces both inclusion and exclusion of migrants. On the one hand, Andalusian NGO staff have developed a discourse of anti-racism in which care for I've come here with nothing', and who knows what else, and then later it turns out they had family, had.
