Hsain Ilahiane
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Making Histories on Location: International Migration and Social
Change in Southern Morocco
In recent decades, anthropologists have been paying increasing attention
to population movements or migration, with a particular emphasis on
attempts to understand why people migrate and why some people turn
into refugees. In this paper, I deal with the effects of migration,
and I argue that the conversion of migration remittances from abroad
into land acquisition has allowed the Haratine (Blacks, and a traditionally
low status group) to appropriate a Berber/Arab cultural capital of
al-asl (origin and citizenship), and to short-circuit the traditional
hegemony of the Berbers and the Arabs. I also suggest that much of
migration theories, when tested in a multi-ethnic setting engaged in
international labor flows and a colonial context, tend to be far too
general. Remittances, I contend, have been essential for the Haratine’s
transition from “people without history” to people “making
their own history as they please”.
[Présentation de l'intervenant]
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