On Monday, April 21, 2025, Moroccan, American, French, and Belgian academics and researchers participated in a seminar on “Dynamics of Migration Research: Towards a National Moroccan Agenda?” organized by the Council of the Moroccan Community Abroad (CCME) in partnership with the International University of Rabat (UIR), as part of the 30th edition of the International Book and Publishing Fair (SIEL) in Rabat.
Moderated by Farid Lasri, Dean of the College of Social Sciences at UIR, the seminar featured contributions from Aomar Boum, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Nouria Ouali, a researcher at the Free University of Brussels, Mustapha Miri, a sociologist at the University of Aix-Marseille, and Mohammed Khachani, a researcher at Mohammed V University in Rabat.
Nouria Ouali, whose father worked in coal mines in France and mother was a French woman born in Algeria, shared her personal and family migration journey. She discussed her early work at the Center for Sociology. She then spoke about her work on gender dynamics and collaboration with Moroccan women researchers in France. Ms Ouali said human sciences, particularly sociology, have struggled to integrate feminist epistemological approaches and that rethinking concepts and theories through gender dynamics remains challenging.
Anthropologist Aomar Boum spoke about his research on migration, starting with internal movements from Morocco’s Tata and Guelmim regions to other cities, then examining Jewish migrations in Morocco and North Africa and their driving factors. Currently studying Moroccan Jewish and Muslim migrations to the Americas and integration issues in countries like Canada, Argentina, and Brazil, Boum observed that “unlike the United States, where Moroccan Jewish and Muslim migrations remain largely invisible, Moroccan migrations to Canada, starting in the 1970s, have led to a significant administrative, cultural, and political presence for both Muslims and Jews, particularly in Toronto and Montreal.” He advocated for university studies on the ethnography of these communities, engaging with them in places of worship like mosques and synagogues to create a “digital mapping” that would both document these populations and foster communication between them.
Sociologist Mustapha Miri, who transitioned from political sociology to migration studies, argued that “state-commissioned sociological studies on migration inherently shape their orientations,” framing migrants as “social problems defined by deficiencies of qualifications, financial resources, family ties, etc.” He noted that migrants from the Global South are rarely seen as autonomous subjects able to make choices despite their circumstances. In contrast, “European migrants are perceived as choosing to relocate for exploration.
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