During the section on xenophobia in one of my seminars this past week, I posed the question to the class: what are some stereotypes that they have here in Spain for foreigners? Immediately the classroom came to life with the shouts of various stereotypes. Once the class settled down a bit, I called on a few of the more vocal students to hear their specific examples. The first and most consistent stereotype directly related to the topic of my final paper: Moroccan immigrants in Spain. “Moroccans are bad drivers,” said one of the boys, to which the entire class burst into a laughter of agreement. Another boy was quick to add that women are also bad drives – a common stereotype in the United States as well – and as if it was Math class, one of the quick-witted boys promptly reasoned that Moroccan women were then in fact the worst drivers of all. There were other negative stereotypes made such as Moroccans are poor, beggars, or robbers; one girl even went as far as to say “terrorists.”
We began talking about the dangers of stereotypes and when asked if they knew all the Moroccan immigrants in the world, let alone all the Moroccans in Spain, they collectively shook their heads. But the following comment took me by surprise. One boy said that it didn’t matter because “they are all the same.” A silence fell over the room and not a single one of his classmates said anything to deny such a bold statement.
I’m not sure if the discussion that followed helped to change or open the mindsets of these youth, but their comments had certainly left an impression on me. The Spaniards’ xenophobic attitude towards Moroccans has been passed on to the country’s future generations.
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