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Chapitre D'ouvrage Année : 2016

Moroccan Immigration to Europe : Old Legacies and New Ties

Laura Odasso

Résumé

The day after the 2015 Belgian National Day (21 July), a political and media controversy exploded. A MR (Mouvement réformateur – Wallon party) party’s deputy declared on his public social media page that it was a shame that the only person interviewed by a national TV channel during the celebration was a Belgian veiled woman of Moroccan origin. To quote his words: “Ah, the ONLY person interviewed by the Radio Television Belge Francophone (RTBF), a veiled women that says nice things about Belgium! Yeah, we live in a marvellous country, but not politically correct! As if during the Congo national day, Congolese TV would interview a White man, and only him! But in Congo this will never happen! […]”. Then, he declared “this way the RTBF wants to confine us within a sort of communitarian regime!” Public reactions for and against these statements have quickly run on social media as well as the newspapers. This event is one among several others in the country. For instance, in 2010-2011, some deputies submitted a proposal to restraint family reunification arguing that “most of these family reunifications are solicited by Belgian citizens, born in Belgium from immigrant parents, or having acquired Belgian nationality” and declaring openly that this measure aimed to stop intra communitarian marriages as they perceive that intra-family marriages are conducive to migration among Moroccans. Do not old legacies matter? Since the 1960s, Morocco has been the main workforce supplier for Belgium (convention of 1964). Nowadays, Moroccans are the most ancient migrant community. In 2012, they reached a total of 429500 and 49% of this demographic group had acquired the Belgian nationality. The population of Belgians of Moroccan origin represent 13% of the whole population in Brussels. Besides, Moroccans are the most significant group of non-EU entrepreneurs (8% out of the total). Overall, Moroccan immigration to Belgium was mainly driven by the pursuit of more prosperous economic opportunities. However, unlike in other countries, such as France and Spain, there was no colonial ties whatsoever: Moroccan immigration flourished, in the beginning, upon a consent from both sides Belgium which solicited manual workers and Morocco that was willing to offer its national workforce: Indeed, the case of Moroccan immigration to France and Spain, as aforementioned, was at its inception dictated by colonialism, and thus, was asymmetrical in many respects. Morocco was a French and Spanish protectorate from 1912 until 1956. Unfortunately, there are still colonial residuals at stake since Morocco and Spain are still disputing the cities of Ceuta and Melilla - as well as other small pieces of land - which are under Spanish control nowadays. How to probe into the new dynamics of EU-Morocco relations with regards to migration? Within the framework of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership, established since 1995, the North African Kingdom enjoys an advanced position in the agreements with the European Union. As Morocco acquired the advanced status in2004, we have witnessed a blooming economic exchange but not equal fluidity in the mobility of people on both sided of the Mediterranean not even after the implementation of the Global Approach to migration in 2005 and the agreement of mobility facilitation in 2013. It is interesting to note that Morocco has become the gatekeeper of migrants towards Europe. EU seeks actively to influence Moroccan migration policy in a way that suits European interests: This is best illustrated in the on-going discussions on Readmission Agreements. It seems that these agreements are the price to be paid by Morocco to obtain a “quota” of legal migrants to Europe at the detriment of a “real” mobility and free circulation of persons. In a way, the policy if implemented would simply be a translation of the logic “you get more according to what you give”. A diachronic approach to migration, does it offer clues to untangle the problem? The paper explores Moroccan “postcolonial and economic preferential” old and new ties and European migration management, analysing them through the voices of migrants and cross-national couples. The discourse of several institutional and para-institutional actors (ex. politicians, bureaucrats, civil society militants, social workers) will be integrated to offer a detailed and articulate contextual frame of analysis. Combining two analytical approaches, namely, “recognition” and sentiment of “belonging” in relation to the implementation of “politics of belonging”, the paper questions if and how both colonial domination and economic hegemony have been substituted by migration management. It seems, in fact, that behind the façade of enhancing international collaborations and protecting internal public security, migration policies highlight the broader question of the selection of who fits and has to be included among quasi-citizens and, perhaps, future citizens, affecting directly the Moroccan population (invited to settle) settled in Europe.

Domaines

Sociologie
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Dates et versions

hal-01429383 , version 1 (13-05-2018)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-01429383 , version 1

Citer

Laura Odasso. Moroccan Immigration to Europe : Old Legacies and New Ties. Gabriele Proglio. Decolonising the Mediterranean. European Colonial Heritages in North Africa and the Middle East, Cambridge Scholar Publishing, pp.73-90, 2016, History, 978-1-4438-0070-9. ⟨hal-01429383⟩
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