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Harvard University

Publication Date

Spring 2013

Program Name

Morocco: Migration and Transnational Identity

Abstract

If Moroccan immigrants are so in tune to their home culture and home happenings, under what conditions do they stay in France facing the problems of unemployment and homelessness? This study focuses on the return migration of Moroccans from the Sousse region; specifically Agadir and the surrounding Tiznit areas, who left Morocco during the decade of 1960 and who have permanently returned to live in Morocco. The study was conducted by using the snowball sampling technique to conduct semi-structured interviews of Moroccan return migrants in AitMelloul, a neighborhood of Agadir. My findings suggest that the return migrants from the Sousse region only return to their homeland permanently after they have completed their objective of “gagner la vie”, this means buying a house, a car, and enough money to invest in a form of commerce that has a consistent and steady payment cycle. This study contributes a case study to Jean-Pierre Cassarino’s conceptual approach of theorizing return migration[1], which focuses on the importance of the returnee’s return preparedness and resource mobilization to voluntary return migration.

[1]Cassarino, Jean-Pierre. "Theorising Return Migration: The Conceptual Approach to Return Migrants Revisited." International Journal on Multicultural Societies 6.2 (2004): 253-79. Print.

Disciplines

African Studies | Civic and Community Engagement | Community-Based Research | Demography, Population, and Ecology | Human Geography | Inequality and Stratification | Place and Environment | Social and Cultural Anthropology | Sociology of Culture

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