Migration in Morocco: History, Current Trends and Future ... - MGSoG

together with associations that have a religious focus and put emphasis on this aspect may
actually lead some non-religious associations to stop cooperation with religious ones.
• Berbers – Arabs: Social, cultural, and language differences can be observed
between Berber migrants stemming from the north-east of Morocco and migrants with a
primarily Arab background who migrated after 1980. An indicator for this can be found
in the existence of Amazigh cultural groups. There do exist associations with members
from both backgrounds, however.
• Participation of women (low): In many associations the members and the boards of
management are predominantly male. There are some associations that encourage the
membership of women and criticize the conservative attitude of other associations, but
only few associations for women only exist.
• Relations with the Moroccan government: There are certain tensions between those
associations that cooperate with the Moroccan Embassy and those that do not.
• Generation gap: In most cases members of boards of directors belong to the same
generation. In general only few young people are involved at advisory-committee level or
on the board of directors. Preferences for meeting places also differ between generations.
5.2 The Moroccan Diaspora Activities
The Moroccan Diaspora is involved in a variety of activities, ranging from
charitable activities to political, developmental, scientific, and cultural activities. Some
associations focus their activities mainly on the host country whereas others gear their
activities exclusively to Morocco. The size of the organizations also differ very much;
organizations ranging from small, informal groups to larger NGOs that are associated
with up to 250 partner organizations exist.
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