Strategies for Integrating Rural Youth into a Troubled Urban Space

The polarization process practiced by cities, both far and near, is a response to a set of qualities that these urban centers possess. The frequency of migratory movements, and the forms they take, are closely linked to all economic, social and political transformations, as well as to the power of attraction exercised by the city and the regional environment in which it is embedded. The combination of higher mechanisms (major socio-economic policies...) and lower mechanisms (local qualifications and geo-economic specificities of cities...) leads to a particular organization of the urban network, and the position of each city within this urban fabric determines the strength of its attraction and the expansion or contraction of its migratory field.

Therefore, this study will attempt to examine how rural youth integrate into an old city that has not been able to adapt to the transformations that have affected the organization of the Moroccan sphere during the 21st century. On the one hand, the city of Ouzean is currently experiencing an urban crisis that affects most of its structures, especially the economic ones, and on the other hand, the opportunities that Ouezzane offers to the “new urbanist”, and then the strategies used by rural youth in order to achieve integration in the city of Ouezzane.