Date of Award

2015

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Baram, Uzi

Keywords

Rabat, Morocco, Immigration, Migrants, Politics, Ethnography

Area of Concentration

Anthropology

Abstract

This thesis explores experiences of "illegality in a community of irregular sub- Saharan migrants in Takadoum, a quarter of Rabat, Morocco. Since the early 2000s, increased migration flow from sub-Saharan Africa to the European Union and Europe's exertion of extraterritorial power over its southern Mediterranean neighbors have turned Morocco into a place of immigration rather than a point of transit. Morocco's increasingly punitive measures against irregular migration have "criminalized" migrants, turning them into social pariahs in popular discourse. Through ethnography, I explore the embodied expressions of abjection through the theoretical lens of biopower, or sovereign power over life. First, I detail the legislative and social processes that "illegalized" migration. I explore how delegitimation influences the journey across the Sahara, as well as border crossing attempts from Morocco to the Spanish territorial enclaves of Melilla and Ceuta. Experiences of "illegality" are then localized to Takadoum, Rabat, where migrants contend with a colonially-rooted urban politics of segregation, routinized violence, and sub-standard living conditions. Finally, I explore migrants' attempts to seek care in state health centers and nongovernmental organizations. The state's failure to provide health care for non-citizens demonstrates the exertion of biopolitical power to reckon "deservingness" to health.

Download

Share

COinS