From “Expats” To Migrants: Mano’s Worlds in Marrakesh
From “Expats” To Migrants: Mano’s Worlds in Marrakesh

Author(s): Michel Peraldi
Subject(s): Migration Studies, Asylum, Refugees, Migration as Policy-fields
Published by: Transnational Press London
Keywords: Expats; migrants; Mano’s Worlds; Marrakesh;
Summary/Abstract: Mano was one of the first people I met in 2011 in Marrakesh, where I had moved for two years of fieldwork with the aim of conducting research into the history of the city and its urban development against the backdrop of a tourism-based economy (Peraldi, 2018). He immediately told me his story without pouring his heart out too much, then soon kindly and spontaneously offered to help me with my personal and professional paperwork. He came at the right time, as I was looking for a place to live and he worked at a real estate agency; above all, he knew many people in Marrakesh. He quickly found me a property to rent that suited me perfectly, then opened his social calendar to me and brought me with him to parties and dinners hosted by friends, and friends of friends. His world was nothing like that of the European jet-set featured in magazines that has given Marrakesh the reputation as a “place to be.” On the contrary, his was a social world where you met unknown people on the younger side, the vast majority of them French, often newcomers, and far from rich. There were also a few Moroccan men and women, all from the same generation and cultural and professional spheres as their French friends, many sharing a home with a French partner. Finally, many young children would run around among the dancers or fall asleep on the sofa at the end of the evening.

• Details
• Contents