open Democracy News Analysis - Morocco outside in, KA Dilday - Comments

Cole_2233 on "Morocco outside in"

Cole_2233 — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 03:07:42 +0100

According to the CIA fact book all the Moroccan/Algerians are 99.9% Berber - just that some of them choose to follow their Berber traditions and some the Arab / Islamic. And how can the Moroccan be Arabs when their latter conquers were of Syrian origin? Who only occupied that African region for a total of 150 years. By their own definition the Spanish are more ‘Arab’ than they are. After they finally kicked their Syrian over-lords out of the south side of the Med, the N. Africans then returned from Spain en masse to N. Africa. Which also means that the so called Arab achievements were largely Syrian. And while we are here. Are the Sudanese, Arabs as well as the Egyptians? – Are we also to believe that the Arabs built the pyramids - forgive me for being a little confused !!

KVB Tharoor on "Morocco outside in"

KVB Tharoor — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 11:43:58 +0100

I think the last point on "Fortress Europe" needs to be untangled a bit more. European strategists talk openly about making the Maghreb a "frontline" in the EU's security strategy; the tide of both immigration and Islamic radicalism must be confined along the southern Mediterranean littoral. Yet are the institutions and infrastructure in place in the region up to the task? Can they cope with the pressure of both the increasing movement of people from the great underbelly of the Sahel (a movement that will only intensify as the effects of climate change take their toll) and the threat of growing Islamist violence (beyond its traditional north African arena in Algeria)? The Maghreb's governments - corrupt and anti-democratic as they may be - are caught between a rock and a hard place: the desert of the Sahara and, one fears, a desert of indifference in Europe.

Morocco outside in, KA Dilday

admin — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 12:43:13 +0100

No one is sure how many migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, documented and undocumented, live in Morocco but most every Moroccan is sure that it's too many. In 2005, the government estimated that about 20,000 undocumented migrants from sub-Saharan Africa were in and around cities near the coast of Morocco. And the Agence marocaine de cooperation internationale estimates that about 10,000 students from southern African are enrolled in public and private universities in Morocco.

Moroccans come in all hues, from the pale skin that many of the Berbers, Morocco's aboriginal residents have, to beige Arabs, to darker-skinned people from the southern part of the country. But to native Moroccans in the large cities and the northern parts of Morocco, dark skin says sub-Sahara and it says interloper or low-cost worker in a country that already has trouble employing its natives.

Also in openDemocracy on Morocco, migration and Europe:

Nelcya Delanoe, "Morocco: a journey in the space between monarchy and Islamism" (5 February 2003)

Nelcya Delanoe, "Morocco and Spain: united by tragedy?"
(25 March 2003)

Ivan Briscoe, "Dreaming of Spain: migration and Morocco" (27 May 2004)

Rashi Khilnani, "How Morocco's free media is silenced" (19 April 2006)

Yto Barrada, "Morocco unbound: an interview" (17 May 2006)

Gregor Noll, "The Euro-African migration conference: Africa sells out to Europe"
(14 July 2006)Not what you think

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