ABSTRACT

This chapter explores how the issue of integration has become a lightning rod for discussions about Muslim North African communities in contemporary Spain, focusing on representations and analysis of the experiences of Moroccan children in and in relation to school. Texts studied include recent legislation concerning naturalization, Law 19/2015, which established a direct relationship between integration and a path to citizenship through residence; ethnographic studies about the integration of the children of immigrant families in Spanish schools by Luisa Martín Rojo et al., Colectivo Ioé, and Inmaculada M. García-Sánchez; and two fictional texts centered on young women negotiating their cultural identity: Xavi Sala’s short film Hiyab (2005) and Najat El Hachmi’s novel La hija extranjera [The Foreign Daughter] (2015).