Facing unemployment, Moroccans in Spain return home
2008-08-06
A Spanish programme comes into effect next month that will use financial incentives to reduce the number of unemployed Moroccan immigrants in the country.
By Sarah Touahri for Magharebia in Rabat – 06/08/08
 [Getty Images] Despite having taken out loans to secure work contracts, Moroccan immigrants in Spain are returning home due to unemployment. |
Thousands of families in Morocco who rely on income from migrant workers in Spain are bracing for the impact of a new programme that will send many such labourers back home. A downturn in the Spanish construction sector has left many Moroccan immigrants without jobs.
Of the 650,000 Moroccans living in Spain, more than 10% of them are now unemployed. According to an official Spanish report entitled "Immigration and the Labour Market", the number of unemployed Moroccans in Spain increased from 62,085 in 2006 to 82,262 in 2007.
In February of this year, Spanish intelligence services urged the government to reduce the number of Moroccans living in the country by encouraging unemployed immigrants to return to their home country in return for unemployment benefits to be paid by Spain.
Under this new programme, scheduled to begin in September, claimants will receive the equivalent of nearly 100,000 dirhams, and the promise of support in obtaining microcredit.
In order to be eligible to receive the unemployment benefits, claimants would have to cancel their residency and work permits and promise to not return to Spain for at least three years. After three years, programme participants may ask to return to Spain, but there is no guarantee that they will receive a favourable response.
"The amount of the grant wouldn't be enough to set up a business in Spain," said Spanish Labour and Immigration Minister Celestino Corbacho, "but in countries such as Morocco, it could be very productive."
"We’re not talking about taking unemployed people and simply sending them back to their countries. We want to look after their rights and give them two chances: the chance to set themselves up at home and the chance to return to Spain in the future," he added.
Sociologist Jamal Belghiti told Magharebia that this process will have several consequences for Moroccan society.
"Such a measure implies a number of risks which have to be considered," Belghiti said.
"The families who live off their relatives' material support will find themselves in a very difficult position. Apart from this, it will even change the concept of immigration for those young people who are desperate to get across the Mediterranean."
The immigrants concerned, particularly those who arrived in Spain recently and lack savings are clearly worried.
Fatiha Moubarak, the mother of two young men who moved to Spain three years ago, appeared completely helpless as she explained to Magharebia how she sold the family home to secure two work contracts in Spain for 200,000 dirhams.
"After they left, we bought another house with a loan and my two sons married, believing that their future was secure. Then a month ago, there they were, penniless again. And we don't know how we're going to pay off the loan and live decently."
Fatiha's story is similar to that of many others. Some families, however, managed to build up savings over the years they worked, and so their situation is somewhat less precarious.
Driss B. returned from Morocco with his wife and children without too many worries.
"After working for many years, I’ve found myself unemployed again. I could see that a situation like this was possible. So, I set up a small project here two years ago. But I plan to go back if things improve," he told Magharebia.
Young people who have been looking to secure a work contract in Spain are clearly disappointed.
Jamal Ramizi, a law graduate, planned to secure a work contract in Spain for 90,000 dirhams, but he changed his mind in the light of recent events.
"My grandfather took out a loan to send me to Spain, where I thought I’d be guaranteed some stability in my professional life. But we’re seeing that immigrants who have worked in this country for years are being driven out. For me, it would be better to set something up in my own country."
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حسن بوبكري Posted 2 days ago
Immigration in order to work on the other shore of the Mediterranean has created a great disorder in the Arab and Maghreb mental structures. Young people no longer think of their homelands with the despair which is invading a big part of society especially young people because they found themselves in the middle of a long unemployment without any outlet and a lost hope in a country which let them down. Life is so hard without hope as it is said. This hope is possible for many in the countries of infidels or rather the countries of social justice and which aren’t of course void of negative sides. During the last decade, the obsession of immigration has become stronger than any internal ambitions which could be achieved through struggle or democracy like a process without clear horizon in a way which could never end. Parties, associations and all organizations, because they were neglected by young people, have fallen into setbacks and horrible void as they think of migration as the only solution to their problems even on the long run. However, no light of hope appears in the horizon. So the mental structures of young people have changed. This has made them cling to the minimum to their nation. It has even made them lose their national spirit. Morocco has become in the minds of young people a mere horrible word which is associated with misery, deprivation, homelessness, injustice, and fear from the future and present. Reaching the western countries has become the hot thread in the minds of people. In order to return to right to build the nation with the arms of its sons and change the situation with the minds of its sons, we needed shocks from the west such as the expulsion of immigrants, their failure to get jobs and low wages…In my opinion this is not a plot or malice against them. It is because a country like Morocco is able to provide jobs to all its sons if adopts another method different from the one adopted since independence. It is the monopoly of power by a bunch of corrupt people. In addition to the monopoly of land by a minority who doesn’t deserve to live in such a prosperity for years. It has produced for us a kind of people which doesn’t give any value to man as a man Their only concern is projects and collecting money with the help of that category of people.
blanc rené Posted 1 day ago
Why go into debt and get your family and friends into debt in order to by one or two work contracts to go to Europe? Wouldn’t this money be more useful if it were invested in its own country? This would avoid the already enormous problem of separation. I think that Jamal was completely correct in his reasoning, and I will even say that a little project, well designed, will become great and productive for the entire country.
Farah Posted 1 day ago
This is an excellent and informative article and a shock to us here in Europe. Fortunately we are in the UK and no such policy applies and there is abundent work.
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