Malays in Spain
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Malays_in_Spain".

Malay Spaniards
Total population
Regions with significant populations
Madrid, Barcelona
Languages
Spanish, Malay, Indonesian, English, Dutch
Religion
Buddhism (chiefly Theravada), Islam
Related ethnic groups
Malays (ethnic group), Cocos Malays, Malays of Christmas Island, Malay race

Malays in Spain make up a part of overseas Malay population. Malays came to Spain from Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brunei which were victims of World War II. Though Islam usually unites Malays, over half of Malays in Spain are Buddhists, by either professing it traditionally or converting prior to or even after immigration. Although Filipinos are also considered ethnic Malays, the Philippines is Christianized and the Filipinos who settled in Spain came after Spanish territorial control of the Philippines and were Hispanicized. Thus, Filipino Spaniards are never regarded by Spaniards as “Malays”.

In recent times, Malay settlers in Spain came from Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore. Most of these live as students, academics, professionals, and workers.

Malays speak Spanish and may speak Malay language. Colonial languages may be spoken according to their origin: those of Malaysian, Singaporean, and Bruneian origin speak English as those countries were ruled by United Kingdom and those of Indonesian background speak Dutch as Indonesian was controlled by The Netherlands.

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