Why Morocco?
Much of the African continent is getting in boats again, this time heading north instead of west. At unprecedented rates, Africans are immigrating to European Union countries—many chief perpetrators in the slave trade centuries ago. Economic opportunity abroad and a lack of it at home is pushing Africans from their native lands, causing them to consider “what is worse, the risk (of the journey northward) or a life similar to death?” Brutal civil wars and ineffective governments have ravaged the continent, making a quality of life on par with Europe impossible for all but a select few.
Northward migration from Africa to Europe is not a new phenomenon, but as European nations have tightened immigration policies and reduced quotas, the paradigm has shifted. Illicit human trafficking networks have been created, funneling Africans into Europe and radically transforming many African economies. African nations have lost their greatest intellectual minds as they shove off from their continent’s coasts in ramshackle boats, hoping to gain a life of greater opportunity. Africans willing to risk the dangerous journey encounter measures taken by governments unified in curbing the tide of immigration, but in disagreement about specific methods. Those that avoid repatriation are faced with a continent in perpetual discourse, largely uneasy with African migrants presence but wary of an economic dependence on the labor they provide.
The introduction above is from a paper I wrote in the fall of 2007 on the influx of Africans illicitly migrating from their homelands to Europe. My interest was sparked by a brilliant, two-part photo essay on modern African migration entitled Kingsley’s Crossing. A curiosity about parallels between the North American immigration debate and the situation in Africa and Europe led to a research paper on the African exodus for a history class that fall semester.
Combing through African newspapers, academic papers on the mechanics of migration, and personal testimonies by those affected by the mass migration to Europe, I became enthralled in the subject matter. Long after the paper was done, I was left pondering questions raised by my brief investigation. Why does migration evoke the worst of human tendency? Or, conversely, what do immigrants offer to their new homes?
But why am I studying abroad in Morocco? Simply put, Morocco is at the nexus of the illicit trafficking of people from Africa (and often, Asia) into the European Union. The nation has a history, much like the sub-Saharan state of Mali, of sending its citizens to Europe. Moroccans began immigrating to French held Algeria in the 1830’s for seasonal work. World War I necessitated the labor of Moroccans, leading to the recruitment of “ten of thousands of Moroccan men for factories, mines, and the French army.” Morocco is reliant upon the remittances generated by its citizens living overseas. Much of the country immensely profits from smuggling migrants into the European Union, too. Consequently, it’s a fantastic place to examine the cross currents of one of mankind’s most enduring and controversial behaviors.
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