The migration and development nexus in Morocco: an embedded study of French, German and Dutch returnee entrepreneurship support

ABSTRACT

While studies have questioned the development impact of (re)migrants activities as part of the Migration and Development nexus, host country government support for, among others, returnee entrepreneurship, sending remittances, and investments in regions of origin continue to grow. In 2019, the assumptions that underlie these acts of’codevelopment’, are still central to migration policies formulated by the European Union and many of its member states. This article compares three major European host-countries’ government support to Moroccan French, German and Dutch returnee entrepreneurs. How justifiable, efficient and effective are the different remigrant entrepreneur support strategies? This is discussed from the period ‘guestworkers’ started to arrive in the late 1960s onwards. The focus is on the codevelopment discussions that evolved as of the early 1990s. The objective is to identify strategies in returnee entrepreneurs support that have made significant contributions to remigrant entrepreneurship and development.The information collected in this study suggests that, next to the limited economic impact of most returnee entrepreneurs despite financial support and training, difficulties in cultural ‘re-embedding’ constrain their social ‘rerooting’ in Moroccan society.

KEYWORDS:

• Migration and development nexus
• entrepreneurship
• remigration
• Morocco

Acknowledgments

The author gratefully acknowledges the support of the DiasporaLinkprogram (http://www.diasporalink.org, Grant: 645471) funded by the Horizon 2020: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action, as well as Prof. Dr. Gerd Junne at The Network University (http://www.netuni.nl) Amsterdam in preparing this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Translation: Moroccans living in a foreign country.

2. Translatedfrom: ‘Manifestez ainsi votre attachement en tout que client engage au service du développement de votre région’.

3. Translatedfrom: ‘Dans toutes les régions, ces sociétaires MRE participant a la vie de leur Banque Populaire Régional et font vivre au quotidien les liens de proximité et de l’anchorage local’.

4. Translation: Temper of the time.

5. Unfortunately, there are no official statistics on return over this period as France does not categorize migration statistics according to ethnicity.

6. Translation: Program for Migration and Economic Initiatives .

7. Translation: Ministère de l’Immigration, de l’Intégration, de l’Identité nationale et du Co-Développement (MIIINC).

8. Translation: solidary development.

9. In 2018, the implementation of the 2017–2022 AFD country strategy for Morocco Maroc, L’Ambition Nouvelle de la Politique de Développement Solidaire de la France has just started. This strategy can be considered a continuation of past programs as it prioritizes grassroots initiatives and partnerships with local institutions in order to work on development that will reduce Moroccan emigration (#MondeEnCommun) (AFD, 2017).

10. Translation: Anwerbe stop ausnahmegenehmigung.

11. Translation: Federal Office for Migration and Refugees.

12. Translation: We can do/achieve this.

13. Translation: Alternatives for Germany.

14. Translation: Deutsche Industrie- und Handelskammer.

15. Translation: Remigrant advisor.

16. Translation: National Centre for scientific research and technique.

17. These bilateral agreements are explicitly referred to as ‘arrangements’ in Dutch and in German.

18. In 1969 the Wervingsverdrag Nederland Marokko [Translation- Guestworker treaty NL-Morocco] was signed. In 1973, however, due to the economic effects of the oilcrisis this was already suspended. While it is true that many Moroccans had early entered the country on temporary visas to escape the political unrest caused by the Algerian War of Independence (Kaya, 2009, p. 126), these numbers did not add significantly to the Moroccan community.

19. Translation: Assimilation.

20. Translation:NederlandsRemigratieInstituut.

21. Translation: Effective Immigrant Policy.

22. Translation: Morocco foundation.

23. Translation: National Service for Entrepreneurs in the Netherlands.

24. Translation: Nederland Wereldwijd.

25. Translation: Network International Entrepreneurship.

26. Translation from: « Het beste advies kreeg ik van iemand bij wie het mislukt was. Die gast was lekker krenterig en Nederlands geweest en hij had mensen gewoon niet overtuigd. Hij kreeg het niet voor elkaar. Dus hij zei: ’Marokkanen beoordelen je altijd naar je uiterlijk, je uitstraling, zorg dus dat je in een duur internationaal hotel gaat slapen. En dat werkte en leek me een beetje status te geven.”

27. Translation of:‘L’émigré doit remplir ses obligations, faire la preuve de sa reussite sans pourri autant subvertir un ordre politique et culturel’.

28. Translation: Remigrants sont porteurs d’une réussite corrompue. Ils sentent d’alcool et ont perdu leur culture.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gea D.M. Wijers

Gea D.M. Wijers is a senior researcher for the Network University Amsterdam and a Postdoc at the Business, Management and Organisation Group at Wageningen University & Research, The Netherlands. With her own consultancy Wijers Community-based Consulting (https://geawijers.com) she works on international diaspora-related projects for governments and non-governmental organisations.