‘From here’ is not enough

Blog post by Cristina Rodríguez-Reche, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain

In Spain, children of Maghrebi–Spanish couples are often portrayed as the generation for whom belonging will finally be easier. Having a native parent, growing up ‘with us’, and navigating multiple environments are assumed to smooth the path. In this narrative, mixedness equals integration. Everyday life, however, tells a more complicated story.

In interviews I conducted with young women aged 18 to 30, one situation appeared again and again. They were asked where they are from. When they answer ‘from here’, the response rarely satisfied. The conversation continues until Morocco, or North Africa, emerges. In that moment, almost everything loses relevance. What matters is how they are read.

Mixedness does not necessarily eliminate difference. It is often eclipsed by racialized ideas about Muslimness. My Identities article, ‘Racialized identities in a postcolonial context: exploring religious identification processes among daughters of Maghrebi-Spanish couples in Spain’, examines how these repeated encounters shape religious identification. Rather than treating religion simply as belief or practice, I approach it as a social position forged through recognition, doubt and exclusion. Identity is produced in interaction. It takes form when one is accepted, questioned or misrecognized.

One frequent response is a reactive reinforcement of Muslim identification. When women are persistently treated as if they do not quite belong, Islam can become a firmer point of reference than nationality. Several participants told me that if they are going to be labelled Muslim anyway, they want to decide for themselves what that label means.

From this perspective, practices such as wearing the hijab may express faith, but they can also be ways of confronting stigma or reclaiming representation. What appears externally as an imposed identity may internally be experienced as a deliberate act of definition.

Yet the same social environment can generate a different strategy.

Other interviewees preferred to keep religion private, fluid, or even unnamed. Some spoke of spirituality, or of believing in God ‘in my own way’, avoiding clear affiliation as Muslim or Catholic. This should not be interpreted as indifference. Rather, it often reflects a careful reading of the penalties attached to visible Muslimness.

Family histories are crucial. Many parents anticipated discrimination long before their daughters encountered it directly. Avoiding prayer in front of guests or downplaying religious education were described as protective moves (attempts to minimize future racist barriers). What may look like individual preference is therefore shaped by a broader climate of inequality.

Assertion and discretion are not opposites. They are responses to the same structural condition: Muslimness remains politicized and frequently imagined as external to national belonging. Having a mixed background may diversify personal trajectories, but it does not automatically transform public recognition.
Listening to these young women unsettles comforting narratives of inevitable integration. Intimacy does not erase entrenched imaginaries. Even those who have never lived elsewhere can still be positioned as coming from somewhere else.

At the same time, their accounts are deeply reflexive. They evaluate expectations, shift registers and make strategic decisions about when to display, when to explain and when to remain ambiguous. Agency here does not mean escaping constraint. It means navigating it.

Seen from this angle, religion becomes more than faith. It is a key arena where race, gender and belonging continue to be negotiated in contemporary Europe.

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Image credit: Photo by E.Diop on Unsplash

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Read the Identities article:
​​Rodríguez-Reche, C. (2026). Racialized identities in a postcolonial context: exploring religious identification processes among daughters of Maghrebi-Spanish couples in Spain. Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power. DOI: 10.1080/1070289X.2026.2631278

Read further in Identities:

​Imbrications of gender and religion in Nordic radical right populism   OPEN ACCESS

Muslim women as ‘ambassadors’ of Islam: breaking stereotypes in everyday life   OPEN ACCESS

Religion and race: the need for an intersectional approach