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The intricate relationship between border control and migrations is the core puzzle of this paper, which takes voluntary returns from Morocco as a case study and autonomy of migration (AoM) as a theoretical framework. More precisely, the paper examines voluntary returns from the perspective of migrants themselves to grasp border control through the lens of its disputed, distorted and sometimes subverted implementation. The paper draws on data collected during fieldwork conducted between 2016 and 2018 in Morocco, including ethnographic observations and interviews with staff from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), migrants and local intermediaries. It focuses on the case of sub-Saharan migrants leaving Morocco through "Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration" programmes led by IOM and confronts empirical data with the AoM theoretical framework. The paper demonstrates that migrants' entangled appropriations of return are defined in close relationship with a wide range of actors intervening during the process of return. Ultimately, migrants reformulate the meaning of their involvement in voluntary return into strategic, moral, relative, and symbolic terms. However, these entangled appropriations of a deportation device simultaneously reinforce social norms and institutional regulations underlying migration dynamics and border control. Eventually, the paper draws conclusions on the political effects of migrants' entangled appropriation of a deportation device on the production of intertwined im/mobility regimes between the Mediterranean and sub-Saharan Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper demonstrates that Moroccan immigration policymaking is intrinsically tied to the monarchy's authoritarian consolidation agenda. Drawing on archival research and 87 semi-structured interviews conducted between 2011 and 2017 with Moroccan high-level civil servants, international and national civil society representatives, the paper dissects power dynamics among state and societal actors involved in Morocco's 2013 immigration reform. The analysis shows that immigration policy liberalisation not only emerged out of Morocco's autocratic political structures – a dynamic I call the 'illiberal paradox' – but at the same time consolidated them. In particular, the Moroccan monarchy used the 2013 'liberal' immigration reform to pursue three interrelated goals: (1) to perform Morocco's human rights commitment on the world stage and the regime's responsiveness to domestic pressure for political reform, (2) to consolidate the monarchical institution within Morocco's state apparatus and (3) to (at least partially) co-opt Moroccan civil society for humanitarian migration management, thereby silencing dissent in other arenas. At the same time, however, the analysis reveals that the regime consolidation strategy and the King's portrayal as a 'liberal' monarch did not cancel out deeply rooted dynamics among and between state and civil society actors, which required both sides to adapt their cooperation or resistance strategies. Ultimately, the paper showcases that immigration politics reflect the power dynamics within and the legitimation strategies of the Moroccan monarchy. Immigration policy research thus offers a privileged vantage point from which to analyse broader political regime dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the influence of European migration externalisation policies on civil society initiatives promoting migrants' rights in Morocco. By looking at the nature of NGOs' interventions that aim to benefit migrants' social and economic rights, the paper attempts to uncover the contradictions inherent in the implementation of so-called rights-based approaches to migration management in a context marked by inequality, uneven social development and authoritarian rule. The Moroccan example shows how the EU's efforts have promoted a juridical, administrative and discursively justifiable policy framework in Morocco, in which NGOs could successfully deliver humanitarian aid and advocate for vulnerable migrants' rights to life. At the same time, however, the underlying rationale of distinguishing between the rights of legal and irregular migrants hampers NGOs in promoting a more inclusive approach concerning migrants as target populations of social development policies in the country. This is compounded by a national political context marked by limited opportunities for civil society participation in policy-making processes. By describing the dilemmas created through these tensions, this paper aims to draw attention to overlooked connections between development policies and externalisation measures in the Global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Les Cahiers du CREAD is the property of Centre de Rrecherche en Economie Appliquee pour Developpement and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The current economic crisis in Europe is negatively affecting the working and living conditions of migrants and might change the lives and migration aspirations of non-migrants in regions of origin. In times of recession, previously involuntary non-migrants [Carling, J. 2002. “Migration in the Age of Involuntary Immobility: Theoretical Reflections and Cape Verdean Experiences.”Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies28 (1): 5–42] may become voluntary non-migrants when they start considering immobility as a better alternative to migrating to Europe under uncertain working and living conditions. This paper investigates to what extent perceptions of the economic crisis and the changing opportunities for migrants in Europe might change migration aspirations of non-migrants in Morocco. It draws on the results of a survey of 2000 non-migrants and of 80 in-depth interviews collected in 2010 and 2011 in 4 Moroccan regions for the EUMAGINE project. This case study also provides an opportunity to analyse, from the perspective of the sending regions, how ideas and information about migration can have different direct and indirect effects in various regions depending on people's micro- and macro-level circumstances – in other words, according to people's living conditions and capabilities and the migration history and opportunities available to them locally and abroad. Beyond explaining the process of these migration feedback loops, the paper points out that besides migration-facilitating and migration-undermining effects, feedback mechanisms can also have a self-correcting effect on migration aspirations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although people with a migration background (MB) have more unmet mental health needs than the general population, patients with a MB are still underrepresented in mental health care services. Provider bias towards these patients has been evidenced repeatedly but its driving factors remain elusive. We assessed the moderating effect of the individual (e.g. age and ethnicity), interpersonal (e.g. healthcare provider trust), and organisational (e.g. perceived workload) factors on general practitioners (GPs) differential decision-making regarding diagnosis, treatment, and referral for a depressed patient with or without a MB. An experimental study was carried out in which GPs were shown one of two video vignettes featuring adult male depressed patients, one with a MB and the other without. Belgian GPs (n = 797, response rate was 13%) had to decide on their diagnosis, treatment, and referral. Analysis of variance and logistic regression were used to analyse the effect of a MB, adding interaction terms for the explanatory variables. Overall, we found that there were ethnic differences in GPs' decisions regarding diagnosis and treatment recommendations. GPs perceived the symptoms of the patient with a MB as less severe (F = 7.68, p < 0.01) and demonstrated a reduced likelihood to prescribe a combination of medical and non-medical treatments (F = 11.55, p < 0.001). Those differences increased in accordance with the GP's age and perceived workload; at an interpersonal level, we found that differences increased when the GP thought the patient was exaggerating his distress. This paper showed that lower levels of trust among GPs' towards their migrant patients and high GP workloads contribute to an increased ethnic bias in medical decision-making. This may perpetuate ethnic inequalities in mental health care. Future researchers should develop an intervention to decrease the ethnic inequities in mental health care by addressing GPs' trust in their migrant and ethnic minority patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to analyse how gender relations interact in labour socialisation in the Moroccan export industry - based on a case study of the city of Casablanca - and the relationship with international migration. The paper uses qualitative research, with analysis based on grounded theory and an intersectional studies approach. The global labour market emerges as a new axis of inequality creating new spaces that keep the majority in a precarious position. The paper's original contribution is to apply the intersectional theoretical framework to the Moroccan context, focusing on a relational view of the categories. Identifying three basic social processes (role of women, crisis of masculinity and migration) allows us to expand the knowledge about this reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the impact of international migration on the transfer of political and social norms. Exploiting recent and unique data on Morocco, this paper explores whether households with return and current migrants bear different political preferences and behaviours than non-migrant families. Once controlling for the double selection into emigration and return migration, the findings suggest that having a returnee in the household increases the demand for political and social change. This result is driven by returnees mostly from Western European countries, who were exposed to more democratic norms in the destination. However, we find a negative impact of having a current migrant on the willingness of the left-behind households to change. This result is driven by migrants to non-Western countries, where the quality of political and social institutions is lower. Our results are robust to also controlling for destination selectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that labour migrants who emigrated from Morocco between the 1950s and the 1970s have experienced a reconfiguration of their power relationships vis-à-vis and within the Moroccan state. The paper examines Moroccan state–diaspora relations and explores the work of transnational organisations that operate between France and Morocco. It draws on fieldwork carried out between September 2012 and January 2013 through interviews with migrant community leaders, Moroccan government officials and migration scholars as well as participant observation within migrant organisations. Over the years, the Moroccan state has engaged in significant reforms to ensure that this emerging diaspora brings economic, social and political benefits to the state. Given that many Moroccan emigrants come from the most economically disadvantaged and politically marginalised regions, their involvement in development initiatives has called into question existing policies and the role of the state. Emigrants’ involvement in activities related to the sending country needs therefore to be included in the analysis of ‘diaspora policies’ in order to account for migrants’ agency. Reflecting on the relevance of Hirschman's conceptual framework in relation to state–diaspora relations in general and the Moroccan case in particular, the paper argues that Moroccan communities abroad have undergone a process of political empowerment and succeeded in getting a ‘voice’ through their ‘exit’ by making their interests visible to the state. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of Moroccan women crossed the border between Melilla and Morocco on a daily basis to work in domestic employment, a consolidated niche sector of cross-border employment for low-skilled working-class women. When the border closed due to COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020, many decided to remain in Melilla. Following the precepts of grounded theory and using biographical interviews, the paper investigates the survival strategies these women deployed following the border closure. An ambivalent process began: on the one hand, their labour conditions worsened, exposing them to worse situations of violence; on the other, they developed strategies of resistance and agency, assuming the role of breadwinner for their families and opting for a process of emancipation through inclusion and training opportunities in the city of Melilla. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of remittances on child labor and education in recipient Moroccan households. Based on propensity-score matching methods, we find a positive effect of remittances on the investment in education. Furthermore, living in migrant households who combine school with work is clearly lower compared to the number of children from households of the control group. Our results show the positive effect of remittances on the schooling of the poor children. It also seems that the partial participation of poor children in work declines significantly through migrant remittances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By describing the everyday lives of African migrant mothers and their children in Morocco, this paper highlights how migration and ‘immobility’ in so-called ‘transit countries’ are gendering and gendered experiences. Relying on migrants' narratives, the paper demonstrates how migrants' transitions to motherhood create both specific and gendered spaces for agency and particular and gendered constraints upon agency that shape women migrants' mobility dynamics in space and time. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recent literature on international migration focuses on the benefits it confers on migrants in the form of better opportunities and living conditions, as well as on households receiving remittance. Although legal migrants in OECD countries often enjoy more rights than they would at home, this paper also looks at some of the negative aspects for sending countries. The paper uses two cases, the Philippines and Morocco, countries that have elaborated large-scale and successful policies to facilitate the export of labor and the flow of remittances. Despite decades of massive migration abroad, Morocco still has surprisingly poor social indicators, whereas the Philippines, despite much higher social indicators, has significant levels of poverty. Despite the long-term use of this development tool, migration, while opening up opportunities for people who leave home, maybe less positive for those who remain behind. Citing the views of migration experts as well as local voices, this paper examines some downsides of migration, including its use as a safety valve for discontent that may actually delay demands for needed domestic reforms that would broaden social rights at home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Like other migrant groups in Catalonia, Moroccans can solicit financial and technical assistance to help better conditions in their localities of origin within the framework of co-development policies. This policy environment reflects international trends of integrating migration and development, including a strengthening of the participatory role of the migrants themselves. Drawing on a qualitative study of Moroccan migrant transnationalism in Catalonia, I analyse the interplay between Catalan actors' support for migrant civic transnationalism and the perception of and participation in projects of co-development among Moroccan migrants. One of the key aims is to explore to what extent timing, that is, the combination of recent patterns of Moroccan migration and the relatively intense debate on migration and development, influences the balance between top-down implementation of the migration development agenda and bottom-up initiatives from the Moroccan migrants. The paper shows how participation in co-development projects varies among Moroccan associations and outlines the main explanations for both involvement and non-involvement. Thus, the paper engages with the growing literature on the relationship of migrants' transnational practices with local and transnational power hierarchies, highlighting the role of receiving-country political actors, policy discourses and initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits conveys a sensitive contemporary message about human life experience within a society that underwent several forms of social and economic hardships. The plot is focused in depicting life struggles of young men and women who have to fight constantly for their survival. These people, in a bid to escape their misery, would attempt to cross Moroccan borders through the Strait of Gibraltar into Spain: that is spatial crossing. Beyond the theme of migration that seems to dominate the entire novel, Laila Lalami discusses other aspects of Moroccan social life. This categorization includes the abuse of power, corruption, and some practices considered contrary to Muslim cultural decency in a country that is fundamentally Islamic: that is societal crossing. This paper investigates how spatial and societal crossings coincide to perfectly balance Lalami's voice through the stories of the four protagonists, Faten, Aziz, Halima, and Murad, all "candidates" for clandestine migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on fieldwork conducted in 2016 and 2017, this paper analyses projects seeking to disrupt irregular emigration in Morocco. Literature has analysed how these programmes transfer repressive migration control norms from European states to origin countries and the problematic representations of migration that they convey. However, scholars have overlooked the trajectory of this migration control tool and have analysed it in isolation from other donor- and state-driven forms of social regulation in migrant sending and transit countries. Against this background, this article explores the social life of preventive projects, comprehending border surveillance as a dynamic process that interacts with other governing strategies in aid-recipient countries. In the first part of the article, I build on Autonomy of Migration theories to analyse the progressive disappearance of dissuasion projects in the early 2010s. I argue that border regimes are unstable and not dependent merely on migration dynamics. In the second part, I draw on scholarship on development securitisation and on non-governmental organisations as alternative sovereign authorities to investigate the reappearance of dissuasion projects as initiatives labelled as 'countering radicalisation'. I contend that migration containment can be conceptualised as part of a wider pattern of donors' intervention in the governance of marginalised Moroccan youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Situated on the north-eastern coast of Morocco, Melilla is a fenced territory of 12 square kilometres under Spanish sovereignty since 1497. Over the course of the twentieth century, and particularly after Spain's incorporation into the European Community (1986), Melilla's fiscal and geo-political status has triggered the growth of a black market economy built on a large variety of cross-border activities, most commonly the smuggling of basic commodities and luxury goods. This paper examines the connections between different forms of exchange linking the Iberian Peninsula to the Spanish enclave of Melilla, and Melilla to the neighbouring Moroccan province of Nador. Different forms of exchange rely on one another – from the family links on which smuggling networks are built, to the migratory tradition which connects Nador to Spain and to a number of European capitals and which has influenced patterns of exchange across the border in unexpected ways. In particular, this paper explores how the assimilation on the part of Nadori emigrants of Western consumption practices, or rather, of what emigrants identify as Western consumption practices, has generated, in Nador, a growing demand for certain goods which are now seen as objects of prestige and markers of status. This demand, in turn, has shaped smuggling practices. It is argued that, in the Melillan context, commodity exchange across the border cannot be properly understood without considering the processes by which certain ideas and conceptions have been appropriated and transformed through long-standing migratory practices linking the Moroccan Eastern Rif to the Iberian Peninsula and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the ethnographic observation of three singular spaces in northern Morocco – a morgue, a “forest” and a presbytery – the paper explores the interconnections between migration experience and border violence from the perspective of migrants themselves. It demonstrates that migrants face at least three forms of border violence, emerging all at once from state control, networks of irregular migration, and humanitarianism. However, rather than being articulated in a cumulative relationship, these different forms of violence converge and reinforce each other within a continuum which permeates the migration trajectory. Migrants, for their part, are not mere objects of this continuum. Not only do they define practices to counter its effects – even if it means generating violence against their peers – but they also reinterpret the experience of violence in moral narratives that value risks in migration, while not naturalizing their exposure to death at the border. Migrants are thus actors in their own right of the “manufacture” of both the border and its composing violence, whether they oppose, or appropriate its effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether and how the GCM will impact national migration orders depends crucially on whether and how both governments and non-state actors engage with it in practice. This article takes Morocco as a case study and focuses on the role of the government and civil society. It asks how far their practices regarding the GCM support its potential as a soft law instrument to impact national migration orders. To undertake a more fine-grained analysis, the article includes an analysis of the implementation of Objective 15 (provision of basic services) as a test case. The paper draws on government reports, civil society reports and semi-structured interviews with policy makers and members of civil society. It identifies good conditions for the GCM to have an impact, in particular Moroccan claimed leadership in migration affaires in Africa; its engagement with the GCM’s review mechanism, and its reliance on the GCM to legitimise migration policies even if some of those policies, as shown by the test case regarding objective 15, are not fully in conformity with the GCM. As to the role of civil society, its impact on the implementation of the GCM is hampered by the sceptical view of most non-governmental organization regarding the GCM. The majority of civil society considers the GCM’s content very problematic and even if a small number of NGOs is positive about (parts of) it, not all of them invoke the GCM in their daily work. The test case regarding Objective 15 shows that NGOs monitoring access to services do not rely on this Objective. Combined with the lack of formal involvement in the national review process, civil society actors are so far unable (or unwilling) to exploit the political potential of the GCM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirically, little is known about the effects of trade liberalisation on the skill composition of emigration flows in developing countries. The available computational literature has focused, for the most part, on United States-Mexico migration patterns after the creation of the North American Free Trade Agreement. More recent works have investigated the relation between trade liberalisation and emigration in Morocco, without looking to the impact of trade liberalisation on skilled and unskilled migration. This paper investigates the effects of trade liberalisation on the skill composition of migrant flows in Morocco. Because trade agreements involve substantial changes in prices, resource allocation and income, they also affect migration incentives, when migration is motivated by the wage differential between receiving and sending countries. Trade liberalisation will be problematic for an unskilled-labour abundant country like Morocco, if it gives incentives to skilled workers to move across borders. An appealing way of addressing this topic is to formulate a dynamic computable general equilibrium model that illustrates the transmission channels by which trade liberalisation affects local wages and migration incentives. The model is calibrated on the Moroccan Social Accounting Matrix of 2003. The results show that both the free trade agreement with the European Union and multilateral liberalisation reduce skilled and unskilled migration flows, still more pronounced in the multilateral case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the huge output of research on Moroccan migration, particularly on the links between migration and development, comparative research between Morocco and other significant countries of emigration has been comparatively limited. We suggest two main reasons for this. First, a substantial quantity of this research is published in Morocco and receives very limited distribution elsewhere. Second, the barrier that is still posed by the French-English linguistic divide is more frequently crossed by Dutch scholars than by native French or English speakers, limiting knowledge of work that falls significantly to one side or other of this linguistic divide. Despite significant literatures in Spanish or Dutch, the bulk of work on Morocco's experience of migration and development appears in French and remains largely unknown in Anglophone circles. We hope that this special issue will contribute to overcoming both of these issues. This introduction reviews the literature on Moroccan migration and development and introduces the key themes of the special issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The migration issue in the Mediterranean region has been widely monitored and assessed in the last decade. Its various socioeconomic causes and impacts—demographic, social, political and economic—have been largely analysed, and, despite differences in the approaches, there has been broad consensus as to the conclusions: that by the turn of the twenty-first century migration would become an explosive issue for the Mediterranean region, and that today we are facing the consequences. The risk described as a ‘demographic bomb’ is no longer a risk; it has exploded and can be seen in the daily dramas along the Italian and Spanish coasts of the Mediterranean basin. The root of the issue can be mainly attributed to the impacts of globalisation: economic marginalisation of the peripheral areas and the political destabilisation of both the countries and the region at large. The failure of the Barcelona Process, followed by the decreasing influence of the EU, has distorted the regional development process from a process of Euro-Mediterranean ‘partnership’ for a ‘shared prosperity’ to the implementation of a ‘free trade area’ and neoliberal policies, with negative social impacts certain to follow. It is demonstrated that migrations from southern Mediterranean countries are the results of both push (marginalisation and destabilisation) and pull (economic concentration and wealth in the North) factors. This paper is part of a larger research project exploring the establishment of new economic–financial links through the actions of migrants between two European countries (Denmark and Italy) and two Arab countries (Morocco and Tunisia), and the problems and benefits that have arisen or have the potential to do so. This paper specifically presents the results for Morocco and focuses on: (i) the amount and direction of the remittances, (ii) their destination in the recipient areas, (iii) their role in local development and, finally, (iv) possible lessons to be learned for the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership. Though remittances represent a very important contribution to Morocco's balance of payments, their role at the microeconomic level is still little explored. By presenting original empirical material collected during a field study conducted by the author in two rural provinces, some important conclusions can be drawn regarding the microeconomic impact of remittances on local development. Qualitative research was used to identify the patterns of utilisation of remittances and the existing institutional framework that coordinates and/or hinders their use. This has enabled the author to pinpoint the existing bottlenecks and some areas of policy intervention to stimulate their productive use and increase capacity to accelerate economic growth. The relevance of these indications in light of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership's co-development objectives is also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The terrorist attacks in Madrid on March 11, 2004 were one of the most traumatic events in recent Spanish domestic history, and have had a profound influence in internal policy as well as determining the strategy of its foreign and security policy. In many sectors it has created a climate in which there are serious negative repercussions in the acceptance and integration of immigrants from Morocco, bearing in mind that most of the people detained and put on trial are from that country but were residing in Spain. However, if the March 11 terrorist attacks are an important factor militating against Moroccan integration in Spain, the truth is that for many years they have had greater difficulties in integrating into the host community than other immigrant groups. This paper argues that Spanish-Moroccan political relations constitute further factors that create special difficulties for Moroccan immigrants in their integration into Spanish society. In order to demonstrate this hypothesis, the paper first describes in section one the specific Spanish migration context, firstly from the demographic point of view, analysing the rapid change of Spain from an emigrant country to an immigrant country and the increase in foreign population over recent years and, secondly from cultural point of view when it discusses the already existing diversities among the different Spanish regions and, finally, from a legal point of view the paper studies the changeable and unstable Spanish law on migration. The main goal of this introductory section is to show the general problems of integration applicable to all immigrant groups living in Spain, including Moroccans. Secondly, in sections two and three, the paper attempts to examine the unequal treatment against Moroccan immigrants and argues that this situation is not only due to Spanish attitudes toward immigrants in general and the social, racial and religious characteristic of Moroccan immigrants but also because there are other political reasons related to the relations between the Spanish and Moroccan Governments that affect the situation of Moroccans in Spain because of their nationality. In order to show this unequal treatment of Moroccan immigrants in comparison with other immigrant groups, section two describes the main examples of clear discrimination: specific racist and xenophobic attacks against Moroccans in Spain; employment discrimination against Moroccans; and the institutional declarations that negatively affect Moroccans. The third section attempts to demonstrate how old and recent political crisis and controversies in the fields of fishing, agricultural, territorial disputes, and illegal immigration controls between both countries constitute factors which have made the integration of Moroccan labourers in Spain more difficult. The fourth section shows how the political crises and conflicts between Spain and Morocco have worsened the Spanish population's perception of Morocco and have influenced the treatment Moroccan immigrants receive in Spain. Finally, the last section contains several conclusions as a warning to the Spanish Government to improve its relations with Moroccan Authorities not only to obtain institutional and political results but also to bring about positive consequences for Moroccans living in Spain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the intersection between fictional literature and language politics in Morocco, by looking at literature that depicts Amazigh communities. Specifically discussed is the contribution of literary texts in ‘other’ languages, whether via translation or original versions, to imagining the potential and limits of Amazigh language promotion on a national and global level. The novelsUn youyou dans la mosquée(A youyou in the mosque),Jo també sóc catalana(I am Catalan too), andIl était une fois un vieux couple heureux(Once upon a time there was a happy old couple) each deals with phenomena that have propelled Amazigh language debates onto the international stage: language standardisation, new technologies that spread cultural production, immigration, and the growing Amazigh diaspora. These three novels describe the (often negative) effects of these phenomena on local communities, while at the same time suggesting that literature can provide a new way to approach these issues. These novels, both in their content and circulation, demonstrate how literature reconfigures readers’ assumptions about the lines between local and global in Amazigh language debates. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The current economic crisis is worsening migrants' living conditions and thus their social and economic integration into EU countries. However, recent literature has not sufficiently considered the strategies that unemployed migrants adopt to cope with this transformation. This article explores the economic and social impact of the recession on migrant workers. In particular, it analyses the coping strategies of unemployed Moroccan and Romanian migrants in Italy, who are the biggest national groups of foreigners. Drawing on 170 in-depth interviews carried out in one of the most dynamic areas of northeast Italy, we find that Moroccan and Romanian migrants adopt different strategies in order to cope with unemployment: the first suffer more from discrimination than the latter in the labour market but can enjoy the economic and social support of extended family and religious community, while for Romanians, it is easier to find a new job, because they can rely on a more diversified social network. Furthermore, migrants of both national groups rarely return to their country of origin, but Moroccans (non-EU nationals) seem to be geographically more mobile than Romanians (EU nationals), who show a resolve to remain in Italy. Finally, unemployed migrants are minimizing their living costs in a very similar way. This paper also studies other differences among interviewees that arise from their gender, age and family model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What role does race play in the construction of illegality in the face of pervasive border control? Sociologists and anthropologists of migration have apprehended illegality as a constructed category, produced by immigration policies and laws aimed at 'illegalizing' established mobility flows. 'Illegality' operates as an exclusionary category not only because it is constructed by law, but also because it is activated by racialized forms of prejudice which structure societies according to hierarchies of dangerousness, visibility and deservedness. Scholars, however, have tended to examine the entanglement between race and illegality by focusing mostly on the experience of black and brown people, especially those coming from poor countries in the Global South, thus overlooking how whiteness influences and alters the workings of border control. Drawing on qualitative data gathered between 2013 and 2019 in Morocco, this article questions the category of 'illegality' as it is policed at the street level and experienced by different groups of foreigners in Morocco. Building on Sara Ahmed's understanding of whiteness as an 'orientation', in this article the author argues that illegality is a label which is racially altered and expanded by border bureaucrats, who use it to differentially police the presence of migrant bodies pre-emptively visualized as legal or illegal. Whereas black people undergo pervasive containment procedures, white privilege allows white migrants to be oblivious of the border, even when their administrative situation is not compliant with migration law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a study of sub-Saharan students in Morocco, this paper addresses the relationship between international student mobility and high-skilled migration and analyses how the increasing movement of sub-Saharan students to Morocco contributes to Morocco's transition to being a country of immigration and to its integration into the sub-Saharan migratory system. By studying the migration trajectories of sub-Saharan students, the article shows how three factors influence the students' movement to Morocco: their aspirations to expatriate, their growing up in cultures of migration and the existence of social networks linking the students to Morocco. The experience of otherness in a transit and immigration country such as Morocco contributes further to the shaping of an identity as transmigrants among students who consider their stay in Morocco as a first step on a longer-term migration that might lead to a second emigration or a permanent settlement in Morocco. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As the number of North African Muslim immigrants in Europe grows, questions of cultural assimilation have moved to the forefront of discussion. Treated as the quintessential Other, Maghribines' long-term presence in France prompted a 2004 ban on religious symbols in public schools; it went without saying that the hijab was the primary target of this restriction. Politicians and public figures in Britain have called Muslim women's veiling practices antithetical to democratic citizenship, while Dutch conservatives have promised a ban on veiling in all public places (Anon 2006a, 2006b; Morris 2006). Spain, however, has developed a more ambivalent cultural and ideological relationship with the Muslim world and with North Africa in particular. Approximately 10% of all immigrants to Spain are from the Maghrib, and about 90% of those are from Morocco (Instituto Nacional de Estadistica). The proximity of Spain has made it an appealing entry point to the rest of Europe, as well as an accessible destination for work. This paper argues that Moroccans' vulnerability in Spain must be understood in terms of the unique ties between the two nations, as well as the specific brand of modern liberalism that has developed in Spain since 1975, the start of that nation's democracy. Key to Spanish liberalism is the defense of women's freedom, which finds voice in teleological narratives of liberation and self-actualisation. Concern over Moroccan women's subjugation to Islam and to male relatives has crystallised in discussions around the hijab, in particular. In this article, I analyse media coverage of hijab controversies in Spain, drawing also on my own fieldwork with Moroccan women and Spanish social service providers in Madrid. I argue for careful consideration of North African othering as a foil for Spanish discourses of progress and modernity - themselves historically situated and contestable variations upon wider European ideologies of liberalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Humania del Sur: Revista de Estudios Latinoamericanos, Africanos y Asiáticos is the property of Humania del Sur. Estudios Latinoamericanos Africanos y Asiaticos and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Based on quantitative and qualitative fieldwork, this paper analyses how internal and international out-migration of men has affected the position of women left behind in a rural area in southern Morocco. The results generally refute the hypothesis that migration changes gender roles. Although international migration and remittances enable women and their families to live more comfortable and secure lives, internal migration often coincides with increasing workloads and uncertainty. Although their husbands' migration leads to a temporary increase in the tasks and responsibilities of women, this new role is generally perceived as a burden and should therefore not be equated with emancipation in the meaning of making independent choices against prevailing gender norms. In a classical “patriarchal bargain”, women prefer to avoid overt rule-breaking in order to secure their social position. Significant improvements in the position of rural women are primarily the result of general social and cultural change, although migration might have played an indirect, accelerating role in these processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under normal political conditions within modern capitalism migration fulfils a function of socio-economic regulation within local societies. Mobility develops as one of a number of social responses of particular populations as part of complex livelihood strategies. But migration and mobility are not open to everyone. The relationship of particular populations to national and international space is complex. Official approaches to migration in Morocco tend to consider the impacts of migration as 'statistical aggregates', abstract and detached from the local context and history of the group. The resulting vision of migration is usually either overly negative, associated with the misery it produces, such as rural exodus associated with growing urban poverty, or overly positive, focusing on international migration and remittances. This paper attempts to put migration in context, in the lives of the groups affected by the territorial reconfiguration and social reproduction provoked by migration. This more grounded anthropological approach enables us to see migration in relation to the weight of historical context and the mechanisms of social change which provoke migration and to which it contributes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most obvious problem facing the Moroccan economy is the rapidly growing demand for employment. Even given the relatively positive levels of economic growth that Morocco has enjoyed recently, this demand is unlikely to be met. Financial transfers from emigrants have long been important but since the end of the 1990s they have rapidly become the source of greatest contribution of foreign exchange to the economy. Using a number of large-scale surveys which the author has been involved in recently, this paper considers the potential contribution of remittances and other financial transfers to resolving the challenges faced by the Moroccan economy. Evidence suggests that a large majority of emigrants plan continued investment projects in Morocco, principally in the service sector. Though the geographical distribution of these investments remains uneven, they will certainly contribute to creating employment in many areas in which it is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of new technologies of communication and information has radically changed Moroccan migrants' relationship with space. Traditionally radio, later telephone and more recently the internet have altered the ways in which Moroccans abroad may create and imagine ongoing contacts with friends and family at home. Despite rapid developments in mobile communications and the growing diffusion of broadband internet connections within Morocco, these technologies have not yet had a major impact on the way in which Moroccan migrants remain in contact with home. For this, satellite television and particularly the transmission of the Moroccan national channel RTM by satellite have made a tremendous difference to the lives of Moroccans abroad. This paper briefly reviews the status of other forms of media and then concentrates on patterns of use of satellite television amongst Moroccans abroad in order to analyse the central role it plays in many households in providing the major link with events in Morocco. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Morocco and Spain share a history of mutual recognition and estrangement dating back centuries. Today, this relationship faces re-interpretation in an age of post-colonial migration, economic disparity, and ambiguous nationalities. The nebulous 'space between two coasts' is an important site of this re-negotiation, one that draws upon cultural links of the past in order to understand the present. Cuentos de las dos orillas [Tales of two shores], a bilingual Arabic-Spanish edition of eight short stories by both Moroccan and Spanish authors created in 1999, employs this cultural legacy in order to re-interpret the Hispano-Moroccan relationship as experienced on either side of the Strait of Gibraltar. The stories engage in an intertwined dialogue, each providing a window into how notions of 'Spanishness' and 'Moroccanness' are dependent upon one another. The author proposes that the result of this cooperative compilation is a 'traslado' (translation/transfer) of cultural memory, thus defining the exchange between Morocco and Spain as one of circularity. By analysing the stories 'Morir lo mas lejos posible' [To die as far as possible] by Antonio Alamo, 'El safor' [The safor] by El Astillero, and 'Diario de un emigrante clandestino' [Diary of a clandestine immigrant] by Rachid Nini, this paper traces the ways in which the narratives both rupture and perpetuate the sociopolitical and mythical relationship between Spain and Morocco via the themes of brotherhood, the performance of identity, and departure and return. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a ‘transitional’ perspective on migration, which combines three theoretical approaches on dynamic development-migration linkages, this paper interprets the evolution of migration within, from, and to Morocco over the twentieth century. Colonization and the incorporation of rural areas, along with a certain level of socio-economic development, have spurred internal and international wage labour migration both within Morocco and from Morocco to Europe. Migration seems to be the result of development rather than the lack of development. Populations from highly marginalized regions were less likely to participate in migration than populations from the three, moderately enclosed “migration belts” which had established traditions of pre-modern, largely circular migration. At the onset of large-scale emigration in the 1960s, the spatial patterns of labour migration were significantly infuenced by colonial bonds with Spain and France, selective labour recruitment, and Moroccan selective passport issuance policies. However, the influence of such policies rapidly decreased due to the effects of migration-facilitating networks. Increasingly restrictive policies coincided with a growing reliance on family migration, permanent settlement, undocumented migration, and the exploration of new migration itineraries, and had no success in reducing migration levels.Alongside patterns of decentralizing internal migration, a spatial diffusion of international out-migration has expanded beyond the historical migration belts in response to new labour opportunities in southern Europe. Persistent demand for migrant labour, along with demographic factors and increasing aspirations, suggest that migration over formally closed borders is likely to remain high in the near future. However, in the longer term, out-migration might decrease and Morocco could increasingly develop into a migration destination for migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, a transition process which may already have een set in motion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As undocumented migration becomes more difficult, migrants' journeys become longer and more fragmented. This is a response to new spatialities of migration control which are continually reconfigured in an effort to eliminate clandestine movement. In the trans-Saharan region, this pattern of fragmented journeys also arises from a network of transnational social organisations that depend upon newly available technologies. Migrants' social networks provide both the means and the motivation for continued movement, even as destinations become more elusive. This paper investigates the imbalanced conflict between the social organisation of Sahara transit migrants and the developing spatial logic of control. It is based on recent research with undocumented migrants in Morocco. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are remittances determined by altruism or enlightened self-interest, and do they trigger additional migration? In this paper these two questions are examined empirically in relation to data from Egypt, Turkey, and Morocco for households with family members living abroad. It is shown, firstly, that one cannot argue exclusively either for altruism or self-interest as motives, since for each country the data tell a different story and both motives can be identified as driving forces behind remittance behaviour. The general conclusion of this study is that the family ties and the net earnings potential of migrants have stronger effects on the flow of remittances than the net earnings potential of the households in the country of origin. Secondly, because the receipt of remittances has a positive effect on the emigration intentions of household members still living in the country of origin, the receipt of remittances may contribute to new flows of migration, particularly in the case of Morocco. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the role of personal values, value congruence and intentions to emigrate among Middle East and North Africa (MENA) youth. We use a survey data set (N = 8.087) from Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, and Tunisia, collected among respondents aged 15–29. Results showed that beyond demographic characteristics, such as being male, highly educated and not having a job, personal values predicted higher chances of reporting intentions to emigrate. Logistic regression results showed that stimulation and achievement values predicted higher, and tradition values predicted lower chances of reporting intentions to emigrate. Furthermore, value congruence (i.e., having similar values as those of most of their co-nationals) was related to lower chances of reporting intentions to emigrate. These results support the notion that those who intend to emigrate differ from their co-nationals in terms of value priorities. We discuss the policy implications of our findings. • The study uses a unique sample of about 10.000 young individuals from Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, and Tunisia. • Individuals who reported high stimulation and achievement values, and low tradition values were more likely to intend to emigrate from the country in the next 5 years. • Value (in)congruence was related to higher likelihood of reporting intentions to emigrate, those who held different values than the majority in their group of co-nationals wish to move away. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As growing numbers of migrants wait in Morocco to continue their journeys northwards, the social consequences of this time spent 'en route' should be further considered. This time spent waiting fosters new claims to belonging and political identity as would-be migrants to Europe become immigrants to Morocco. This article recounts ethnographically how forms of community emerge amongst im/migrants in Tangier through forms of shared difference and labours. In these borderlands, immigrants use terms such as 'making boza' and 'crossing al-barzakh' to describe the temporal stance of waiting. In Islam, al-barzakh refers to the firmament separating life and death. This article brings these concepts into discussion with anthropological conceptualisations of liminality to query how forms of being-in-common emerge alongside promises of inclusion and threats of exclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In 2018, the International Organization for Migration stated that 'migration has nearly become synonymous with urbanization, given the dominance of the city as the destination of most migrants'. The geopolitical dimension of migration governance is especially important in Mediterranean cities where the European Union's (EU) efforts to push border management onto external actors has occurred alongside the transfer of new powers, competencies, and responsibilities for local authorities. Morocco is one such country where a number of administrative and territorial reforms have sought to transform the territoriality of migration governance, and by extension the structure of Euro-Mediterranean affairs. Our objective is to examine more fully how distinctly local aspects of Moroccan migration diplomacy have been harnessed as a force for geopolitical action today. The approach serves to decentre analysis of EU migration policy by rescaling the focus of migration to the urban peripheries of Europe, and to thereby contest Eurocentric accounts of migration governance in the region. Based on an analysis of Moroccan cities' involvement in migration governance, including the MC2CM Project – a Mediterranean network of cities supported by EU and international actors – we argue that the rescaling of migration diplomacy aims to 'change the narrative' about Morocco's capacity to manage immigration in light of international condemnation of state violence towards sub-Saharan migrants. In particular, devolution is skilfully used to cast Morocco as an advocate for the empowerment of local authorities managing migration, and migrants themselves as an opportunity for socio-economic development. At the same time, however, we observed that the rescaling of migration governance does not so much change the prevailing autocratic securitization of demographic mobility, but rather restructures its coordination through new governing actors (cities) and management techniques (migration). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines Morocco's migration diplomacy with a focus on the New Migration Policy (NMP) it launched in 2013 as a destination country. It argues that the NMP serves the objectives of Moroccan foreign policy towards both Africa and the EU, as international socialization by/with the latter remains a primary driving force for the country's migration policies. The main recent change in Morocco-EU socialization has been a return from norm-driven role playing to an overt exhibition of rational choice and a transactional attitude around migration and border control practices – while role playing has been reoriented towards Africa and the wider international community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a series of research results on Moroccan migration to Canada, this paper seeks to prove how focusing on the migration routes of a specific national group of migrants and using a multi-situated methodological approach will not lead to the "ethnisizing", culturalizing or nationalizing of the experienced realities, but rather to the placing of actions within their political cultural, social and economic structuring contexts. By resorting to an inductive approach, this perspective allows us to identify frontiers (in a symbolic sense) other than cultural or national belonging, reminding us of the internal heterogeneity of the studied national group, allowing us to apprehend other decisive factors in the migration route, and favoring our understanding of the plurality of the space practices and integration strategies developed by social actors when facing the concrete opportunities and limitations found during the whole migration process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite its status as one of the world's leading emigration countries, empirical work on Morocco has been largely absent from the lively theoretical debate on migration and development. The impact of international migration on development in Moroccan migrant-sending regions is assessed through a review of existing empirical studies. Notwithstanding empirical lacunae and methodological flaws, available evidence suggests that migration and remittances have considerably improved living conditions, income and education, and spurred economic activity through agricultural, real-estate and business investment, from which non-migrants indirectly profit. This has transformed migrant-sending regions such as the Rif, Souss and southern oases into relatively prosperous areas that now attract internal 'reverse' migrants. Although this challenges prevailing pessimism, the developmental potential of migration is not fully realised due to several structural constraints. Migration impacts are heterogeneous across space, socio-ethnic and gender groups, and tend to change over time and household migration cycles. Migration and remittances may enable people to retreat from, as much as to invest in, local economic activities, depending on the specific development context. Paradoxically, development in migrant-sending regions seems to be a prerequisite for return and investment, rather than a consequence of migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The legal instruments adopted by the European Union (EU) to ensure free movement within the territory of the Member States are closely linked to the control of the external borders. Over the past ten years, EU member states have created various mechanisms to prevent, control, and punish irregular immigration to the European community, whose migration model is characterized by an instrumental vision that cheapens the value of fundamental rights and reduces the low-skilled labor migration needed by the labor market. From there, EU states derive laws that recognize rights according to the person's nationality and immigration status. In this context, this paper will analyze, with a focus on human rights and from physical, symbolic, political, and legal points of view, what is supposedly a radical "advance" of this process of externalization: the operations created to impede migration of people in "canoes" or "boats" to Europe from the coasts of countries like Morocco, Algeria, Senegal or Mauritania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The North of Morocco, like border regional space with Spain and the European Union, is object of an intense process of promotion of policies and programs of cooperation of diverse institutions (UN, European Union, agencies of co-operation, among others) that have interests in the zone, such as: fortification of a growth, safety ring in a strategic zone of the rent by the existence of a high step between neighbors, creation of a new policy of vicinity based on semi-integration, reduction of the emigration, etcetera. Question that agrees with a determined policy of the Moroccan government to re-launch socially and economically this space: process of regionalization and dowry of institutions (Agency for the Promotion of the Development in the Regions of the North), design of a strategy of growth based on the human development, and more. This paper analyzes the reasons of this process, the geographic reality and the socioeconomic characterization of the border area. At the same time, it diagnoses the weaknesses and opportunities for the joint of new policies of cooperation and development for the actors who look for a territorial development in this border area, today in crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a ‘transitional’ perspective on migration, which combines three theoretical approaches on dynamic development-migration linkages, this paper interprets the evolution of migration within, from, and to Morocco over the twentieth century. Colonization and the incorporation of rural areas, along with a certain level of socio-economic development, have spurred internal and international wage labour migration both within Morocco and from Morocco to Europe. Migration seems to be the result of development rather than the lack of development. Populations from highly marginalized regions were less likely to participate in migration than populations from the three, moderately enclosed “migration belts” which had established traditions of pre-modern, largely circular migration. At the onset of large-scale emigration in the 1960s, the spatial patterns of labour migration were significantly infuenced by colonial bonds with Spain and France, selective labour recruitment, and Moroccan selective passport issuance policies. However, the influence of such policies rapidly decreased due to the effects of migration-facilitating networks. Increasingly restrictive policies coincided with a growing reliance on family migration, permanent settlement, undocumented migration, and the exploration of new migration itineraries, and had no success in reducing migration levels.Alongside patterns of decentralizing internal migration, a spatial diffusion of international out-migration has expanded beyond the historical migration belts in response to new labour opportunities in southern Europe. Persistent demand for migrant labour, along with demographic factors and increasing aspirations, suggest that migration over formally closed borders is likely to remain high in the near future. However, in the longer term, out-migration might decrease and Morocco could increasingly develop into a migration destination for migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, a transition process which may already have een set in motion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The migration industry includes governments and private companies wanting to control and limit human mobility, but also nonstate actors who help facilitate it. This article addresses the multiplicity of roles that Sub-Saharan migrant activists and community leaders play in Morocco's migration industry. The article draws on ethnographic research conducted in 2018 among 39 sub-Saharan activists and community leaders and 4 Moroccan activists throughout the Kingdom. I argue that while activists and community leaders are front line defenders of migrants' rights, they are also caught up in the migration industry that emerged after the National Strategy for Immigration and Asylum (SNIA) was implemented in 2014. They attempt to enter the humanitarian aid or migration control sectors of the industry, but are often prevented from extracting monetary value from it due to racial discrimination. Migrant leaders turn to using their social capital to facilitate border crossings for other migrants in exchange for financial compensation. These activists and community leaders are instrumental in the mobility apparatus in Morocco as without them other sub-Saharan migrants would not have the information, networks, or support to access aid to stay in the country or continue their journey to Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Morocco, the implementation of the 'Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration' programmes (AVRR) run by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) counts on the widespread collaboration of governmental and humanitarian migration practitioners and of migrants themselves. How come that actors occupying such heterogeneous positions in the migration field ultimately agree on their daily participation to IOM's AVRR programmes? What power rationales structure this collaborative network on return? The article draws on documentary sources and fieldwork conducted between 2016 and 2018 in Morocco. It adopts a socio-historical perspective that denaturalises the institutionalisation of AVRR programmes and combines the relevant empirical data with a theoretical discussion on collaboration in the deportation field. It argues that the institutionalisation of AVRR programmes in Morocco results from power rationales of intermediation and collaboration amongst different actors – both at an institutional level and on the ground. This gives rise to non-homogenous and sometimes seemingly contradictory forms of appropriation of voluntary return by third actors within the migration field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dispersal has acquired an increasingly central role within state-led border control strategies in Europe and North Africa. Scholars have, however, tended to apprehend dispersal in its geographical dimension, failing to interrogate bordering beyond spatial distancing from the territorial edges of the state. Furthermore, dispersal strategies in non-European countries are underexplored. We start filling these gaps by examining how dispersal operates in Morocco – a country where, since the announcement of a new migration policy in 2013, the routine internal dispersal of groups of dark-skinned people racially profiled as 'illegal sub-Saharan' by Moroccan police forces has become commonplace. Drawing on extensive qualitative fieldwork conducted between 2016 and 2019, as well press articles and NGO reports, we advance a dynamic understanding of bordering by analysing how the repeated spatial relocation of migrant people works through and in tandem with mechanisms of dispossession. We draw together literature on dispersal as migration governance and on dispossession as containment, proposing that dispersal activates practices of dispossession that expand the reach of bordering beyond spatial distance, turning it into an embodied technology: migrant people profiled as 'sub-Saharan' experience bordering as a form of inflicted hypermobility and a condition of protracted, unbearable living to which they are confined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]