Uncertainty through Family Migration Laws and Regulations in Morocco

Family is a major driver of migration to Northern countries but also to other sides of the world. Family migration policies have been little studied in the African context. Family migration is particularly interesting to study in the Moroccan context, insofar as Morocco has driven a new immigration and asylum policy since 2013 and is now positioning itself as an immigration country. Focusing on family migration and its policy making, this communication’s aim is to provide insights into how family migration laws and procedures are producing uncertainty for the spouse of a Moroccan citizen or of a foreign national legaly established in the country who wish to join his or her spouse. Criteria based on gender, nationality, religion, length of stay on the territory or income are building a stratification amongst foreigners regarding the rights of access to the territory, to marriage or to recognition of marriage, to family reunification, to residence, and, de facto, to the right to family unity in Morocco. Considering these cumulative criteria established by the law and regulations, but also clarity or lack of clarity in the law, the interdependency of procedures, the discretion given to the administration by legal texts, and so one, this communication will explore how the relevant legislation and regulations are building an uncertainty that feeds the management of migration through the figure of the “good migrant”, of the "good spouse" and moreover the one allowed to stabilise its staying on the territory and through this stabilisation have access to the right to family unity.