Report on Moroccan Migrants: Skills, Destination Countries, Motivations

A new report has been released by the European Training Foundation (ETF) that sheds some light on the lives of Moroccan migrants. Here is an article about the report from the ENPI Information and Communication Support Project.
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Morocco: new report sheds light on link between skills and migration

26-02-2013

Forty-two per cent of Moroccans would like to emigrate, but only 9% have the proper information, documents and money to do so, according to the results of the largest study of migration in Morocco to date, released by the European Training Foundation (ETF) today.  Of those that did leave, 62% said they learnt a language or acquired other technical or professional skills while abroad, the survey found.

 

The study “Migration and skills” combined desk research with a survey of 2,600 potential emigrants and 1,400 labour migrants who returned to the country.

 

The purpose of the study is to contribute to the improvement of migration policies both in the EU and Morocco by providing high-quality data and analysis. The ETF has carried out similar studies in Albania, Egypt, Tunisia, Ukraine and Tajikistan (2006-08) and Armenia and Georgia (2011-12).

 

The report was released at a seminar in Rabat attended by key Moroccan institutions – Ministry of Employment and Vocational Training, Ministry in charge of the Moroccans Living Abroad - as well as the representatives of the EU and researchers.

 

Morocco has a long history of labour migration to Europe dating back several decades. Currently there are some 3 million Moroccans who have left their country and live abroad, of whom four out of ten are women. 

 

Key facts and figures from the study: 

• 42% Moroccans declare intention to emigrate; regions where highest number of people declares intent to migrate are Agadir (52%) and Marrakesh (49%)
• Only 9% of the potential migrants has proper information, documents and money to emigrate
• The main destinations are France (32% of returnees), Spain (21%), and Italy (15%)
• Moroccans prefer long-term emigration: 53% of returnees stayed abroad more than 7 years
• Economic situation is the main declared reason for migration, but the level of economic well-being doesn’t influence the propensity to migration
• Most migrants work in hotels and restaurants, in construction and agriculture
• 60% of returnees worked at the time of the survey, while only 46% of potential migrants had a job, which suggest migration’s positive impact on employability
• 31% of returnees, mainly those with higher education, benefited from training while abroad
• 62% of migrants said they learnt a language or acquired other technical or professional skills, but only one third of migrants had their Moroccan qualifications officially recognised
• Some 45% migrants worked without contract abroad, which limited their entitlement to welfare or pension
• Migration doesn’t improve the standard of living of the returnees: 74% of them were poor
• Returnees are more entrepreneurial: 26% of returnees have their own business (compared to 20% among the rest) and 20% employ workers (compared with 7% among the rest)
• There is little awareness of the government’s programmes for migrants
• Moroccans return to their country mainly for family reasons (26%); only 5% come back to invest

 FULL ARTICLE 

Moroccans Leave Spain (and its Economic Troubles) for Home

Here is an article from the Christian Science Monitor on the wave of Moroccans returning to their homeland due to the increasingly bleak economic situation in Spain. The first portion of the article is pasted below.
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Spain loses title as Moroccans' land of opportunity 

Moroccans seeking economic opportunity used to flock to Spain, but with its economy tanking, Spain has less and less to offer them. 

By John Thorne, Correspondent / October 22, 2012

Tangier, Morocco

Anas Benhima spent over a decade building a new life in Spain: an education, friends, and a career. Then he left it all and returned home to Morocco

“I saw my friends losing their jobs,” he says. “And I knew that eventually the same thing could happen to me.”
Mr. Benhima, like an increasing number of Moroccan migrants, is giving up on his northern neighbor. For years Spain beckoned as a land of opportunity, but that image is now shattered by an economic crisis that has pushed unemployment there to nearly 25 percent.

For Morocco, Spain’s woes are part of larger troubles among European trading partners that have dented the Moroccan economy, too, as remittances and tourism revenue have sagged. For Spain, fading luster as a source of jobs underlines how deep its malaise has become.


Unemployment among Spain’s estimated 783,000 Moroccan workers is just over 50 percent – roughly twice the national rate, according to a report released in May on the effect of Spain’s crisis on Moroccan workers by Colectivo Ioé, a Spanish social affairs research institute. Data from Spain’s central bank indicates that remittances to Morocco fell by a third between 2007 and 2010.

Increasingly, Moroccans are giving Spain a pass. While illegal migration makes exact numbers murky, a net loss of Moroccan immigrants was registered in 2010. Last year that loss was nearly 22,000, according to Spain’s national statistics institute.

Coming full circle

Change is felt acutely in Moroccan cities like Tangier, where Spanish headlands are visible across the Strait of Gibraltar. For years Morocco’s north, a region formerly colonized by Spain, has relied on sending migrants there to help feed families at home.

Benhima grew up in Tetouan, once Spain’s colonial capital, where his father worked as a customs official. He went to Barcelona to study textile engineering in 1998, but financial concerns led him to dive into the job market instead.
“At first you work to pay for studies, but then you forget studies and just work,” he says.

He drove a golf cart by day and tossed pizzas at night, supporting himself while also helping cover medical bills for his father. He stayed in Spain for two uninterrupted years, until he got legal residency. Then, in 2000, he surprised his parents with a visit. His father died four days later.

Benhima’s mother and three siblings moved to Tangier, while he settled in Madrid. Using his ability to speak Spanish, French, English, and Arabic, he found work in 2001 handling overseas clients for an insurance company. The job put him in the top tier of Moroccans drawn by an economic boom in Spain. Moroccan arrivals peaked in 2005 at about 75,000, according to the Colectivo Ioé report.

Meanwhile in Tangier, Benhima’s mother, Badia Amrani, founded BAYSIM, a goods transit company, in 2006.

Read continuation of article here.

Morocco Sends Preachers to Europe for Ramadan

It is the month of Ramadan - Alhamdulilah- which is why the posting is a little less. Here is an article from al-arabiya on how the Moroccan government sends Muslim "preachers" to serve Moroccan communities in Europe. There could be a lot of pros and cons to this program, but let us attempt to give things the benefit of the doubt during this blessed month.

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Ramadan initiative aimed at protecting Moroccans abroad
Morocco sends preachers to Europe for Ramadan


RABAT (Hassan al-Ashraf)

Morocco's Ministry of Endowments and Islamic Affairs has sent a delegation of preachers to Europe as part of a plan to encourage moderate Islam and preserve cultural identity in its expatriate communities during the holy month of Ramadan.

" In comparison to other Arab countries, Morocco has a unique experience regarding the image of Islam in general and the practice of Islam in Morocco in particular "
Rashid Moqtader, religious researcherThe campaign, now in its second year, aims to protect Moroccans in Europe from extremist Islamist trends that spread hatred and incite violence as well as promoting a moderate vision of Islam, said religious researcher Dr. Rashid Moqtader.

"The preachers sent to Europe are chosen by the local scholarly councils and approved by the Supreme Council of Ulema and the Ministry of Islamic Affairs," he told Al Arabiya. "Their mission is to teach Moroccan communities in Europe Islam as is it is practiced in Morocco."

The campaign also aims to highlight the role of Morocco in the reformation of religious discourse inside and outside the country.

"In comparison to other Arab countries, Morocco has a unique experience regarding the image of Islam in general and the practice of Islam in Morocco in particular," he added.

The delegation will work on helping communities in Europe to preserve their national and religious identity, said Dr. Ahmed Boukili, expert on Islamic thought and civilization.


" There are many attempts at erasing the identity of Moroccans in Europe and gradually reducing them to a sheer ethnic minority "
Ahmed Boukili, Islamic expert"There are many attempts at erasing the identity of Moroccans in Europe and gradually reducing them to a sheer ethnic minority," he told Al Arabiya. "This necessitates forging a new religious politics to guide these communities towards the preservation of their heritage."

Boukili called upon government officials in charge of religious affairs to study the possibility of establishing a national university for preachers.

"Morocco is going through a crisis as far as preaching is concerned. This university will graduate preachers qualified to reform the religious discourse and cater to the demands of Moroccans living abroad."

Ramadan is the holiest month in the Islamic calendar and is a time of prayer and fasting.


(Translated from Arabic by Sonia Farid)