Morocco: Migration and Transnational Identity
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Explore the complex effects of human mobility on local communities, global politics, and transnational economies.
Students are encouraged to consider migration both in the cultural context of Morocco as well as in relation to North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the European Union.
The program examines the factors driving internal and international mobility and the important themes currently shaping the discipline, particularly in the Moroccan context.
Lecture topics usually include issues such as:
- Migration, Islam, and religious crossings
- The Mediterranean, migration, and security
- Youth culture and cultural mobility
- Deported migrants and their reintegration
- Desertification, poverty, and migration
- Migrant remittances and development
- Mobility, transnationality, and border identities
- Migration and transnational art
Lecturers and Program Partners
Utilizing SIT's extensive in-country networks, students enjoy exceptional learning opportunities engaging with experts from leading academic institutions, NGOs, and community organizations. Lecturers include Moroccan and European policymakers, NGO and human rights activists, artists, and experts in the area of migration as it relates to law, international relations, and development. Resources drawn from include:
- The Research Group on Migration and Culture at the University Mohammed V in Rabat
- Fondation Orient- Occident
- The Association of Friends and Families of Victims of Clandestine Migration
- The Consultative Council for Human Rights
- Moroccan Association for Human Rights
- Groupement Anti-Raciste et d'Accompaniement d'Immigrants
- Association pour le Développement Durable à Boujaad
Exploring Rabat and Beyond
The SIT Morocco: Migration and Transnational Identity program is based in Rabat, Morocco's academic, political, and cultural center. In Rabat, students receive thematic lectures and intensive language instruction in both Modern Standard Arabic and the Moroccan dialect. Time outside the program base—through field work, independent study, and educational excursions—is another essential component of the Migration Studies program. Students enjoy three major excursions: Marrakech to Essaouira; Khouribga and Boujad; and Northern Morocco and the border Spanish enclave Ceuta and Malaga in Andalusian Spain. Each excursion illuminates a different aspect of migration through firsthand exposure to the topic in a field-study context.
The Migration Studies program deeply immerses students in Moroccan society and culture. Homestays in both urban and rural areas give students exposure to different Moroccan perspectives and daily life.
Browse this program's Independent Study Projects/Undergraduate Research
| People in Transit Students on the Migration Studies program examine how Morocco’s diverse human mobility has shaped, and continues to shape, the country's class and economic structures, ethnic and racial relations, and the overall tapestry of Moroccan culture and society. Morocco has long been at the crossroads of human civilizations. Over thousands of years, successive civilizations have emigrated and settled in Morocco including the Phoenicians, Vandals, Byzantines, Carthaginians, Romans, and eventually Arab tribes who moved from Arabia. Moments of intense mobility can be traced back to Moroccans' migration to Andalusia, the waves of Andalusian Muslim and Jewish refugees who fled Europe in the wake of the Spanish reconquista and inquisition, and the migratory flux to Morocco from a number of European countries during the colonial expansion. Since its independence in 1956, Morocco has been a major source of unskilled, and more recently skilled, labor for expanding European economies. Today, Europe is home to more than two million first-, second-, and third-generation Moroccans. More recently, Morocco has moved from being a mere "labor frontier" country for Europe to becoming a popular country of transit for sub-Saharan African migrants and is rapidly becoming a receiving country of immigrants, as well. |
Duration: Fall/Spring, 15 weeks
Program Base: Rabat
Language Study: Arabic
Prerequisites: None
Phone:
888.272.7881 (toll-free in US)
802.258.3212
TTY:
802.258.3388
Fax:
802.258.3296
Mailing Address:
PO Box 676, 1 Kipling Road
Brattleboro, VT 05302 USA