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. These Malays came from different ethnic groups but it is their Malay cultural assimilation and their religion Islam that unites them together as ethnic Malays. 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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