Gender and ethnocentrism in borderlands: how southern Spanish girls and boys represent the moroccan "other".

Research in the interdisciplinary field of border studies and in the social psychology of intergroup relations has come to inconclusive results with regards to ethnocentrism in borderlands. Do borders function primarily as passageways that foster contact and the recognition of similarities between "us" and "them", ultimately leading to a hybridisation of identities? Or does life at a border rather incite differentiation and hostility between neighbouring groups? By contrasting female and male voices, this paper investigates how 100 adolescents in Algeciras (Southern Spain) make sense of the presence of the moroccan "Other" in their life-spaces. Via focus group interviews, a questionnaire and word association games, we captured the young people's social representations of their Moroccan neighbours and analysed these from a meso- or group-level perspective using a mixed methods approach. We find that levels and patterns of hostility towards Moroccans are strikingly different between boys and girls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]