El Ejido riots

From 5 to 7 February 2000, the Spanish town of El Ejido in the province of Almería experienced race riots against its Moroccan agricultural workers.

[3][4][5] Long a country of emigration to Latin America and northern Europe, Spain began to be a migrant destination at the end of the 20th century.

In the province of Almería, intensive agriculture became a major economic sector, employing 100,000 migrants earning the equivalent of US$25 per day.

[3] On 22 January 2000, a Moroccan migrant worker named Cherki Hadij was throwing rocks at a dog when he was confronted by farmer José Ruiz, who was travelling by van with his wife and children.

[6] Hadij denied the charges against him, but was found unanimously guilty in July 2002 due to the testimony from Ruiz's family and the evidence of Bonilla's blood in his fingernails.

It is titled Después de las ocho (After Eight) due to a quote by the town's mayor Juan Enciso on migrants "At eight they're few in number, after eight [in the evening] they're everywhere".

Manuel Ángel Río Ruiz (2002) argued against the prevailing view that ethnic segregation caused the violence, instead finding the opposite: the locals were rebelling against how rapid immigration was dismantling social closure.