Sub-Saharan migrants in Morocco, Entrepreneurial Creativity.

              The activities Sub-Saharan migrants embrace to make living is also something that is interesting to talk about. The environment where Sub-Saharan migrants live in is very hostile which did not only make it difficult for them to earn their living, but it also made it hard to meet them and get them to talk. Most of the Sub-Saharan migrants are living in neighborhoods with high concentration of their fellow citizens. The migrants are doing lots of odd jobs, they work in construction business, and some of them live on begging.

A short visit to neighborhoods like (hay al Nahda) in Rabat in the morning may tell you a lot of things about how Sub-Saharan migrants manage to make their living. Migrants would go to a known place and wait for the work to come. If anyone needed some worker then he would go to that place and employ one the tens of worker lined up there every morning. The kind of jobs this place offers is not encouraging as the work last for only one day, so the migrants will have to fight for another job the next morning. The prices of the jobs offered are not fixed so the chances of being taken advantage of are very present. I managed communication with some of the migrants in this place and their major complaint was that they cannot go in such fight every day.

“The place here is very competitive , if you tell someone you are going to help with that job for 80 dh someone will jump from somewhere and say he is ready to do it with 70. It is like we are betting against each other. Other than the price the work here is very hard, you work the whole day and break your back for few Dirhams.”(Jamal)

            Alongside with the daily fight to gain a living ,some migrants have been very creative in generating their income, either by taking the chance of doing business inside the migrant community or by out reaching to Moroccans. The number of Sub-Saharan migrants in Morocco is said to be 20.000. Such number certainly offers the migrants who want to run small business like selling African products a wide range of customers, especially in cities like Rabat and Casablanca. Migrant’s economic activities vary between working in shoe repair, selling African products, cuisine, hair styling, and house cleaning along with many other activities (Pickerill, 2011).

            For the migrants I personally met, the activities they used to make living by were very diverse. The practiced activity varied between begging, working in call centers or retail. Three migrants I interviewed were working in call centers in Rabat. Other ten migrants were mainly shifting between jobs or begging. The reason those ten migrants couldn’t have good jobs can be attributed to two main factors. The first is the education level, migrants who have low educational level found it hard to get good paying jobs. Even for those who have high education their diplomas or professional credentials are likely to be refused.

“I have handed my file to the ANAPEC office and I haven’t got any answer for almost two months. I have good and useful diplomas but I don’t think it is all about having a diploma.”(Pierre)

            The second reason for not having was not having the right documents. As in the case of Maria who lost a lot of work opportunities because she doesn’t have a passport and can’t get one.

“One day a woman came to me and offered me a hob in her small shop. I was happy and said yes .she asked me for my passport, but  when I told her I don’t have it she apologized and said she can’t give me the job if I don’t have any documents. ”

            The money migrants earn can barely help them manage pay the rent and get some decent food. Most of the migrants cannot save enough money to pay for the trip to Europe so they are more likely to live in Morocco for longer periods. The migrants I interviewed stated that they were living by their own or with some partners. A considerable number of the interviewees said they could live by their own but they wouldn’t be able to pay for any food, so collective housing was their choice.

Reference;

Pickerill, E. (2011). Informal and Enterpreneurial Strategies among Sub-saharan Migrants in Morocco. The Journal of North African studies .