Moroccan-Belgians
Total population
429,580 (2012)[1]
Regions with significant populations
 Belgium
 Morocco
Languages
French, Dutch, Moroccan Arabic, Rifian, Shilha, Spanish,[2] Italian
Religion
Islam
Minority: Judaism, Irreligion, Christianity[3]
Related ethnic groups
Arabs and Berbers in Belgium

Moroccans and people of Moroccan descent, who come from various ethnic groups, form a distinct community in Belgium and part of the wider Moroccan diaspora. They represent the largest non-European immigrant population in Belgium and are widely referred to as Belgo-Marocains in French and Belgische Marokkanen in Dutch.

History

Moroccan-born population in Belgium
YearPop.±%
1961 461—    
1970 39,294+8423.6%
1981 105,133+167.6%
1991 142,098+35.2%
2002 90,642−36.2%
Source: [4]

There has been a Moroccan presence in Belgium since 1912 when France began recruiting workers from its North African colonies as immigrant workers, allowing some to cross into Belgium. At the time, Morocco possessed a largely agrarian economy and labour migration was attractive to many young men. There were thought to be 6,000 Moroccans living in Belgium by 1930, predominantly in industrial towns in Wallonia.[5]

The rapid recovery of the Belgian economy after World War II was based on the rapid revival of coal mining and heavy industry which experienced an acute labour shortage. As a response, the Belgian government entered into various guest worker programmes aimed at encouraging workers to travel to Belgium on work contracts. The first such agreement was made with Italy in 1946 but the arrangement collapsed after large-scale loss of life among Italian workers in the Marcinelle mining disaster in 1956. Alternative agreements were concluded with Spain (1956) and Greece (1957) and later Turkey (1964). Belgium also began to look to recruiting migrant workers from North Africa from 1957 but the process was complicated by the ongoing Algerian War.[4]

A guest worker agreement was signed with Morocco on 17 August 1964. This made Morocco the first North African state to make such an agreement with Belgium.[4] In following years significant numbers of Moroccan workers, mainly single men, were recruited for work in Belgium. The program was cancelled in August 1974 amid the fall in demand created by the 1973–1975 recession and the country's escalating deindustrialisation. However, the spread of family reunification and high birth rates led to the rapid expansion of the community after the scheme's abolition. In following years, there was also immigration into Belgium from students and political dissidents opposed to the regime of King Hassan II.[4]


As of 2023, there are a total of 699,296 North Africans in Belgium, of which a majority are Moroccans. A total of 258,603 North Africans reside in the Brussels-Capital Region, 120,356 reside in Antwerp. A total of 275,421 North Africans reside in Flanders and a total of 165,272 North Africans reside in Wallonia.[6]

Number of Moroccans in larger cities
#CityPeople
1.Brussels34,984
2.Antwerp11,780
3.Liège7,634
4.Charleroi5,403
5.Namur2,836

Community

Moroccans form a major immigrant ethnic group in Belgium. The number of people with at least one parent born with Moroccan nationality was 430,000 on 1 January 2012, or about 4 percent of the national population. This proportion was 6.7% among those under 15 years of age. Belgium also represents one of the most important centres of the Moroccan diaspora. The Brussels-Capital Region has the most Moroccans in Belgium (45%), followed by Antwerp (22.7%), Liège (8.8%) and Charleroi (5.2%).

A large majority of Moroccans in Belgium originate from northern Morocco (Al Hoceima, Nador, Tangier, Tetouan and Oujda).[7][8]

It was reported in 2019 that six Moroccan-Belgians had been elected to the Chamber of Representatives and 21 in regional parliaments.[9]

It was reported in 2020 that more than 1,500 Moroccan-Belgian dual nationals in Morocco had request repatriation to Belgium during the COVID-19 pandemic.[10]

There is a small Moroccan Jewish community which runs the Judeo-Moroccan Cultural Centre (Centre de la Culture judéo-marocaine, CCJM) in Brussels.[11] The chief Rabbi of Belgium is Albert Guigui, born in Meknès in 1944.

Radicalization

In the 2012–2016 timespan, of the approximately 500 individuals who left the country to fight in the civil war in Syria, the great majority were of Moroccan descent according to U.S. and Belgian authorities.[12] In a report by the Combating Terrorism Center, of the 135 individuals surveyed in connection with terrorism, there were 12 different nationalities. Of those 65% had Belgian citizenship and 33% were either Moroccan citizens or had ancestral roots there.[13]

Notable people

Members of parliament or of government

Others

See also

References

  1. ↑ "429.580 Belges sont d'origine marocaine: deux fois plus qu'il y a 20 ans!" (in French). Sud-Info. 14 July 2014. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  2. ↑ "Spaanse Marokkanen: In dit apenland kan alles, redeneren ze" (in Dutch). Gazette van Antwerpen. 13 October 2009. Retrieved 10 December 2021.
  3. ↑ Lederer, Gyorgy (2009), "Hungary", in Nielsen, Jorgen; Akgönül, Samim; Alibašic, Ahmet; Maréchal, Brigitte; Moe, Christian (eds.), Yearbook of Muslims in Europe, Volume 1, BRILL Publishers, p. 69-72, ISBN 978-9047428503
  4. 1 2 3 4 Loriaux, Florence. "L'immigration marocaine en Belgique (1964-2004)" (PDF). Centre d'animation et de recherche en histoire ouvrière et populaire (CARHOP). Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  5. ↑ Laporte, Christian (16 February 2014). "1/2 siècle d'immigration belgo-marocaine" (in French). La Libre Belgique. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  6. ↑ "Origin | Statbel". statbel.fgov.be. Retrieved 2023-07-04.
  7. ↑ Libre.be, La. "1/2 siècle d'immigration belgo-marocaine" (in French). Retrieved 2017-07-25.
  8. ↑ sudinfo.be. "429.580 Belges sont d'origine marocaine: deux fois plus qu'il y a 20 ans!". sudinfo (in French). Retrieved 2017-07-25.
  9. ↑ "Six Belgians of Moroccan Descent Enter Belgian Parliament | The North Africa Post". The North African Post. 31 May 2019. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  10. ↑ Loos, Baudouin (13 April 2020). "Coronavirus: 1.500 binationaux bloqués au Maroc se sont inscrits pour être rapatriés, annonce Goffin" (in French). Le Soir. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  11. ↑ "Les juifs marocains de Belgique fêtent La Mimouna" (in French). Conseil de la communauté marocaine à l'étranger (CCME). 11 May 2016. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  12. ↑ "When It Comes To Radicalization In Belgium, Turks and Moroccans Are Different". NPR.org. Retrieved 2019-03-10. More than 500 Belgians have left for Syria since 2012 and most of them, according to Belgian and U.S. officials, have been of Moroccan descent.
  13. ↑ Van Vlierden, Guy; Lewis, Jon; Rassler, Don (February 2018). Beyond the Caliphate (PDF). Combating Terrorism Center. p. 1. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 February 2018. Retrieved 24 February 2018.

Further reading

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