The history of Muslim and Jewish migration in the Maghreb is well documented and has been well studied. Yet this history has not always been properly understood or contextualized.
With regard to the migration of Jews in the Maghreb, two eras in particular have captivated the imagination of researchers and have even helped to fashion Jewish identity: the expulsions from Catholic Spain and the mass exodus of the 1950s and 60s. Far too few historians however have studied links between the expulsion of Jews and that of Moriscos, or have investigated what these expulsion—and the trajectories they produced—tell us about the painful emergence of modernity in Europe. Also, by focusing on the specific political and ideological conditions of the aliyah, historians have rarely considered how the emigration of Maghrebi Jews might relate to other mass migratory movements characteristic of the post-colonial era.
The aim of this international conference is to open such avenues of inquiry. The migrations of the past were not simply discrete or isolated movements of people. They were conditioned by the same complex social and economic forces, often global in scale, responsible for the fundamental transformations of Maghrebi societies generally. During the colonial conquest and the period immediately following it these broader historical forces provoked the forced displacement of people, the sedentarization of pastoralists, and integration of most of the population into a world economy dominated by Europe. Later, colonial policies and structures provoked the pauperization and proletarization of rural workers, the emigration of cheap labor to the industrial basins of Europe, and the mobilization of the middle classes in response to the arrival of mass movements on the political stage.
By situating the history of Jewish migrations within a multidimensional context, one in which religion and politics are not the only variables, the unique nature of these migrations is considerably tempered. They can be understood as part and parcel of a larger process, the modernization of Maghrebi societies. The Essaouira conference follows upon two decades of research on the history of migration in the Maghreb. It aims to pursue the lead of the Council of Moroccan Communities Abroad (CCME) by opening up a space in Morocco where expatriates and emigrants, including entire communities of Moroccan living abroad, can be heard.
The collective memories of migrant Maghrebi communities on other continents are also those of Morocco and its neighbors. The fostering of multifarious links between the two, through pilgrimages, family visits, tourism, the preservation of heritage, etc. are indicators that citizenship can be constructed from a multiplicity and diversity of historical experiences. All migrants traverse the landscape, each one inscribing it with individual traces, hopes and desires. These trajectories, wherever they are, are part the greater fabric of Maghrebi societies and identities.
Translation : Eric Ross, Al Akhawayn University