ABSTRACT
In recent years, immigration to Spain from the Maghreb has given rise to competing narratives about the Strait of Gibraltar. Two of the major sources of information on immigration in Spain, the mass media and European immigration policies, have tended to perpetuate the idea of separation between the two shores, focusing on Spain and its confrontation with the “Other” by emphasizing the foreign character of the immigrant who, upon crossing the Strait, becomes an “outsider,” always different. This is not, however, the only approach to immigration available to a Spanish audience. Multiple organizations—some funded by the Spanish government, some by the European Union—and several literary and filmic texts, have started to fashion an alternate account, emphasizing the Strait as a connection between the two shores. Indeed, one of the dominant figures in this second discourse is the motif of “two shores,” which will be examined in this chapter.
