Field Train Students, CSOs & Officials in Morocco

International migration from sub-Saharan Africa towards Europe and the United States has significantly increased over the past decade. These migration trends, especially towards Europe, directly influence migration patterns to other North African countries.

The specific migration pull and push factors vary depending on each country and individual, but economic reasons remain a primary factor. According to Pew Research Center, in 1990, 40 percent of sub-Saharan African migrants moved for economic reasons, by 2013, this number had increased to 90 percent. 

In 2015, the UNHCR gathered that over 1 million refugees, displaced people groups, and migrants fled to the EU in order to escape conflict or seek better economic opportunities. This resulted in further militarization of EU borders in attempts to manage what the European Commision called an “unprecedented displacement crisis.”

They confirmed that EU’s stricter border control initiatives have lowered the number of irregular migrants (those without legal paperwork) entering and have made “transit countries” more permanent residences for many migrants. 

The Kingdom of Morocco is one such country.

According to Mehdi Lahlou from Istituto Affari Internazionali, an estimated 5,003 irregular migrants in 2010 used the western Mediterranean route, primarily Morocco, to access Europe. In 2014, this number increased to 7,842. The number of illegal entrances into Europe has decreased since 2015 due to these border restrictions, but migration flows to and from Morocco continue. 

Morocco is seen as being one of the few stable and secure countries in the MENA region. With the EU’s tighter security, it is becoming a destination of both passage and residence for many migrants. 

Morocco’s long migration history has led to well-established sub-Saharan African migrant communities throughout some of its major cities like Rabat, Casablanca, and Tangier. Germany’s GIZ identified that these established social, religious, and economic networks act as appealing factors for increased settlement in Morocco. 

Further signs of Morocco’s growing migration mediary role is reflected by Pope Francis’ planned visit to Morocco, next December, for an international migration conference. The North Africa Post anticipates the formation of an international “global compact” for regularizing migration during his visit.  

However, four years after Morocco implemented its more humanitarian migration policy reform, many migrants and refugees continue to live in clandestine conditions, lack working opportunities, face tension within local communities, and remain unaware of their legal rights under Moroccan law. 

The students of University Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah (USMBA) in Fez diagnosed the need to help the growing number of refugees and asylum seekers and improve the conditions for their societal integration. 

In this way, they desire to launch a Law Clinic to guide civil society by taking a model already established by Hassan II University’s Faculty of Law, Economics, and Social Sciences in Mohammedia––a program for marginalized families funded by the National Endowment for Democracy. 

Fez has become a necessary stop on Morocco’s transportation highways for migrants heading to Tangier, and then potentially Europe. Fez already hosts a large sub-Saharan student population in institutions and higher education, but this increased traffic has created a dire need for legal support for those that fall into precarious situations. 

University students propose creating a Law Clinic that aims to: 1) provide leaders of civil society organizations (CSOs) with legal skills to better integrate vulnerable migrants; 2) strengthen the capacity of law students’ as well as those of these vulnerable populations through business development and legal practice; and 3) advance community cohesiveness and sustainability. 

University officials would identify 10 CSOs, 40 law students, and 100 migrants and refugees to participate in joint legal workshops covering new migration policies, integration, and entrepreneurial development. 

This 1^st phase will be followed with specific legal aid given by law students to benefit participating migrants and refugees. 

The idea is to bring the students, migrants, and the associations together to assess the situation. The members of each group benefit from the participatory workshops they experience together and from hearing differing perspectives regarding problems facing the community. 

Students gain experience interacting with real people requiring legal aid, associations will be better informed on legal aspects of their work and feel empowered to advocate, and migrants are equipped with legal knowledge and entrepreneurial skills. 

This Law Clinic’s legal provision will enable more irregular migrants to socially integrate into society, which in turn, will help alleviate tensions between sub-Saharan African and local Moroccan communities. 

Using the same participatory development method from the first initiative, this Law Clinic will be sufficiently equipped to tackle all legal concerns presented by the community. 

Due to its adaptable nature to different academic institutions and its tendency to spark community involvement, this symbiotic education and learning model holds positive future benefits for surrounding regions and universities. 

St. Andrew’s Church in Cairo, Egypt established a similar refugee legal aid program that provides 3,000 refugees annually with everything from referrals, representation, rights advocacy, and education. It is an example that reveals the potential outcomes that can be realized in Morocco. 

This Law Clinic’s implementation is a solid bridge for fostering intercultural, societal, and economic dialogue essential for perpetuating a harmonious future of coexistence for Morocco’s growing diversity.

The growth of sustainable development as a mainstream concept and practice in Morocco has been progressing but not as much as most people (particularly rural, and women and youth everywhere) have hoped.  Morocco has progressive and helpful laws and programs that give the opportunity and responsibility to all communities to participate in planning, manage initiatives, and build proposals for development projects.  Projects then will naturally be different depending on the priorities of youth, women, and farmers’ needs, consistent with the new vision of decentralization which plays an important role of making each community involved in its own projects and responsible for working through the challenges.  Yet, implementation faces considerable obstacles for local communities to apply participatory development (without them having practical prior experiences as to how) and to create project proposals for funding by government and private agencies.

The High Atlas Foundation (HAF) has a wide network, partnering with seven universities in Morocco, implementing capacity-building in development planning and management with students, and advancing local participation in planning and implementing socio-economic projects.  We do this together by way of experientially training students, faculty, members of civil society, elected officials, government technicians, community leaders, and citizens. HAF's partnerships with universities in Morocco has achieved effective skills-building with more than 2,000 students in the areas of needs assessment for community action planning, organizational development, and project management.

During the month of March 2018, culture, history, and sustainable development were are brought together by HAF in its organization of workshops on participatory planning for projects with 122 students at the Faculty of Human Science and Literature, at Cadi Ayyad University (UCA).  UCA has once again been designated the leading higher learning institution in Morocco, the Maghreb region, and “Francophone” parts of Africa at-large, according to a recent university ranking published by the London-based, Times Higher Education.

The objectives of the workshops are those of sustainable development: building knowledge and skills with students with the aim of enhacing their morale, agency, and enduring productivity on behalf of themselves and communities.

With facilitation by Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir, president of the High Atlas Foundation, the first workshop was launched on 11 March 2018, starting with discussion of the Moroccan development frameworks for participatory action, which was a central point between the students and HAF’s team.  As His Majesty the King Mohammed VI insightfully stated at the Johannesburg Conference 2002, that "after the different tremors and the violent crises which shook the world recently, is everybody convinced now that fostering sustainable development is everyone’s responsibility."

The 122 students experienced the participatory method--pairwise-ranking--and other methods of the community planning, which enable not only students, but all people to play an active and influential part in decisions which impact their lives. All the students were wonderfully involved in making decisions by coming to consensus on their project priorities, which are as follow:

      -  The system managment of administration: this plays an essential role in letting the relations between the university administration and the students to be transparent with greater open communication.

      - Health care: the main point is to improve quality student health at the university, and to cover its associated costs.

      - Electronic library: this will be very helpful for the students to much more easily discover informative sources.

The HAF is always following up with communities, youth, women, and cooperatives to evaluate and advance on all the steps of development projects.  On Sunday, 25 March 2018, the HAF came back to assess the students’ practices and what they have learned through the first session, and to organize for action.  During a great morning, Dr. Ben-Meir opened the second part of the workshop that brought new students to learn about HAF's participatory approach. All the students were able to follow up with the priorities of the first session.  They also divided into 3 groups, and each group built their team and solutions for their projects, such as the strategy to create more clubs and majors at the University.

Before HAF delivered 122 Certificates of Completion to the students, the workshops ended with a fruitful discussion about the future upcoming training with the UCA students, which is an international program called "Imagine" for women to create the life they most want.

The certificates deliverd to the UCA students is a recognition of their dedications to sustainable community development and spreading the culture of collaboration.  "I must hug you [Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir] and thank a lot the High Atlas Foundation about this such wonderful chance to realize that we really have communities, and that we should care and help in developing  them," one of the UCA students expressed.

An essential basis for development in Morocco is the agency of university students.  They are current and future leaders who play a fundamental role in developing their country. 

HAF continues to expand the participatory approach among Moroccan students and communities…