By: Georgeta Bocşe
Abderradim Filali Baba was the mayor of Fez for fifteen years. Fez is the third largest city in Morocco, after Casablanca and Rabat with almost one million inhabitants. Baba came to the “Intercultural Cities” forum in Bari to speak about the town that he is most proud of.
Orange: Do you have any problems with migrants in Fez?
Baba: We don’t have such big problems as Italy has. You have young people that come from abroad; we have an internal migration. Mostly we have people coming from the country side to the city. Like it happens here in Italy. It is a rural exodus. And also like here in Italy there are people going from the south to the north. Still problems can appear. Because we need better infrastructure, better public transportation and more jobs so that we can support all these people that come to the city. I must say the problem that we have now, because of the proximity with the courtiers in the region of Sahara is with all the people that come to Morocco so that they can go further to Europe. So like Bari we are also a transit zone sometimes.
Orange: What is the main destination for Moroccans when it comes to migration?
Baba: We have more types of migration. We have people who go abroad looking for a job, many of our engineers, computer scientists or medical doctors go to work outside the country. And they go to many countries. They go to Europe, the USA and Canada.
Orange: Is there any specific country that Moroccans prefer, maybe because of the country?
Baba: Maybe Canada to be more specific Montreal, which in the French part of the country. They are actually looking for Moroccan emigrants in Canada. But we also have many people going for there studies in countries from Europe.
Orange: What do you think is the biggest problem that Moroccan migrants encounter in their new host countries?
Baba: It depends on the migrant. People who want to work do not represent a problem. The others are the ones creating the problems. Now given the economical crisis, my people suffer more. Especially the ones those who are here in Italy, the ones from Spain or France. Not so much Moroccan immigrants from Germany or the United Kingdom.
Orange: What do you think could be the solution for these people, especially for those who cannot find a job?
Baba: Solutions can be diverse. The most important one is the co-development. We have needs. Europe needs us and we need Europe as well. So there is a need of creating a strategy of co development. The problem is not only with us. The birth rate is dropping in many European countries. We could do a research regarding our needs in the labour field, European countries can do the same and so we can cooperate on this level. The big issue is the integration policies because of the cultural background, but then who doesn’t have one. We also have to develop. So Europe can say: we need specialists in a certain field from Morocco, so we train them for that. I believe this 21st century will be a good century for co-development.
