Final Report Summary - MCM DYNAMICS (The dynamics of pro- and anti-immigrant movements in Italy and Spain) The researcher has completed the investigation of MCM dynamics in Spain and Israel. Specifically in Spain, Dr Andits' research dealt with mosque conflicts in industrial Catalan cities in the Barcelona area. These cities proved to be excellent fieldwork sites for studying the interactions between pro- and anti-immigrant movements/actors. In Israel, she has worked in the deprived neighbourhoods of South Tel Aviv and examined the conflicts between locals who opposed the presence of African refugees and non-resident activists who supported the refugees. Although the circumstances and the actors were very different, the researcher came to the conclusion that these conflicts, both in the Catalan and the Israeli setting, are simultaneously about space, identity, faith and power.The project is highly significant both within and outside the academic world. Research about Muslims in Europe is booming and Dr Andits' investigation of the Catalan mosque conflict is an important part of this significant stream of research. Currently Spain’s Muslim population numbers almost a million and a half (Observatorio Andalusí, 2010). Despite the magnitude of Spain’s Muslim population, however, as well as the important historical influence of Islam in the Iberian Peninsula, little has been written on the current integration of Muslims in Spanish society. While in Catalonia, the conflict surrounding immigration currently revolts around the existence and opening of mosques, mosque opposition is far from being a specific Catalan phenomenon. Serious confrontations have broken out lately in several European countries as well as the US over the establishment of mosques. Much of the current research on Islam in Europe focuses on the way Muslims adapt to their new Western surroundings. These studies have tended to focus on how public policies and attitudes regarding mosques, have been shaped by national philosophies of integration, entrenched models of religious governance, and established understandings of the place of religion in the public sphere. Dr Andits’ results indicate that the reception of mosques is also conditioned by the history, culture, and structure of the local communities in which they are established. This investigation is a proof that ethnographic works can attend to the processes of meaning-making within conflicts. Due to its refined methodology and the long duration of ethnographic research, this research results in a more nuanced picture of such conflicts and thus contribute to a more sophisticated theorization of racism and immigration studies.After finishing her fieldwork in Spain, Dr Andits moved to Israel to conduct the second part of the research. The Israeli landscape fraught with tension and conflict provided an excellent field for examining movement counter-movement dynamics. Although racism against Palestinians in Israel has been widely documented, little attention has been paid to current asylum seekers from Africa. This research is an important contribution to this neglected field of research. The issue of non-Jewish immigration has far-reaching sociological and political importance. First and foremost, it confuses the well-established boundaries of belonging and citizenship, namely Israelis versus Palestinians. Second, the presence of asylum seekers have been turned into a security issue in Israel, further escalating the culture of fear within society. Political discourses stigmatise asylum seekers, as being responsible of urban insecurity and delinquency a threat to the fragile demography of the country and a direct security hazard. Although localised in South Tel Aviv, Dr Andits’ research highlighted wider social and ethnic problems within the Israeli society, such as the Ashkenazi-Mizrahi issue, which serves as an underlying core in much of the mobilization contra or pro refugees. In terms of theoretical insights, Dr Andits’ research has highlighted and advanced several neglected aspects within the social movement literature. First of all she has adopted a dialogic approach to movement/counter movement dynamics. In particularly she applied the dialogic lens to examine the framing processes and emotions within movements. Although the dialogic aspect is ignored in the framing literature this model of framing processes can illuminate the complex relationship between oppositional actors and demonstrate the ways in which they produce alternative meanings for discourses, key tropes, and cast various roles for each other. The dialogism that helps to illuminate the changes of frames within the framing competition is also applied to the examination of emotions within the same context.
