Morocco’s new migration policy: between geostrategic interests and incomplete implementation

International audienceThe launch in 2013 of a new migration policy marks a major paradigm shift: Morocco henceforth conceives of itself as a country of immigration, no longer only a country of transit. This shift in policy orientation is especially significant because it breaks with the security-based logic of migration management that had prevailed until then. This article examines the emergence and the implementation of these policies from the bottom up. Through the analysis of regularisation operations benefitting some 50,000 illegal migrants, I identify a set of flexibilities, arrangements and extra-regulatory practices adopted by the authorities to reconcile divergent actors’ concerns. This analysis is based on unique fieldwork carried out in 2017 in one of the largest foreigners’ offices created in prefectures for processing regularisation (legalisation) operations. In addition to observation, I conducted 47 interviews with employees of the Moroccan Ministries of Interior, Foreign Affairs and Migration Affairs. I also conducted interviews with several representatives of NGOs involved in the regularisation process