Between assimilation and transnationalism : a socio-cultural case study of Spanish migration to Hampshire and Dorset (1950s -1970s)

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to analyse the socio-cultural experiences and modes of incorporation deployed by Spaniards who settled in the South of England between the 1950s and 1970s, assessing the motivations behind their decision to migrate and the impact that long-term settlement in the United Kingdom has had upon their identifications and sense of belonging.

In addition, since this migration substantially overlaps with a dictatorial regime in Spain, the thesis problematises the presence of the ‘political’ with regards to a migratory episode that has traditionally been explained in mere ‘economic’ terms.

Adopting a migration systems’ approach to situate this  migratory episode within the wider historical contexts of Spanish and European migrations, I examine the socio-economic and political conditions prevailing in Spain and Britain as countries of origin and destination, paying particular attention to their respective migration policies.  I then concentrate on the issues, processes, and events that have shaped the migrants’ individual and group experiences, focusing on their patterns of integration and identification behaviour.  I do this by examining two social interactional spheres:  Spanish associational practices and language use, using a triangulation method that contrasts data emerging from migrant oral history interviews with participant-observation of local Spanish associational life and archival information relating to Spanish presence in Britain during the 1970s and early 1980s.

I argue that the pattern of integration adopted by first-generation Spanish migrants has been predominantly assimilationist and often determined by pragmatic considerations and personal choices.  From a socio-cultural perspective however, migrants have preserved certain Spanish cultural attachments and social practices which would point in the direction that certain transnational forms of identification, linkages, and practices coexist with a considerable level of acculturation into the host society.

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