Somos Melillense - Borders and boundaries in a Spanish city in Morocco

This dissertation is based on a 5,5 month fieldwork in Melilla, a Spanish city in northeastern Morocco. The city is about 13 km2, and had a population of 85,497 in 2014. Melilla was conquered in the extension of “la reconquista”, where the Spanish Monarchs defeated the last stronghold of Al-Andalus, the Kingdom of Granada. Initially, the city was conquered to defend the Iberian Peninsula against a new invasion from North Africa, and until the late 19th century, the city was mainly a military fortress. The city was rapidly populated from the early 20th century. From 1912-1956, the city was part of the Spanish Protectorate in Morocco, and during this time, a new conflict broke out between the Spanish and the surrounding Rifian tribes. The politics of Melilla has long been one of exclusion, as the Muslim inhabitants were not granted Spanish citizenship until the mid-80s. Today, the city has become famous as a migration hub, and a six meter high fence surrounds the whole city. In this thesis I will explore some theoretical concept with the empirical material I collected in Melilla. I have made a separation between borders and boundaries. Borders will be defined as the outer edges of the territorial unit called the nation-state, whilst boundaries are defined as surrounding ethnic and social groups. This separation is however done to see how they cooperate and are intertwined. A boundary is the point where two things become different, and all borders are consequently boundaries, but not vice versa. The point where two things becomes different has proven to be difficult to pinpoint, and this thesis is an attempt to trace the negotiations that happen in the border – boundary nexus. Today, Melilla is facing a demographic shift, where the Spanish Muslim will convert from being a minority into becoming the majority population in Melilla. In this thesis, I will explore the relationship between international mobility, Spanish nationalism in the margins of the nation-state, and the way ethnic reconfigurations are handled in the face of a demographic shift. The mechanisms for inclusion and exclusion on the Spanish – Moroccan frontier are influenced by a mixture of historical periods and events, and recent identity politics