Migration Narratives of Refugees in Morocco: A Reading in Sub-Saharan Women’s Stories of Home and Host Country in the North-East of Morocco

Stories are our daily bread to communicate with others, survive trials and tribulations, and express joys and sorrows. Migrants’ stories help the actors share their experiences of the terrible journey and how they survive in the transit and/or destination countries. In this paper, I am going to discuss Sub-Saharan women migrants’ stories including those narrated by actual women living in Oujda, North-East of Morocco, and those posted on some web pages; notably Facebook groups and online blogs. My target population includes women migrants who have crossed the great Sub-Saharan desert to reach Morocco and then try to reach the northern bank of the Mediterranean Sea for better economic and social opportunities, as well as those who have decided to take Morocco as a destination rather than a transit country. I am going to focus on stories in which women migrants share their migration experiences and aspirations for a better life. Women migrants’ narratives may take the form of stories, songs, and/or dances. Through my reading of such narratives, I am going to consider women’s lives in both public and private spheres as far as my informants allow, to identify the problems they endure, including violence, exclusion -or inclusion- based on their gender, marital statuses, cultural and religious backgrounds, and their capacity to transform oral stories into texts.