Africa vs Europe: Migration without a future
Pedro Canales
Migration has existed as long as humanity has. In the past and present, there are several main causes and many secondary ones. Wars, natural disasters, famine, epidemics, and the search for a better future are among the main causes. The secondary causes are as varied as the personal motivations of the protagonists, women and men, adults and young people.
The entry routes to Europe through its three corridors— the eastern one through Greece and Turkey, the central one through Italy, and the western one through France, Portugal, and mainly Spain— have become news and a cause of concern for the societies receiving immigrants. These societies are politically divided over how to deal with the phenomenon.
Before examining this issue in the context of relations between Europe and the Maghreb, particularly between Spain and Morocco, it is worth remembering that as long as the causes of migration persist, the phenomenon will continue to exist.
While war in all its dimensions is the primary cause of immigration to Europe via the eastern corridor, where tens or hundreds of thousands of Africans and Asians await their turn—along with the displacement of millions of Ukrainians throughout Europe—the central corridor is driven by a mix of war and natural and social emergencies. The western corridor, which concerns Spain and partially France and Portugal, is primarily driven by the search for a better life, work, and family future.
Spanish and European media have unanimously recognized that thanks to the mobilization of Moroccan security forces, the anticipated avalanche of thousands of young people at the Ceuta border, coming from many corners of the Maghreb, Algeria, Mali, Mauritania, or West Africa, attracted by calls made on social media, has been contained. However, it hasn’t been solved as long as the root causes persist. Morocco is a country of emigration, yes, but also a country that receives thousands of young people from Sub-Saharan Africa seeking work or education.
It seems that these calls on social media were not made by human trafficking mafias, as they do not benefit from it, or earn very little from transporting migrants to the border. These calls originate elsewhere, with possibly different intentions, but this is irrelevant to the phenomenon itself.
In Morocco, a promising debate is taking place on young people, social integration, access to the labor market, and emigration. The High Commission for Planning, led by the socialist and former minister Ahmed Lahlimi, has designated with the acronym NEET the one and a half million young people aged between 15 and 24 years (which corresponds to a quarter of this social category) as the main pool of candidates for regular or irregular migration.
Another state body, the Economic, Social, and Environmental Council (CESE), considers that these one and a half million young people face three existential disruptions: school failure, the difficult transition from the educational system to the labor market, and the near impossibility of changing jobs. In general, this social category faces a closed horizon and an uncertain future.
Ahmed Lahlimi’s institution goes further in studying these risk factors and social exclusion, noting that 51.4% of these young people live in urban areas, of which 85% live in families headed by a man, mostly without any kind of school diploma. In addition, 72.4% of these young people are inactive and show no interest in the vocational training available to them. Finally, 27.6% are directly unemployed, with little or no possibility of finding work.
Although the Moroccan authorities recognize that this youth under the age of 25 possesses “dynamism and creativity that are reputed for the country’s development,” this is precisely where the main focus of migration candidates lies.
Does the phenomenon of massive migration have a short- or medium-term solution? No, as long as its causes persist. The Moroccan phenomenon is a paradigmatic example. In recent years, Morocco has shown strong economic, technical, industrial, and academic development. But the country’s capacity to generate jobs is significantly lower than its demographic growth. The framework of international economic, commercial, and financial relations to which any country must submit does not allow a balance between population growth, education, and employment. This generates a surplus population that can only develop outside the country, through emigration to Europe, the United States, or Canada.
If Europe wants to control immigration, it must balance the developmental gap between the Old Continent and the whole of Africa and parts of Asia. The United States has launched an interesting initiative that is beginning to take effect: a large number of manufacturing, electronics, industrial, and assembly companies are setting up in Mexico, where there are already 32,000 American companies. Far from what is happening, for example, with Morocco, where only 750 French companies and 360 Spanish companies have relocated, thus contributing to job creation and the country’s development.
