Abstract

Morocco’s policy toward migrants is more generous than most, issuing work permits and refusing to evict undocumented refugees. ‘Women should be treated differently; they should be protected from rape and human trafficking. We should give them shelters and healthcare support,’ says Moha Ennaji, president of the South-North Centre for Intercultural Dialogue and Migration Studies.  Hence, the new policy basically says that ‘we don’t deport them, we don’t beat them up … we tolerate them, [but] they can beg and fight for a job.’ This paper is a report of a survey conducted on the socioeconomic situation of women sub-Saharan migrants in Morocco (Fez region as a case study) who made it in their struggle to change their social situation. As a methodology of research, I have relied on a face to face interview of 20 women with varying age groups, nationalities. The majority of these women share their own experience on how they converted from simple illegal migrants to businesswomen and chief executives in the Hospitality industry. Relying on these migrants’ narratives, the paper demonstrates how successful entrepreneurial projects among women migrants created gendered spaces for agency in Morocco.

More information about the event and the speakers is available here.