Sub-Saharan migration in Morocco: between spatial dispersal, bordering and infrapolitical resistance This event is available to attend both in-person and online. Tea, coffee and delicious cakes will be available before the event begins for those attending in person. Overview This presentation will examine the dynamics of sub-Saharan migration through the prism of migration policies, lived experience and migrant struggles in Morocco, which has been transformed into a country of transit, residence and reception of sub-Saharan migrants. To this end, I will rely on the results of my participatory action-research conducted with 215 migrants in an immersive approach in Moroccan cities and informal migrant camps. Anchoring my approach in the paradigms of migration autonomy and the prism of infrapolitics (Scott, 1992), I interrogate the logic of production and recomposition of EuroMoroccan borders in the light of asymmetrical power relations and struggles initiated in the light of the security logic of spatial dispersal. First, I explore the times and spaces that shape the sub-Saharan migratory experience through the prism of spatial dispersal politics and bordering. These biopolitical processes of migratory control are implemented through the logic of a spatial division of labor, producing, on the one hand, border spaces of obstruction and selective filtering and, on the other, spaces of forced relocation of migrants. My research shows that dispersal, in what it embodies, produces as temporal conditions and reveals as new spatialities, crosses the subjective experiences of ‘border-bodies’ (Mbembe, 2020), influences their fragmented migratory trajectories and leads to the emergence of new refuge-cities. Secondly, I will focus on subterranean forms of resistance and solidarity that attempt to counteract the mechanisms of dispossession and migration deterrence. By examining infra-political subjectivity and adopting a decentralized approach to the analysis of migratory governance, I shed light on inclusive territoriality and the forms of local rights that are structured on the scale of waiting territories. The conflictual relationship between sub-Saharan migration and attempts to capture it also reveals the agency of migrants who negotiate, circumvent or accommodate borders. Finally, I underline the processes of recoding the instruments of migrants’ territorial containment and question migrants’ relations to time and space, and to the materiality of socio-spatial inequalities in a contemporary capitalist context. About Our Speaker Holding a PhD in Political, Cultural and Historical Geography since 2020 (Sorbonne, ED 434 de Géographie de Paris) Dr El Arabi has taught at bachelor and master levels at the University of Paris Cité, Sorbonne University, and in some leading schools (Sciences Po and emlyon business school). She is currently a researcher in residency at the Institute for Advanced Studies of Aix Marseille University, Iméra, and and an Associate Fellow at the Alwaleed Centre, University of the University of Edinburgh. She is currently conducting a postdoctoral research project on "Muslim solidarity and infra-political resistance in the context of migration crises in Marseille and Oujda", as part of Iméra's Mediterranean program, and the University of Edinburgh's Alwaleed Centre. Her work lies at the intersection between studies on the effects of European externalization of border controls in Morocco and the study of solidarity dynamics and the political subjectivation processes that emanate from it. In the field, she founded the Association of Solidarity for the Support of Migrants (ASAM), which enabled her to better interrogate and grasp the migratory phenomenon from a scientific point of view, while being immersed among subaltern groups and working with territorial intermediary bodies (humanitarian organizations, citizen collectives, local authorities, social centers). Nourishing her approach to migration governance with an examination of urban resilience and migration as a resource for city diplomacy, Dr El Arabi joined the Center of Excellence, the City Diplomacy Lab (CDL) at Columbia Global Centers-Paris. As an associate researcher, she also joined the Political Anthropology Laboratory (LAP), a joint unit of the CNRS and the EHESS. Her affiliation with these research structures enables her to work within a network and in a transdisciplinary context, extending her investigations in Morocco and adding scientific value to her research on the issue of migrant reception policies, social mobilization and the production of new forms of civility and citizenship in the Mediterranean. Apr 22 2024 16.00 - 17.30 Sub-Saharan migration in Morocco: between spatial dispersal, bordering and infrapolitical resistance PLEASE NOTE - THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED DUE TO CIRCUMSTANCES BEYOND OUR CONTROL. Room G01 50 George Square Edinburgh EH8 9JU Find Venue Register for free
Sub-Saharan migration in Morocco: between spatial dispersal, bordering and infrapolitical resistance This event is available to attend both in-person and online. Tea, coffee and delicious cakes will be available before the event begins for those attending in person. Overview This presentation will examine the dynamics of sub-Saharan migration through the prism of migration policies, lived experience and migrant struggles in Morocco, which has been transformed into a country of transit, residence and reception of sub-Saharan migrants. To this end, I will rely on the results of my participatory action-research conducted with 215 migrants in an immersive approach in Moroccan cities and informal migrant camps. Anchoring my approach in the paradigms of migration autonomy and the prism of infrapolitics (Scott, 1992), I interrogate the logic of production and recomposition of EuroMoroccan borders in the light of asymmetrical power relations and struggles initiated in the light of the security logic of spatial dispersal. First, I explore the times and spaces that shape the sub-Saharan migratory experience through the prism of spatial dispersal politics and bordering. These biopolitical processes of migratory control are implemented through the logic of a spatial division of labor, producing, on the one hand, border spaces of obstruction and selective filtering and, on the other, spaces of forced relocation of migrants. My research shows that dispersal, in what it embodies, produces as temporal conditions and reveals as new spatialities, crosses the subjective experiences of ‘border-bodies’ (Mbembe, 2020), influences their fragmented migratory trajectories and leads to the emergence of new refuge-cities. Secondly, I will focus on subterranean forms of resistance and solidarity that attempt to counteract the mechanisms of dispossession and migration deterrence. By examining infra-political subjectivity and adopting a decentralized approach to the analysis of migratory governance, I shed light on inclusive territoriality and the forms of local rights that are structured on the scale of waiting territories. The conflictual relationship between sub-Saharan migration and attempts to capture it also reveals the agency of migrants who negotiate, circumvent or accommodate borders. Finally, I underline the processes of recoding the instruments of migrants’ territorial containment and question migrants’ relations to time and space, and to the materiality of socio-spatial inequalities in a contemporary capitalist context. About Our Speaker Holding a PhD in Political, Cultural and Historical Geography since 2020 (Sorbonne, ED 434 de Géographie de Paris) Dr El Arabi has taught at bachelor and master levels at the University of Paris Cité, Sorbonne University, and in some leading schools (Sciences Po and emlyon business school). She is currently a researcher in residency at the Institute for Advanced Studies of Aix Marseille University, Iméra, and and an Associate Fellow at the Alwaleed Centre, University of the University of Edinburgh. She is currently conducting a postdoctoral research project on "Muslim solidarity and infra-political resistance in the context of migration crises in Marseille and Oujda", as part of Iméra's Mediterranean program, and the University of Edinburgh's Alwaleed Centre. Her work lies at the intersection between studies on the effects of European externalization of border controls in Morocco and the study of solidarity dynamics and the political subjectivation processes that emanate from it. In the field, she founded the Association of Solidarity for the Support of Migrants (ASAM), which enabled her to better interrogate and grasp the migratory phenomenon from a scientific point of view, while being immersed among subaltern groups and working with territorial intermediary bodies (humanitarian organizations, citizen collectives, local authorities, social centers). Nourishing her approach to migration governance with an examination of urban resilience and migration as a resource for city diplomacy, Dr El Arabi joined the Center of Excellence, the City Diplomacy Lab (CDL) at Columbia Global Centers-Paris. As an associate researcher, she also joined the Political Anthropology Laboratory (LAP), a joint unit of the CNRS and the EHESS. Her affiliation with these research structures enables her to work within a network and in a transdisciplinary context, extending her investigations in Morocco and adding scientific value to her research on the issue of migrant reception policies, social mobilization and the production of new forms of civility and citizenship in the Mediterranean. Apr 22 2024 16.00 - 17.30 Sub-Saharan migration in Morocco: between spatial dispersal, bordering and infrapolitical resistance PLEASE NOTE - THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED DUE TO CIRCUMSTANCES BEYOND OUR CONTROL. Room G01 50 George Square Edinburgh EH8 9JU Find Venue Register for free
Apr 22 2024 16.00 - 17.30 Sub-Saharan migration in Morocco: between spatial dispersal, bordering and infrapolitical resistance PLEASE NOTE - THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED DUE TO CIRCUMSTANCES BEYOND OUR CONTROL.
