Paper short abstract:

The paper explores practices of solidarity in defiance of hostile migration politics in Morocco. It focuses on the moral, political, and social ambiguities that solidarity entails amongst leaders and activists from migrant associations who discuss their commitment as a form of "sacrifice" .

Paper long abstract:

Drawing on long-term ethnographic engagement with the governance and lived experiences of ‘illegal’ migration in Morocco, the paper explores practices of solidarity which have risen in response to hostile migration politics. The paper focuses on the moral, political, and social ambiguities that solidarity entails amongst migrant people in Morocco.

Amidst efforts to selectively deter, monitor and control the mobility of (racialized) people deemed undesirable, transnational bordering regimes seek to stifle solidarity practices that provide various forms of support to migrant people. State and non-state actors violently target individual and organisations which challenge bordering efforts through practices of solidarity, thereby contributing to an overall climate of fear. Whilst public discourses over migration issues have often focused on the targeting of (Western) actors (e.g. sea rescues), the intimidation of solidarity actors also includes citizens and NGOs south of the Mediterranean Sea, including migrant people themselves.

Drawing on the imaginaries deployed by migrants to articulate their life journeys and make sense of violent migration policies, the paper examines the experiences of migrant leaders from Western and Central Africa in Morocco. It discusses how leaders and other active members of associations set up by migrants narrativize their commitment and efforts to counter the violence of bordering measures as a “sacrifice”. While pursuing their own life goals and migratory journeys, they need to navigate expectations from other migrant people, fraught relationships with civil society organisations, and intense surveillance, repression, and co-optation attempts by Moroccan authorities regulating the mobility of migrants in and out of Morocco.