Mr. Driss El Yazami, the president of the Council of the Moroccan Community Abroad (CCME), was the guest host of the meeting "Moroccans of the world facing new challenges and changes" organized by the Accredited Journalists Club of Morocco (CJAM),Tuesday, June 25, 2024, at the Café La Seine of the Hiba Foundation in Rabat.
In his intervention at this meeting, Mr. Driss El Yazami pointed out that Moroccan migration, which extends for more than a century and a half, is a defining factor in the history of Morocco. The meeting was moderated by Mounim El Omrani, a member of the Accredited Journalists Club.
The CCME chairman reviewed the most important historical moments of Moroccan migration, starting with the migration of the Rif populations that France brought to its North African colony (currently Algeria) in 1852, a dynamic that lasted until the start of the Liberation War in the 1950s and ended with the Algerian expulsion of thousands of Moroccans in the 1970s.
As for the second historical phase of Moroccan migration, he identified it with the First World War, both in terms of the participation of Moroccan soldiers in the French army as part of the conscripts coming from the North African colonies, Moroccan soldiers in the French army among the recruits coming from the North African colonies, as well as the immigration of hundreds of Moroccans to work in factories and fields -in order to replace the French who went to war- which led to the birth of a Moroccan community between the two wars. Period that coincided with the sending of the first Moroccan student mission to France, which contributed to the establishment of the “Association of Muslim Students from North Africa”, which became the core of the Moroccan resistance for independence.
In the 50s and 60s, the European labor hiring “race” began. During this era Morocco signed labor agreements with European countries such as France, Belgium and Germany, a step that Mr. El Yazami defines as the beginning of the “Europeanisation” of the Moroccan migration, reinforced in the 1990s with a surge in migration to Italy and Spain.
As for the major transformations of Moroccan migration, the President of the CCME spoke about the globalisation of Moroccan migration living in numerous countries around the world. Adding the globalization fact “makes us face not only linguistic plurality but also a political and cultural one".
He then said one of the most important challenges Morocco faces “is a need to redefine and strengthen ties with new generations, and the contribution of Moroccans to the Kingdom's development, as stated in His Majesty’s Speech.He also pointed out the need to change the stereotypes regarding the Moroccan diaspora.
CCME