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Title
Irregular sub-Saharan migrants in Morocco: illegality, immobility, uncertainty and 'adventure' in Rabat |
Full text
http://hdl.handle.net/1842/23512 |
Date
2016 |
Author(s)
Bachelet, Sebastien Rene George |
Contributor(s)
Kelly, Tobias; Good, Anthony; Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) |
Abstract
As a result of European externalization of the politics of migration, Southern and
Eastern Mediterranean countries like Morocco are increasingly co-opted to deter
asylum-seekers and other migrants. These latter, criminalized and labelled as 'illegal',
are prevented from reaching a Europe whose economy nevertheless partially relies on
the precarious and low-cost labour of sans-papiers. As Morocco shifts from a country
of mainly emigration to also a country of 'transit' and immigration, thousands of Sub-
Saharan migrants find themselves 'stranded', unable to go further, return or gain a
meaningful legal status in Morocco. The research focuses on the two poor and densely
populated neighbourhoods of Douar Hajja and Maadid, often called after the larger,
adjacent neighbourhood Taqaddoum ('progress' in Arabic). Reputed to be violent and
dangerous, they host a visible, (im)mobile population of irregular, sub-Saharan
migrants struggling to cope with everyday life and (re)considering their uncertain
migratory journeys.
This research engages with recent critical debates in anthropology over 'mobility' and
'illegalization' to examine how 'irregular' sub-Saharan migrants cope with violent
abuses and attempt to exert control over their lives in a Moroccan marginal
neighbourhood. Exploring migrants' imagination and hope, it focuses particularly on
migrants' circumscribed agency as well as emerging social relationships and political
participation. Rather than adding to the profuse production of migration studies
concepts, the thesis contends that migrants' own articulations of notions such as
'adventure' and 'objective' offer an analytical tool to overcome some of the pitfalls of
other concepts (e.g. transit, imagined community) which do not completely succeed in
accounting for migrants' experiences; their own ambiguities and limits are useful in
uncovering some of the dilemmas faced by migrants in Morocco. |
Subject(s)
migration; Morocco; illegality; adventure |
Language
en |
Publisher
The University of Edinburgh |
Relation
Bachelet, S. (2013) 'Migrants in Morocco: 'Go home or face death'' in Jadaliyya 2013-08-09 (Accessed 08-08-2015).; Bachelet, S. (2014) 'Morocco trials a 'radically new' politics of migration for sub-Saharan Africans' in African Argument (15-01-2014). Available at: http://africanarguments.org/2014/01/15/morocco-trials-a-radically-newpolitics- of-migration-for-sub-saharan-africans-by-sebastien-bachelet/ (Accessed 01-05-2015).; Bachelet, S. (2014) 'Sub-Saharan Migrants' Quest for Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits' in Jadaliyya. Available at: http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/18153/subsaharan- migrants%E2%80%99-quest-for-hope-and-other-dan (Accessed 06- 06-2015). |
Type of publication
Thesis or Dissertation; Doctoral; PhD Doctor of Philosophy |
Format
application/pdf; application/msword |
Rights
2024-06-30 |
Repository
Edinburgh - University of Edinburgh
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Added to C-A: 2023-07-03;11:39:02 |
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