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

8. Moroccan Migration in the Netherlands
8.1 Moroccan Migrant Community Formation in the Netherlands
Moroccan migration to the Netherlands is strongly characterized by recruitment of
unskilled workers. The Dutch government regulated the recruitment practices by bilateral
agreements with Morocco in the 1960s (Heering et al., 2002). Thanks to these formal
agreements Moroccans could obtain work permits for the Netherlands and enter the
Netherlands officially (Neubourg, Beckers & Hercog, 2008). Moreover, from the time
that the Netherlands opened itself to foreign labor in 1960, many Moroccan migrants
entered the Netherlands first as tourists and obtained the necessary documents for a
working permit upon arrival while looking for a job (Neubourg, Beckers & Hercog,
2008).
The recruitment policy stopped during the first oil crisis. From the beginning of
1970s, the effects of migration in the Netherlands became more of an issue both in the
political agenda and in the mass media. During this decade it was observed that although
the demand for foreign labor was decreasing, the number of immigrants in the country
was increasing. The Netherlands also tried to stimulate return migration in that period,
yet such programs were too costly compared to their success. The Moroccan community
thus grew larger in spite of the Dutch government’s efforts to limit migration.
Immigration from countries from which labor was recruited continued as chain-
migration, at first in the form of family reunification throughout the 1970s and later on in
the form of family formation in the 1980s and 1990s (Zorlu & Hartog, 2001). Moroccans
in the Netherlands predominantly came from the rural Rif region, which is characterized
by high population density and a shortage of agricultural resources. (Esveldt et al., 2000).
According to the Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics’ population statistics, almost
47% of the Moroccan community in the Netherlands lives in the four main cities of the
Netherlands (the Hague, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht) (Neubourg, Beckers &
Hercog, 2008). The Moroccan migrant community is gradually growing due to
continuous immigration and relatively high birth rates in the group (Zorlu & Hartog,
2001). Moroccans were the fifth largest migrant group in the Netherlands in 2007. Figure
10 shows how the Moroccan migrant population increased in the Netherlands since the
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