Introduction

As a result of globalisation and the process of European integration, European societies are experiencing great migration movements that continue to diversify their populations. Therefore, one of the actual challenges to European countries is peaceful coexistence of citizens, who very often are troubled by the rise of prejudice, xenophobia and intolerance.

In the Region of Murcia we have one of the most paradigmatic examples of this migration process. The quantitative data shows it clearly: ten years ago, the portion of foreigners in the Region was only 1%, and these were mainly from developed parts of Europe. Today the portion of immigrants is 12.3%, and they come from many different countries. Most people come from Maghreb (mainly from Morocco) and Latin America (mainly Ecuador), although more and more are coming from Eastern Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Quantitatively the strongest foreign community in the Region of Murcia is the Ecuadorians. In fact, in 2006 the official statistic sources recorded 55,624 Ecuadorians, which amounts to 4.16% of the total population of the Region. If we compare this figure with the total number of foreigners, this means that 33.7% of all foreigners in the Region of Murcia are Ecuadorians. It should be noted that these figures do not include illegal immigrants, a group living in very precarious conditions.

At the Department of Anthropology of the Catholic University San Antonio in Murcia (UCAM), a group of researchers has been studying the situation of immigrants for over four years. The quantitative importance of the Ecuadorian community was one of the reasons why we decided to start a project that tackled different aspects of the coexistence between Ecuadorians and Spaniards.