French migrants in Morocco: from a desire for elsewhereness to an ambivalent reality

Abstract

Moroccan emigration has been widely studied over the past decades. Recently, sub-Saharan migrant populations have become a new focus for the media, politicians, and academics. However, European migration to Morocco remains little known, despite its potential to significantly transform the Moroccan migratory landscape. This article seeks to analyse this underexplored North–South migration by focusing on migratory paths of French people living in Morocco and on the social implications that arise from their relationships with Moroccan society. In order to enrich the theoretical framework on lifestyle migration, this article analyses the main migratory motives present in these migrants' narratives (better quality of life and desire for elsewhereness) and the reasons these individuals advance to explain their choice to move to Morocco. We address the ambivalence of social relationships between these migrants and Moroccans by analysing the migrants' configurations of home and their...