Zawaya

Maghreb countries can greatly benefit from their expatriate communities

By: Ali Chaabani

More than three million Moroccans live abroad, making a community that cannot be underestimated neither in terms of numbers, nor in terms of impact and roles that it can play in various fields. This community is distributed on a large number of countries in Europe, North America, and the Middle East, as well as on a number of other African and Latin American countries. This means that Moroccans are found in all continents of the world. This spread can’t but have many positive aspects.

On the economic front, no one can deny the great role played by the expatriate community through its hard currency transfers, and investments made by many of its members in Morocco.

But is the political, social and cultural role of the Moroccan community abroad equivalent to its role in the economic field?

This is, then, a problem that requires further reflection and research, because there are very few studies that focus on analyzing the following question: How can Moroccans living abroad participate in political and social life?

It’s true that the demographic and sociological composition of the expatriate community has significantly changed between the first generation, and the second and third ones. The Moroccan community in the second half of the 20th century was composed mostly of people who came from the Moroccan countryside and some poor areas, to look mainly for work and the possibility to improve their economic status; the majority of them was people whose educational level did not exceed – in the best of cases – secondary education.

But today, no one doubts that this community has elements with high-level and specialized education, who are aware of the roles that they can play. These expatriates lived and experienced all political, social and cultural conditions of their host countries. This shows that the roles and functions that these communities might contribute with to the political, social and cultural fields will be of utmost importance.

This conclusion comes – of course – from the emergence and creation of many associations, whose core activities are taking care of the general conditions of this community, defending its rights, raising awareness among its members, and informing it about its obligations towards its host countries and its home country (Morocco). There are even second and third generation Moroccans who have climbed social scales and occupy high positions (deputies in local parliaments and ministers, especially in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain and Canada…).

In this regard, we cannot ignore the speech of King Mohammed VI on November 5th, 2005, which brought very high resolutions focusing mainly on:
- The need to represent Moroccan expatriates in the House of Representatives.
- The creation of legislative electoral districts abroad, so that Moroccans living abroad can choose their deputies in the Moroccan parliament.
- The creation of a special council for the overseas Moroccan community.

In this context, the Overseas Moroccan Community Council was created, after a series of consultations carried out by the Advisory Council for Human Rights with a number of actors in the field of migration. Moreover, there is a need to:
- Create a working group to activate the Council.
- Carry out studies and consultancies focused primarily on the roles that the expatriate community can play in political, social and cultural areas.
- Identify the various requests of overseas Moroccans’ associations, which are active in the migration field.
- Introduce the issue of political participation of Moroccans abroad in the 2012 elections, considering them as citizens.

The overseas Moroccan community has become highly skilled today as a result of living in advanced and civilized democratic societies. There is no doubt that overseas Moroccans have benefited from living abroad, experienced many issues and gained more experience which would be very useful to transfer to Morocco. The country may benefit from this expertise and experience in fields that support the growth and prosperity of its community, especially in the economic, political, cultural and social areas.

The participation of the overseas Moroccan community can be achieved only by working on ways to facilitate that, and by exploring – through studies and opinion polls – its wishes regarding this matter, and the extent of its readiness for this type of participation. We should not omit that the vast majority of these Moroccans are looking for the most effective means to gain full citizenship in their host countries. The question that raises here is: What are the means and circumstances that Morocco – and even all Maghreb countries – have prepared in order to stimulate the expatriate community to participate in politics and serve their original communities?