Making Do as a Migrant in Morocco: Between Formal Recognition and True Integration

Abstract

The New Migration Policy developed from September 2013 onwards initiated a new approach to the presence of migrants in Morocco. It began a process that rendered it possible for migrants to attempt to access and maintain a regular migration status and transformed urban landscape in many cities across the country. However, a concrete policy on integration has not advanced. Drawing on long-term multi-sited ethnographic research, this article examines strategies migrants deploy to “make do” in Morocco: how they seek to integrate in the society despite the partiality, even absence of a formal framework that would regulate how to do so. It examines a context where immigration policy is a relatively recent development, integration strategies by the state are either in flux or absent altogether, yet which has for long been a region of concern for its neighbors in the North. This provides a setting where migrants strive to understand what is expected of them to become recognized as full participants in the society, and how they navigate at times conflicting demands.