Al-Andalus Rediscovered

As a former New York Times correspondent Marvine Howe covered areas of Africa, the Middle East, Europe and Latin America. Here, Howe turns her attention to the Iberian Peninsula; Spain and Portugal, where she examines the recent migration of Muslims, during the last fifty years, into the region and the impact this had made on the receiving societies. Large scale immigration began during the 1960s with the arrival of Moroccans seeking to secure employment at a time of a buoyant labour market. New settlers are predominantly economic migrants from North Africa, and sub-Saharan African, former Portuguese colonies with lesser numbers of South Asians, Eastern Europeans and South Americans. They range from wealthy industrialists to destitute illegal immigrants. The debate about immigration is at the heart of contemporary political discourse across the European Union and focuses on unresolved issues surrounding entitlement, who is able to migrate and which groups should be permitted to access employment, resources and social welfare support. Frequently, distinctions are drawn between deserving and undeserving immigrants. Many of Europe’s immigrants are Muslims, which serves to intensify the debate on the place of Islam in Europe.