Citizens, stateless, exiled and migrants of the diaspora from Equatorial Guinea people in the Community of Madrid

Abstract

Historic structural conditions from colonialism, power political structures coming from franquismo, and current processes of capital globalization are factors explaining that Equatorial Guinea has become a postcolonial country expelling refugees and migrants to is former colonial metropole (Spain) since its independence in 1968. This migratory movement is an example in which we can observe how postcolonial structural conditions linking sending and receiving countries and social networks affect current refugees and migrants’ dynamics as well as the development of postcolonial transnational relationships. Based on ethnographic research done with refugees and migrants from Equatorial Guinea settled in the Madrid metropolitan region, this article describes and analyzes how these factors affect their modes of incorporation and adaptation to this host metropolitan area while maintaining social and cultural relationships with their home societies.