How Environmental Changes Result in Migration Aspirations and Other Adaptation Strategies of Moroccan Inhabitants and Migrants in Belgium

Abstract

This book provides a unique approach to the Moroccan context. Many researchers have conducted fieldwork in Morocco, departing from migration studies (e.g., De Haas 2003, 2006, 2010; Czaika and De Haas 2011; De Haas and El Ghanjou 2000), while others solely focused on environmental and climate changes (e.g., Schilling et al. 2012), leaving the interplay between both to be explored more in-depth. The Moroccan context offers a unique research context because it is confronted with gradual environmental change over the last decades and has initiated considerable action at the national level to develop policies or strategies to counteract these changes. Hence, Morocco in 2019 ranked among the leading countries in the fight against climate change on the Climate Change Performance Index (Burck et al. 2019). Furthermore, Morocco evolved into one of the world’s leading emigration countries in the second half of the twentieth century, being characterized by unexpected developments, including colonial migration, labour migration, family reunification, and, recently, undocumented migration. This led to a high degree of internal differentiation within the Moroccan migrant population and strong and influential migrant networks (De Haas 2007; Schilling et al. 2012; cf. Chap. 10.1007/978-3-030-61390-7_3).