Marta Kluszczyńska
Migration Studies – Review of Polish Diaspora, Vol. 3 (185), 2022 (XLVIII), pp. 41-60
https://doi.org/10.4467/25444972SMPP.22.022.16723Sahrawis migrating to Spain from the refugee camps in Tindouf (Algeria) are trapped in a legislative matrix of regulations and their changing interpretations. Their legal situation results both from the previous colonial ties between Western Sahara and Spain and from Spain’s contemporary migration policy. The text will describe the main problems of Sahrawis applying for Spanish citizenship, as well as the ongoing process of post-colonial revival of Spanish citizenship for the community as a whole –both based on the addition of Sahrawis to Article 22.1 of the Spanish Civil Code (recognising historical ties and reducing the time of residence in Spain required to apply for citizenship), and through the Sahrawi community’s advocacy of recognition of Spanish citizenship for those living in the Spanish Western Sahara before 1976 and their descendants.
Marta Kluszczyńska
Migration Studies – Review of Polish Diaspora, Vol. 1 (183), 2022 (XLVIII), pp. 137-155
https://doi.org/10.4467/25444972SMPP.22.001.13888Algerian-based Sahrawi refugee camps were established 46 years ago. From that moment, Sahrawis have continuously migrated within organized mobility projects and individually. The aim of the article is to describe this migration as well as critically analyse the state of research. On the basis of a literature review, I have identified both research gaps and some methodological and analytical tendencies: a lack of reliable statistical data, a focus on easily accessible locations and certain groups of migrants, the problem of relating contemporary migration to nomadic traditions, ahistoricism and a lack of processualism in the description of Sahrawi migration, the problematical question of gender in migration processes and the agency of migrants within refugee regimes. Overall, the article introduces the question of Sahrawi migration within a protracted refugee situation and raises questions for further research.