When I was doing my fieldwork, I made sure to go to both Ceuta and Melilla.
for Ceuta I crossed on foot from Tangier, but for Melilla I just flew in and out, and even that was a little messy with my visa issues.
it was strange, Melilla was like... dead? there just weren't that many people out doing anything. They also had like the last statue of Franco if that means anything.... also some nice art deco/old architecture that you don't really see in other places.
Ceuta was basically like any small 'european' mediterranean city. pretty fully 'europeanized' whereas Melilla still felt a lot more like Morocco in terms of architecture and the vibe and what languages you would hear and all that.
as an aside: if you read Border and Rule by Harsha Walia, she has a section, albeit not super detailed, about this border, but in general about the externalization/outsourcing of border security to non-european countries.
When I was doing my fieldwork, I made sure to go to both Ceuta and Melilla.
for Ceuta I crossed on foot from Tangier, but for Melilla I just flew in and out, and even that was a little messy with my visa issues.
it was strange, Melilla was like... dead? there just weren't that many people out doing anything. They also had like the last statue of Franco if that means anything.... also some nice art deco/old architecture that you don't really see in other places.
Ceuta was basically like any small 'european' mediterranean city. pretty fully 'europeanized' whereas Melilla still felt a lot more like Morocco in terms of architecture and the vibe and what languages you would hear and all that.
as an aside: if you read Border and Rule by Harsha Walia, she has a section, albeit not super detailed, about this border, but in general about the externalization/outsourcing of border security to non-european countries.