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On its territory, Morocco today has some 148,152 foreignersaccording to the results of the General Population and Housing Census (RGPH) from 2024. The number of foreigners residing in the Kingdom increased by 61.946 between 2014 and 2024, corresponding to annual growth of 5.6%. A community absorbed mainly by two regions: Casablanca-Settat and Rabat-Salé-Kénitra which are home, respectively, 60.902 et 29.233 foreign nationals.
Mehdi Ali killedsociologist, migration specialist, researcher and professor at the International University of Rabat (UIR) gives us his reading of this trend.
The continuity of a phenomenon that has always existed
The increase in the number of foreigners in Morocco, as revealed by the RGPH 2024, should not be understood as a new situation, Mehdi Alioua wishes to clarify, recalling that Morocco is a traditional land of immigration having always welcomed, in the past, different populations.
“The installations identified today are only continuity of a phenomenon that has always existed. At independence, we lost sight of it given that the public authorities and Moroccan society now focus their attention on departures rather than arrivals.
“Indeed, Morocco has always been a land of welcome and settlement, particularly for populations coming from different regions (Western Mediterranean, Mediterranean Africa, Saharan-Sahelian Africa, West Africa and the Middle East). This was also the case during the modern and contemporary history of Morocco with colonization (France, Spain and Portugal).
“Foreigners in Morocco have always been a minority, numerically, compared to the number of the indigenous population. We are sure the same trend today: the foreign population barely represents 5% of the entire Moroccan population.
At the origin of the trend, a more precise census thanks to regularization operations
For Mehdi Alioua, the increase in the number of foreigners in Morocco cannot be explained solely by the new entries that have taken place over the last ten years. The observed trend is mainly justified by regularization campaigns having allowed foreigners formerly in an irregular situation to come forward, thus facilitating their census, believes the migration specialist.
“Certainly, immigration to Morocco has increased in ten years. There have been more people who have settled in Morocco thanks to the attractiveness of the country. Installations likely to increase further in coming years“.
“Most of this increase observed today can nevertheless be explained by the fact that foreigners were not necessarily properly registered before. There was also a restriction in the issuance of residence permits, which continues unfortunately, but which was tougher before and which caused people not to show up.”
“Among the 140,000 foreigners currently registered, only 30,000 would have settled in Morocco after 2014. As for the remaining 110,000, this is in reality the sum of foreigners already present in the country before 2014, but who were registered this time- thanks to the regularization campaigns from which migrants were able to benefit, following the adoption of the national immigration and asylum strategy (SNIA) in 2014. A strategy which was misunderstood since it was wrongly believed that it was only intended for sub-Saharan Africans, when in fact it was dedicated to all foreigners in Morocco , in an irregular situation.
Morocco remains essentially a country of emigration
“Beyond the migratory flows to Morocco, the latter remains essentially a country of emigration. We have a net migration deficit, almost zero. In other words, there are more people going out than coming in,” continues the specialist.
And the latter concludes: “Faced with the decline in demographic growth, another point raised by the RGPH, the mobilization of the diaspora can provide a demographic response to this challenge. It is in this line that part of the vision of His Majesty who wants to further mobilize this diaspora However, the Moroccan population is not limited to the 36 million residents in the country. We can reasonably estimate that it amounts to approximately. 40 millions of individuals, if we include the 4 million Moroccans living abroad. This phenomenon is of major importance in terms of national dynamism, meaning that the Moroccan diaspora can be considered as a 13th region in its own right.”
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