Mobilities Among Marginalized Youth in Morocco: Precariousness, Agency and Networks

Abstract

The migration flows in the Mediterranean region have often been perceived as both a threat and an opportunity. This chapter delves into the current situation to examine the emerging migration patterns in Morocco, a country in the Southern Mediterranean basin, from the perspective of its role as a sending country. Specifically, our research aims to comprehend the dynamic processes of youth mobility within the Mediterranean basin. We seek to shed light on the migratory tendencies of marginalized youth, focusing on the post-Arab Spring generations, as well as the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on these movements. This study is grounded in an ethnographic fieldwork conducted among young people residing in Sale, the twin city of Rabat and the capital of Morocco. Employing a qualitative research approach, we engage in life narrative interviews with 22 young individuals who harbor aspirations of migrating. By exploring their life narratives, including their experiences, practices, and discursive imaginaries, our objective is to construct a comprehensive understanding of their lives and identify the factors that compel them to contemplate migration. Through a detailed analysis of these life narratives, we concentrate on the interconnected and often conflicting aspects of migratory trajectories. The aim is to highlight the pivotal role of individual agency in shaping migration culture, examining its sustainability, and uncovering potential alterations. By emphasizing the agency of youth, we aim to contribute to a deeper comprehension of the multifaceted nature of migration within the Mediterranean region.

1 Introduction

Post-Arab Spring youth were disillusioned with the failures of youth led uprisings to democratize regimes and social life in the Arab countries (Belghazi & Moudden, 2016; Bayat, 2010a; Bayat, 2010b; Bogaert & Emperador, 2011; Catusse & Blandine, 2016). This disillusionment led to lack of belief in the future of Arab states and the impossibility to reform Arab authoritarian regimes; hence the idea of migration was renewed as an individual project to escape post Arab spring state failures to secure employment and dignified life for these youth (Fargues & Fandrich, 2012). Covid 19 pandemic exacerbated the youth precariousness and lack of opportunities. The closure of borders decreased mobility of migrants and youth searching for a better life (Schofberger & Rango, 2020). the post Covid waning of mobility measures opened new hope for migrants to move. Stories started to be reported on the waves of irregular migrants crossing the Mediterranean.¹ The parenthesis of Covid-19 ended and massive waves of irregular migrants from the Southern Shores of the Mediterranean began the endless crossing of the Mediterranean. Stierl & Dadisc states that, “The Mediterranean border zone has received considerable attention over the past decade, especially since the turmoil of the Arab Uprisings “re-opened” the central Mediterranean corridor in 2011, leading to increased migrant crossings” (2022, p. 1456). In this context, recent trends in the migratory trajectories of individuals in Morocco reveal new forms of migration regimes as well as new migrant subjectivities. Our focus would be to analyze youth narratives on migration. Despite the disappearance of migrants crossing to Europe, the visibility of fragility and precariousness in sending countries became the visible consequences on mobility restrictions.

Based on narrative interviews among 22 young people from the neighborhood of Sidi Moussa in the city of Salé, twin city of Rabat, the Capital of Morocco, our paper argues that these marginalized youth in marginalized neighborhood express their disillusionment through a wish to migrate. The social pressure on these youth to succeed socially and the inability of the State to provide them with a decent life intensify the migration dream. The social expectations dimension to succeed pressurizes migrants and produces youth as agents of change in their families and in their society (intersectional dimensions of youth and social practices). Marginality and illegality are key concepts in our paper when dealing with young people wish to realize the migration project.

2 A Theoretical Framework

How to capture the multidimensional levels that influence the migratory regime is a question that is now being addressed by scholars from different disciplines (Bakewell & Jónsson, 2013; Berriane & De Haas, 2012; Berriane et al., 2015). Therefore, researchers tend to classify migration theories according to various factors such as the origin of such theories, migration patterns, relevant disciplines, and application of such theories in the present context. Hammar et al. (2021) attempt to classify theories by using levels of migration. As per Hammar et al. (2021) and Faist and Faist (2000), migration theories are divided into three main categories as micro-level, macro-level and meso-level of migration (Fig. 13.1). Micro-level theories consider migration decisions from an individual’s perspective i.e., a person’s desires and expectations. Macro-level theories consider migration decisions from an aggregate point of view, i.e., the economic structure of the country. Meso-level is where migration decisions lie in between the two former theories, i.e., family bonds, social networks, peer groups and isolated minority communities (Wickramasinghe & Wimalaratana, 2016).

Fig. 13.1

Migration theories: level based analysis. (Source: Wickramasinghe, A. A. I. N., & Wimalaratana, W. (2016:18))

In connection with this conceptual framework, the World Bank proposed a catalogue of factors encouraging mobility. They were classified according to various reasons, i.e. economic and demographic, political, social and cultural (Table 13.1).

Table 13.1 Motivations for migration

In the same line of reasoning, Castles (2012) argues that “A key dimension of migration theory lies in conceptualizing the way social transformation processes act at different spatial levels (local, regional, national and global). Analyzing the mediation and transformation of global forces by local or national cultural and historical factors can help overcome the division between top-down and bottom-up approaches. This implies that attempts to create a ‘general theory of migration’ are unlikely to be helpful, because such a theory would be so abstract that it would give little guidance to understanding any real migratory processes. Rather migration theory needs to be historically and culturally sited, and to relate structure and action” (p. 30). The connection among “location” and “translocation” as push factors in the migration model of these youth is context-dependent on their social situation and global influences as well. Micro analysis provides depth in understanding the logic underneath decisions to migrate. Added to the micro level analysis, migration research should take into consideration “intersectionality” as theorized by (Collins, 1998; MacKinnon, 2013) where examining the interrelatedness of gender, race, class and nation not as distinctive social hierarchies but using intersectionality as a means of examining how they mutually construct one another. Being young and marginalized intersect to create resilient push-factors to migrate.

While youthfulness and marginalization play a role in the desire to migrate, Van Hear (1998) talks about two main other aspects as part of the approach to understand the migration regime: (1) Individual decision-making and motivation where the nexus cost-benefit judgments are made in economic terms; also, social and cultural motivations to enhance status are at play. (2) Household decision-making and strategies where the household as the key focus of decision-making interacts with the agent.

However, Van Hear (1998) is not satisfied with only these aspects but adds that human agency shapes such decisions through force and choice as elements of change. Bakewell and Jónsson (2013) used the concept of “iterative agency” to argue for an expansion of the agency model in order to integrate with the migration system. In the same way, Russel and Michael (1992) that, “International migration trends are rather like aggregate fertility rates, which although heavily influenced by societal and governmental forces, ultimately are determined by the rather intimate decisions of individuals”. (p. 5).

Intimate decisions to migrate are at stake when two transformative processes happened in the Southern countries of the Mediterranean, Revolutions and the Pandemic; the intimacy is a desire to migrate as an individual to escape precariousness; however, the migratory project is interlaced with the social environment where the individual survived; to escape marginalization and to save the whole family became intertwined in the migratory project (Sadiqi & Ennaji, 2008). For a sociological understanding of agency, we refer to Saba Mahmood (2005) who argues that Agency is understood as the capacity to realize one’s own interests against the weight of custom, tradition, transcendental will, or other obstacles (whether individual or collective). Thus, the humanist desire for autonomy and self-expression constitutes the substrate, the slumbering ember that can spark to flame in the form of an act of resistance when conditions permit. (p. 9).

The agency perspective (Katherine, 2006) recognizes the young migrant as socially embedded, active, intentional agent who influence as much as they are influenced by the social context in which they are located. In an attempt to rethink agency in migratory processes, Hein De Haas (2021) brings two concepts to the migratory agency and mobility to open up new horizons in understanding ‘im’mobilities. He argues that aspirations and capabilities dynamize the subjective aspects related to agency by expanding people’s aspirations to migrate; moreover, increasing capabilities expand aspirations. Hein De Haas argues that “international migration had become so strongly associated with material and social success that many youngsters had become virtually obsessed with leaving”. This is an example of this growth in aspirations as result of increase in the capabilities. Despite growing local access to materialism and wealth in some regions in Morocco, international migration did not stop. On the contrary, the aspirations to migrate grows because people have access to money, information and positive feedback mechanisms. Hein De Hass argues that aspirations/capabilities approach takes into consideration both processes related to migration, mobility and immobility. Furthermore, he brings another important example related to our fieldwork, which is the inability to migrate because of lack of resources. He argues that “if people feel deprived of the capability to move, the concomitant frustration of being ‘trapped’ may fuel migration aspirations and can even create an obsession with ‘getting out’”.

It is an approach which highlights the process of self-reflection of potential migrants and attempting to relate their actions, feelings and thoughts to the wider socio-cultural context of their changing place and positionality. Migration in this context should be understood as a dynamic process within dynamic circumstances. The migratory project is a manifestation of agency in the interactive process between actors and structures. The voices of these youth in the narratives express Beliefs about the social world at large. Young people dreaming of migration and talking about their (un)fulfilled dream construct and alter the dream by dialogue and experiences with others. Life experiences and accounts of individuals’ interpretation of such reflects the society they reside and fully live in. This is the reason why it is imperative to listen to the participants’ own voices in studying youth dream to migrate constructions of their identities (Mouna et al., 2017; Murphy, 2012; Paciello, 2012).

3 Context of the Study

Situated in front of the Western coastal shores part of the Atlantic Ocean, Sidi Moussa, one of the marginalized neighborhoods “Houma²” where the fieldwork was conducted (Touhtou, 2021), it is a changing “Houma” from a chanty town to social affordable housing. The research is focusing on 14 streets of Sidi Moussa located in the twin city of Rabat, and outside the walls of the old city Salé called the City of Corsairs as well; the Republic of Sale or the Republic of Bouregreg founded during the seventeenth century which was well-known by the corsairs’ activities as a retaliation of the Reconquista that have shaped the seventeenth century (Ismaili Idrissi, 2021).^3,4

Sidi Moussa is considered as one of the unsuccessful examples of neighborhood that reflects the bad local governance of the municipalities in dealing with the extension of the city and/or with internal movement of population coming from other poor areas in Morocco that was exacerbated by periods of drought, low economic performance of the country since 1980. Despite institutional efforts to get these young people from street, many are still stuck in the neighborhood with drug dealers, illegal alcohol smugglers and narcotics addicted. The dominance of street vendors and informal sector survival worsens the situation of these young people and their surroundings.

Sidi Moussa youth are not at all known in the landscape of youth either in Morocco or worldwide. Apart from moments where big movie industries came to shot in the neighborhood. Sidi Moussa was deemed to be pretty like Mogadishu, where the working-class district was transformed into the Somali capital.⁵ These youth create their own performances of survival and resistance. Lives of “bricolage”, precariat beings are struggling to stay alive, resisting the stereotypes and the circulating images on their existence.

The only available informal work they can do is to work in the Joutia; it is made up of trash and unused goods that are given value and sold for people who cannot afford buying new brand items; traders bring secondhand goods from the EU or locally; it is famous among people with limited incomes. Sidi Moussa neighborhood looks like Joutia, hence trash and the youth stuck here are trapped in trash. When the police talk to the youth, they call them “makaribs”, plural of Microbes in Moroccans Arabic. The trash neighborhood and the microbe youth are either disposable or unseen. The invisible young people from the Streets without names are fighting to be visible and seen. Even the streets they live did not have names; their streets do not exist as names because naming is human and their case “trash” which is disposable is numbered. They live in street 0, one until fourteen. It is classifying the unwanted by giving them secret codes.

4 Data and Methodology

This paper is based on interviews conducted between 2020 and 2022 with 22 young people from the Sidi Moussa neighborhood (Sánchez-García et al., 2021).⁶ The sample was drawn using a non-probability sampling because the population base is not easily identifiable, and the method used is called “snowball”. It asks first a subgroup of the population, which identifies other group members which, in turn are interviewed, and designate other persons in the population, and so on. Though this method remains not extensive, fast and easy to use, it does not allow for the statistical margin of error and thus the accuracy of the estimates produced is unknown, hence we cannot extrapolate the results to all the population and individuals interviewed represent only themselves. This sampling method is particularly suited to our research objectives: individual motivations to migrate outweigh the degree of the phenomenon itself and its characteristics and will also enable us to grasp the meaning and interpretation of the migration experience explained by individuals belonging to various strata. During the interviews, migration as a project became visible in their narratives. Migration is a means to escape the neighborhood, escape marginality, violence, poverty and lack of future. Prior to interviews, observation and participant observation were conducted to understand the youth mobility situation.

The youth interviewed are all from one neighborhood aged between 20 and 30. They are youth transitioning to adulthood, the social pressure hence on the youth to succeed and think of independence is weighing on their subjectivities. Majority are males as it is a male-dominated neighborhood where access to females was difficult; however, we could interview five females among the groups, they were either wives of interviewees, their sisters or their cousins. Majority of them are single; only two interviewees were married and have kids. They are all working in the informal sector, either as street vendors or selling drugs or jobless. All of them belong to low social classes.

The lives of these youth stuck in this neighborhood and wish to migrate by any means is the purpose of this paper to capture the intricacies involved in such decisions; poor, marginalized family households have strategies for their kids to migrate to save the whole family and succeed socially in the neighborhood. As Brettell and Hollifield (2000) declare: “While it may not be the basis for extensive theory construction, the life history method has been employed to access the rich texture of the lived experience of being a migrant and the cultural context of decision making” (p. 11). Qualitative methods such as in-depth interviews and narratives are much better suited than quantitative methods to address and further explore meanings, processes and experiences of individuals’ lives. These methods are consistent with social constructionism as they provide the participants with the opportunity to account for their own experiences in their own words and further to account for how the social world is reflective of their own perceptions of that world. Benmayor and Skotnes (1994) are very clear in presenting the way personal testimony “speaks...to how im/migrant subjects constantly build, reinvent, synthesize, or even collage identities from multiple sources and resources, often lacing them with deep ambivalence. Knowing something of the utter uniqueness of particular individual migrant experiences certainly enhances our generalizations about the group experience, but it also elicits humility about the adequacy of these generalizations and a realization that few actual individual lives fully conform to the master narratives” (p. 15).

5 Analysis and Discussion

5.1 Resisting Invisibility Through illegal Migration

Stories of Yassine, Ahmed, Nourredine, Fatima and others are stories of a trapped youth stuck between invisibility and trash in Sidi Moussa and open space of the Atlantic where the grass is greener on the other side. Youth were victims of a public educational system that has weakened significantly due to the shortage of resources induced by the implementation of the structural adjustment plan (SAP) in Morocco in the 80’s, imposed by international organizations mainly IMF and World Bank. The shift toward a neoliberal model in the aftermath of the SAP significantly affected the quality of public services, including the education system,⁷ fueling a ‘multi speed’ society and consequently inequalities as the private sector becomes a key provider of quality schooling that leads to employment and better professional careers. These generations were left to their own destiny. Dropping from school is the first cause of street groups’ existence and the search for alternatives outside the public sector recruitment. This transformation towards market economy encouraged these youth to seek contractual and intermittent jobs, almost without any safety valve mechanisms.

Yassine and his friends in Sidi Moussa have lost faith in anything in Morocco; they have one left “Forsa” (meaning opportunity in Arabic) is to migrate; the word “Forsa” have been used a lot by these young people to describe their stiffened choices to change their lives. “I will not stay here without any income, house, future; I will risk my life and migrate; I will do anything to join Spain or Italy”; “young people like in Sidi Moussa die bit by bit; we use Hashish, Narcotics to forget our hard lack; look people that pass every day from our neighborhood to join their jobs in Rabat; look at their cars, children go to the private school and they have clean clothes; we here are stuck in filth, poverty and misery; I have travelled to Libya before the Arab Spring but I was caught and deported; I have tried Turkey and I have been deported too; now I am preparing for the last journey to Spain, die or be saved”.

The bricolage existence, “Zettat Rasek” do it yourself, made these youth lose support mechanisms from their already marginalized, poor families. The community is no longer able to offer these protective strategies for their survival. Many young people became potential migrants do not hesitate to enter marriages called “whites” with strangers who guaranteed them a free legal status in the country of destination or cross Gibraltar. Nourredine moved to Tangier and survived as informal street vendor waiting for the occasion to migrate illegally. He is divorced with a daughter who lives with his mother; his wife quitted him because he could not support her and his daughter. He tried many times to cross but failed. Nourredine expressed himself that, “in Tangier, I smuggled in drugs and narcotics and selling used clothes to save money to pay for the Boat”. The story of Nourredine is known for thousands of youths who have no choice but to migrate illegally as legal mobility is expensive and very selective.

Yassine is a young rapper with a diploma who refused to work in Morocco; for him Migration is dignity and climbing the social ladder quickly and decently. It was his family who decided that they will pay for his eldest brother first to migrate to the Emirates to work and then his brother would help migrate and join his brother. Yassine is doing nothing now; he and a group of young people make rap songs and post them in YouTube; he is waiting for his brother to send him a job contract to join him. “Although I have a Diploma, I refuse to work here in Morocco; salaries are very low; you cannot lead a good life; you cannot get married and have a good future for your kids; my family encourages us to migrate to make our families live an upper middle life”. Yassine and others dream of migration because for them migrants have a stable, comfortable life.

The young people interviewed have experienced illegal migration; they are called “Harragas”, literally meaning the burners; they cross the Mediterranean ocean illegally; they tried to migrate many times; failure, imprisonment but they are not deterred to stay. It is a question of existence; either they migrate or die in the ocean; “we die here every day”, as Mohamed mentioned; “I am not afraid from being eaten by a shark or drown in the ocean; but I will try tens of times and never cease of attempting to migrate”. Mohamed and other are on the dole, spend the whole day sleeping and wake up at night just to smoke drugs and drink Alcohol and prepare for their next trip to the ocean. Boats of illegal migrants are also in Rabat/Salé shores; young people pay about 3000 euros to get in the boat to cross to Spanish shores.

Ali is a young person from the neighborhood who acted in many international movies shot in Sidi Moussa; he got the virus of migration from being exposed to these movies; he played as a sidekick and then was convinced that migration is the best solution for him. Ali lost any link to social life with his family and his neighbors; he is obsessed with migrating to Europe. He refuses to work here in Morocco. “I will migrate legally or illegally; I will try and try until I realize my dream, or I will commit suicide”. “I cannot live here in Morocco; I was born for Europe”. The migration dream in this case is becoming an obsession and an obstacle to integrate and lead a normal life in the country of origin.

5.2 Trapped Lives: Migration as Household Strategy of Survival

The experience of migration is generally perceived by the migrant or the potential migrant as an opportunity to improve his or her economic situation, to open up new horizons and allow their children to receive a good education and health system that will allow them to succeed. Fatima has daughters in the Gulf countries; for Fatima, migration has saved her from prostitution and networks of drugs and narcotics; she is a famous woman in the neighborhood; through her connection, she could secure rich marriages for her beautiful daughters with men from Gulf countries who used to come to her house for prostitution. Fatima, through her daughters, bought a big house in the neighborhood, a four-wheel new brand car and lead an upper middle status through her spending and style of life. “My two daughters are my life; they saved me from poverty and marginality; they send me lot of money; I invested their money in two projects for my two other sons; without migration, I would still be a pimp and my daughters would be in the prostitution and my sons in prison”. The story of Fatima is similar to other cases of other parents that are household heads invest in their sons and daughters to migrate to change their social situation.

Migration for these trapped lives in this poor neighborhood is a saving strategy for the whole household, securing the future of the whole family. Another woman, Hajja Fatima, has a daughter in Sweden; her daughter is the only breadwinner for the whole 7-member family household in Sidi Moussa. Her daughter met her future husband here in Morocco and married him and took her to Sweden. Hajja Fatima’s daughter was already a divorced woman with a daughter, left with Hajja; the migrant daughter spends a monthly salary for Hajja to care for the other sons and daughters. This is also a case of one person sacrificing his whole life for the well-being of his family in the country of origin. Sidi Moussa families who are well off have their sons and daughters abroad and lead a good life thanks to the remittances they receive. Being trapped in a marginalized neighborhood with no resources and lack of opportunities, migration became a whole family project to save the family. Migration opens up horizons of social change for these families.

5.3 The Migration Culture and Agency

The migration culture existing both in the Household or the location where the interviewee lives is a push factor for migration. Migration culture intermingles with individual decision and Household decision produce a permanent migratory process with one family but with diverse extensions to family members, relatives and neighbors. The migratory regime when it demonstrates through cases motivations to non-migrants, it then launches the system. Ahmed have never thought of migration; but seeing his neighbors live a good life because of migration convinced him that migration is the best way to lead a dignified life. Ahmed expressed his wish “look at the families next to us; they have their daughters and sons in Europe and the Gulf; they have nice houses, nice cars, nice clothes, they eat well; but my family and I do not have this; we are very poor; I must migrate legally or illegally; I talked to Hajja Fatima to convince her daughter to convince a European woman to come and marry me; I talked also to Fatima for a contract; they asked for money; I need to work and save money; it is hard; I tried boat crossing; however, the police caught us and I spent three months in prison; but I will try again and again”. For Ahmed, positive feedback mechanism is surrounding him to migrate; the influence of neighbors is very string in this case.

Many youths in the neighborhood grew up with these motivations. The feedback mechanisms (de Haas, 2007; Bakewell & Jónsson, 2013) works in the process of producing conducive motivations because of the availability of information and help on the migration project. The system perspective here works through creating a “unified space” (Van Hear, 1998) between origin and destination. We argue that the individual as agential deciders on their fate create their own spaces between the system itself as it unfolds and the outcome of the system. Van Hear (1998, 23) argues for conceptualizing the system at times of “crises”. At times of “crisis”, like Arab spring or Covid19 in this case, the system launches a negotiation process culminating in a decision of moving in all the cases we have mentioned.

Ahmed narrative is a self-reflection on the migration experience; Ahmed experience fluctuates between failure and success; the social and the cultural practice of migration as a success model is questioned; human agency here plays a decisive role in altering the process (Engbersen et al., 2013). Individuals as agents in the migration system rationalize their decisions when other options are available. Hamid explains that “The impact of migration, just taking my family as a case study, is that it takes families out of poverty and this in turn influences their families because it opened their eyes to the way life should be, to democracy and to freedom. Migrants and their families speak languages; they are more open-minded; they live a decent life a standard. Their houses are clean and comfortable. Migration first impacts people and then people impact their environment. I was born in a migration family; I cannot escape it”.

Any migration system must account for notions of “mobility” and “immobility” (Van Hear, 1998:38). Why are some individuals can move and others cannot despite the existence of the same migration culture and motivations? Non-movement (Van Hear, 1998, p. 41) is an aspect of agency where rational, cultural and economic calculations are made to counter migration as a choice. For Hassan, “I sacrificed for my sister; I work here in Morocco and I have a permanent salary with the government; I asked for a credit from the bank and I paid for my sister to migrate to Spain; she worked in the strawberry field in the first three months and then she stayed there illegally; we know a person from our neighborhood who is residing legally in Spain and we convinced him to marry her there and help her get the legal documents and then divorce her later and in return we gave him 5000 Euros”. When the migration system is durable, individuals create their own trajectories and choices; despite the crisis that can occur, individuals alter the dynamics of migration into various forms of movement. Stagnation of the movement or the difficulty to move is only a momentum to agency to perpetuate migration.⁸

Households and individuals make choices according to their situation. There is a sort of selection among households when it comes to migration. We have cases where the whole family chose one daughter to migrate and then the chain migration process happened. Other case it is the illegal young person who risked his life and reached Spain and now he is supporting his family. Many youths in the neighborhood dream of migration because they see the benefits in other experiences. Being young and marginalized are two factors that can push migration project for its materialization. However, individual factors can also play a role in the dream to migrate.

The story of Street performer, Ayoub, is an example of a young person who dream of migration because of his gender identity. Ayoub is a gay and street performer in the city of Salé; he does acrobat in the circus; he claims homosexuality; he earns his living as street performer. He tried twice and succeeded to travel legally to France and to Italy; he met a French owner of a circus in Tangier and got a job contract and migrated to France to perform with a circus. When in France, the owner wants to abuse him sexually, but Ayoub refused and then he canceled his contract and returned to Morocco. The second contract was for an Italian circus; he traveled and met his friend who wanted to marry him, but Ayoub refused and then returned. Ayoub now is waiting for another contract to the UK. He is in the process to prepare VISA documents. Ayoub expressed himself, “In Morocco, I suffer as they do not recognize homosexuals; I have to look for my own freedom in Europe”. Agency plays a crucial push factor in the case of Ayoub. However, migration culture influences youth to migrate. Factors of disillusionment combined with precariousness and weak or inexistent safety nets among these youth produce a string culture of mobility to be saved and not stay stuck in the neighborhood.

6 Conclusion

Post Arab Spring revolts failures to enact social changes necessary to meet the needs of the youth in the region, created forms of disillusionments among the young people aspiring for dignity and social justice (Sánchez-García & Touhtou, 2021); these youth stopped to believe in making their futures in their countries of origin and begin their projects of migration by any means even to die while attempting to cross to the Eldorado. The pandemic of COVID in 2019 aggravated youth precariousness, lack of employment and a decent life (Stierl & Dadusc, 2022). Both processes produced the youth category as a precariat class in the Southern countries of the Mediterranean (Hegasy, 2007; Khouri & Lopez, 2011; Wacquant, 2016). The dream of migration was renewed, taking classical forms of crossing and intensified the wish to fulfil this dream.

The youth interviewed in the Sidi Moussa neighborhood have one thing in common; marginalization as a push factor to escape from their social conditions; left without any safety nets, these youth dream of migrating to any country, mainly the European countries or the Gulf Countries in order to lead a life worth living. Lack of quality education, lack of job opportunities and State poverty-reduction strategies, these youth lagging behind and being forgotten in urban restructuring are the precariat of the urban marginalized, poor families fighting to survive during times of crisis.

“Migration is a dream”, “I will migrate despite restrictions”, “I will cross to the other side and make a new life”, “I do not want my children to undergo the same marginalization”, these phrases summarize the aspirations of the youth to mobility to save their lives and the lives of those who share their situation with (Vacchiano, 2014). The loving conditions of the neighborhood leave the youth with few options to climb the social ladder; either escape the neighborhood or get stuck among jobless youth addicted to drugs, forming groups to aggress and steal others to survive, or earn a living thanks to informal sector where street vendors fight every day for a spot to steel their used goods or flee from police chasing them. The youth of Sidi Moussa are in the process of renegotiating their migration aspirations against their social conditions.

Precariousness and marginalization among youth in big urban spaces are worsening youth conditions and creating resilient motivations for migration. State Institutions and other stakeholders should be aware of the instability this might have on the social cohesion in poor, marginalized neighborhoods in the outskirts of metropoles. Local development and public policies targeting shanty towns or social housing neighborhoods should not provide only decent housing of living but income generation should be part of the whole policies in these neighborhoods. The context now is that migration as a form of resilience in the face of poverty and marginality is the process of being formed as new ways to study advanced urban marginality and the project of migration. Government, Non-government and international organizations working to alleviate poverty and fight against “illegal” migration should understand the aspirations pushing the youth to migrate, mainly to Europe to understand the origin countries social fabric conducive to mobilities and account also for factors hindering immobilities which might intensify migration and produce “warfare” at frontiers between South and North Mediterranean basin.