Zawaya

African migrants in the Arab Maghreb: Ignorance and other things

By: Sofiene Ben Hamida

With the aggravation of the phenomenon of illegal immigration in recent years, North Africa has become a transit area for tens of thousands of young sub-Saharan Africans who dream of a better tomorrow in Europe whose coastlines are close to – and easily seen from – the other side of the ocean.

The dreams of those young people often fall apart on the shores of the waves of the Mediterranean, which kill most of them, or on the Spanish and Italian coasts, where they get crammed in closed centers awaiting deportation. These dreams actually start to crumble upon the arrival of these young migrants to the Arab Maghreb, where they face a new reality based on indifference and racial discrimination.

Although the African element is a component of Maghreb identity, the region’s societies are unfortunately very ignorant about sub-Saharan cultures. This ignorance of the other may explain the fear expressed by Maghreb societies, with racially discriminatory practices, such as refusing to deal with African citizens and ignoring them in all aspects of daily life. In light of economic difficulties, this fear may even evolve to more violent forms, such as persecution and racism, by refusing to rent apartments to African immigrants, refusing to hire them, or even insulting and assaulting them in the street.

The Maghreb peoples may be somewhat excused due to their ignorance and fear of the other – “somewhat”, because nothing justifies violence and racism -, but the situation is worsened by Maghreb governments that disregard the reality of immigration in their countries, and the fact that their countries turned from labor exporters into transit areas and even attractive countries for migrant workers, given the fact that the economic situation in the Maghreb is less deteriorated than in many sub-Saharan countries.

The immigration issue is indeed being ignored in the Maghreb, as the region has not ratified the conventions No. 97 and No. 143 of the International Labor Organization on migrant workers and equal treatment, nor has it ratified the Convention of the Organization of the United Nations in 1990 on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. There is also a lack of the required adequacy between the Maghreb legislation and these international treaties and standards in order to ensure equal opportunities for all human beings, and reject discrimination on ethnic, religious, linguistic, or gender grounds. Maghreb legislation is actually often discriminatory concerning the recruitment of foreigners or their rights to practice professional activities or possess real estate.

Despite their excessive attention to their immigrants in other countries for economic reasons related to the size of remittances and other political reasons, the Maghreb governments overlook the other side of immigration related to people who stop by their countries to cross the ocean towards Europe, or those migrants who settle down in the Maghreb to earn a living. Instead, these governments only deal with African migrants from a mere security perspective, just like the most right-wing and extremist Western and European governments deal with the issue of immigration of Maghreb nationals through accommodation centers and group deportations.

The media in the Arab Maghreb can play an effective role in dispelling the fear of foreigners, and disseminating a new culture based on the philosophy of human rights, the principles of peaceful coexistence with others, and cooperation and solidarity between individuals and peoples. The media can, with honest determination, convert the image of the “others” – not only Africans, but also foreigners in general – in the mind of the peoples of the Maghreb from scary people to friends and allies.