Censos y etnicidad en España. Historia de una ausencia

Abstract

In Europe, the pragmatic use of ethnic categories has been considered for the collection of census information. This consideration is not free from social and political conflict, where this "sensible" information may be useful for antidiscrimination subjects as for classification and profusion of exclusion and (state) racism. In any case, these census projections have turned into consideration due to the visibility that certain second generation immigrants have once they are recognized as nationals, disappearing from statistics in the form of "foreigners". With different European scenarios, always in their context and partly in conflict with their own colonial past heritage, dissimilar results have been seen at the end of the search for this possible inclusion. This paper looks at a possible resistance to ethnic classification in the Spanish national census, taking in consideration its ethnic and cultural internal disposition (caught in a center-periphery tension) as for inner characteristics for the Spanish case, going through its colonial particularity and presenting a comparative context close to two outstanding European neighbors.