Border area Spain - Morocco

Suddenly Don Quijote doubts his squire’s embassy. It would be miraculous for Sancho to have returned in just over three days because El Toboso is more than thirty leagues away, seventy-five miles or one hundred and twenty-five kilometers from where Don Quijote was in the Sierra Morena.

This article examines the impact of cultural perceptions on military operations, using the history of the Spanish army in Morocco as a case study. Emphasizing what they regarded as the fundamentally non-Western character of indigenous North African warfare, top Spanish officers initially doubted the applicability of European military methods in Morocco. They also erroneously attributed a “native” quality to military practices that Europeans themselves had brought to the Maghreb, such as the razzia in its modern, colonial form. Cultural prejudices about Moroccan capabilities contributed to the massive rout of Spanish forces in 1921 near the Rifian settlement of Anwal (Annual)—the greatest defeat of any colonial army in twentieth-century Africa. After Anwal, the Spanish army’s dominant cultural conceptions evolved, as influential officers increasingly championed the viability of European military methods in North Africa, took steps to “de-exoticize” the Moroccan enemy, and stressed similarities rather than differences between Spaniards and Moroccans. Although traditional prejudices persisted, the cultural conceptions of prominent officers became more nuanced and less negative, facilitating relatively successful counterinsurgency and military occupation.

ستعرض هذا البحث نشوب وتطور الصراع بين کل من بريطانيا وأسبانيا للسيطرة على القسم الشمالي من مضيق جبل طارق؛ حيث يستهدف النظر في تطور العلاقات الثنائية بين أسبانيا وبريطانيا في الإطارين الإقليمي والدولي خلال القرن العشرين في مناسبات معينة ألا وهي الحربين العالميتين، وکذلک امتداد الصراع لمنظمات إقليمية ودولية، وبخاصة الأمم المتحدة، والاتحاد الأوروبي، ومنظمة حلف شمال الأطلسي (الناتو)، وهي الهيئات التي مارست أو مازالت تمارس دور الوساطة في الصراع المزمن بين الجارتين الأوروبيتين بشأن السيطرة على جبل طارق.
ويتضح من خلال استعراض هذه الأحداث تعقيد العلاقات الأسبانية البريطانية التي تتطلب التنسيق والتعاون ضمن الجماعة الأوروبية أو خلال سنوات الحرب الباردة، في مقابل مواقف الجانبين المتصلبة حول السيادة على جبل طارق وهو ما يجعلهما حليفتين في بعض الأحيان وخصمين في وقت آخر.

This contribution analyses the experiences of women from Central and West Africa seeking to cross the Moroccan-Spanish border. Exploring embodied narratives collected in the field between 2015 and 2017 and based on the sociology of migration and gender relations, the article looks at both the power and domination relations that weigh on these illegalized women and their modes of agency and resistance. Paying attention to their experiences enables us to understand the plurality of the instances and processes of production of their vulnerabilities at the border; on the other hand, their narratives provide information on situations where women, despite the violence, perform their power to act, for themselves but also sometimes to support other women. The research shows the coexistence of different strategies to turn their real or supposed vulnerabilities into tools for trying to cross the border.//Cette contribution analyse les expériences de femmes d’Afrique centrale et de l’Ouest en quête de passage de la frontière maroco-espagnole. Explorant des récits incarnés récoltés sur le terrain entre 2015 et 2017 et s’appuyant sur la sociologie des migrations et des rapports sociaux de sexe, l’article se penche à la fois sur les rapports de pouvoir et de domination qui pèsent sur ces femmes illégalisées et sur leurs modes d’agentivité, leurs résistances. Porter attention à leurs expériences permet d’une part de comprendre la pluralité des instances et processus de production de leurs vulnérabilités à la frontière ; d’autre part, leurs récits renseignent sur des situations où les femmes, malgré les violences, performent leur puissance d’agir, pour elles-mêmes mais aussi parfois pour soutenir d’autres femmes. L’enquête montre la coexistence de différentes stratégies pour faire de leurs vulnérabilités réelles ou supposées des outils pour tenter de passer la frontière.

Building on this previous work, I pose the following series of questions: What is the potential readership of this literature of diaspora? Why does it not have a place in Spain’s book market? What is its future? In this essay, I frame Moroccan and Equatorial Guinean literature written in Castilian and Catalan within the broader context of border studies and approach it from the theoretical perspective of intercultural and postcolonial studies. There is a group of Moroccan authors who show in their writings what Enrique Dussel (2005) calls “alteridad cultural de la poscolonización,” incorporating the best of Spanish and European modernity to develop, not a cultural style that tends to a globalized unit, undifferentiated or empty, but a trans-modern pluriverse that draws on a number of cultural contexts: European, Asian, African, Islamic, Christian, and Latin American.

This article re-conceptualizes the idea of a "Moroccan" literature with regard io the transnational ard plurilingual experiences from which it arises. Advancing a comparative outlook that is grounded in linguistic difference, laila Lalami's narative not only reflects the current situation of the large majority of Moroccans today, but also captures the experience in writing of a fast growing number of individuals belonging to migrant communities in other pans of the world.

Résumé : Cette thèse s’intéresse au contrôle migratoire en actes à la frontière maroco-espagnole et ses effets sur les personnes ciblées. Mettant en lumière les processus de minorisation des ressortissant-e-s d’Afrique centrale et de l’Ouest candidat-e-s à l’Europe, cette étude, basée sur une ethnographie multisituée à des échelles locales et micro-locales, amène à penser les rapports sociaux de sexe et de race en jeu dans les régimes migratoires. Elle tente de dénaturaliser les figures du « migrant subsaharien » et de la « migrante subsaharienne » pour dévoiler les processus qui se jouent derrière ces catégories racialisées et genrées, ancrées dans un contexte d’externalisation des frontières européennes, et de négociations permanentes entre l’UE, ses États membres (ici l’Espagne) et leurs alliés africains (ici le Maroc) pour la lutte contre l’immigration dite clandestine. Elle essaie également de décrypter et de mettre en perspective théorique les violences systémiques qui régissent cette situation de frontières militarisée, ainsi que les actions humanitaires et les résistances qui y ont lieu. Elle amène alors à examiner la question suivante : comment comprendre l’institutionnalisation tacite du recours à la violence mortifère contre les labellisé-e-s « Subsahariens » à la frontière maroco-espagnole ? Pour répondre, il faut regarder de chaque côté de la frontière, mais aussi la considérer comme un ensemble ; saisir la division sexuelle du travail de contrôle des mobilités ; confronter les points de vue des contrôleur-se-s et des contrôlé-e-s et appréhender le passé cristallisé dans le présent : penser la colonialité des politiques migratoires espagnoles et européennes.

Mots clés : frontières ; rapports sociaux de race ; genre ; colonialité ; politiques migratoires ; Maroc ; Ceuta ; Melilla ; violence
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Title: Behind the fence of Ceuta & Melilla. Social relations of gender, race and coloniality of migration control on the Moroccan-Spanish border

Abstract:This thesis focuses on the migration control implemented at the Moroccan-Spanish border and its effects on the targeted persons. Highlighting the processes of “minoritisation” of Central and West African nationals who are candidates for Europe, this study, based on a multi-site ethnography conducted at local and micro-local levels, leads us to think about the social relations of gender and race at stake in existing migration regimes. It attempts to denaturalize the figure of the female and male “sub-Saharan migrant” to reveal the processes behind these racialized and gendered categories, anchored in a context of externalisation of European borders, and permanent negotiations between the EU, its Member States (here Spain) and their African allies (here Morocco) for the fight against so-called illegal immigration. It also tries to decipher and put into theoretical perspective the systemic violence that governs this militarized border situation, as well as the humanitarian actions and resistance that take place there. It then leads to the following question: how can we understand the tacit institutionalization of the use of deadly violence against those labelled as “Sub-Saharans” on the Moroccan-Spanish border? To answer, we must look at each side of the border, but also consider it as a whole; grasp the sexual division of labour in controlling mobility; compare the points of view of controllers and controlled persons and understand the past crystallized in the present: think about the coloniality of Spanish and European migration policies.

Keywords: borders; boundaries; gender; race relations; coloniality; migration policies; Morocco; Ceuta; Melilla; violence

Press Jacket Blurb: _Portuguese Tangier (1471-1662)_ is a “virtual archaeology” exploration of the Portuguese urban fabric heritage, both vanished and preserved, in the dynamically expanding Moroccan port city of Tangier, on the south shore of the Strait of Gibraltar. Using a broad range of original sources and analytical tools, the study rebuilds for the mind’s eye the historic town partially demolished by the English after their brief occupation (1662-1684). _Portuguese Tangier_ stands at the intersection of well-known documents, recently found data (plans and building estimates), and unexpected patterns that have emerged from the sources and the literature as well as from painstaking spatio-temporal GIS modelling. The book probes and challenges a rainbow of entrenched interpretations and _Tangerois_ urban legends. It ranges widely, from revisionist hypotheses to newly confirmed toponyms, controversial architectural details, and the design of the fortifications. The scope extends to the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century environmental factors affecting the Old Port (studied with the help of a new bathymetric model of the historic anchorage). The familiar “Tangier” series of drawings and etchings by the Bohemian artist Wenceslas (Václav) Hollar (1607-1677) comes into its own here as a vibrant historical source, in a fresh, analytical, structurally accurate context. The Portuguese period is discussed in a framework that brings into critical perspective both the pre-1471 Muslim port and various 1662-1684 English segments of the urban fabric—genuine as well as entirely spurious. The book addresses mainly a specialist audience, but will also reward a patient casual reader interested in the old fortified _médina_ of Tangier.

Este diario es resultado de la observación realizada en tres zonas de convivencia fronteriza en tres continentes distintos (África, Asia y Europa), al tiempo que da cuenta del seguimiento mediático de los refugiados sirios, afganos e iraquíes que se suben a un barco con el objetivo de llegar a costas griegas o italianas, para posteriormente intentar llegar lo más al norte europeo que les sea posible, atravesando diversas “fronteras verticales”. Lo mismo que de los migrantes mal denominados económicos de varios países africanos que se quedan varados horas en las vallas de Ceuta, hasta que la policía migratoria los baja a palos para evitar que crucen la “frontera horizontal” del Mediterráneo. De la situación que viven los palestinos que día a día son acosados por los militares israelíes en los cruces y garitas de las “fronteras internas”. O las notas periodísticas que dan cuenta de los desalojos de lo que he denominado “las zonas de convivencia de limbo administrativo”, entiéndase los campos de refugiados que han crecido de forma irregular en diferentes zonas de convivencia fronteriza, como el de Calais (Inglaterra-Francia), o en el monte Gurugú (Marruecos-España), e Idomeni (Grecia-Macedonia).

For centuries, the Strait of Gibraltar has been a crossroads between Africa and Europe. Since the 1980s, however, it has increasingly become a "zone of illegality" (Hannoum 2020) where racial governmentality produces illicit lives and creates an apartheid-like hierarchy of humanity. By exploring how colonial legacies and EU policies play out in the Strait of Gibraltar, I show how categories of difference are made and remade across time and space. Through a genealogical and ethnographic approach, I study the historically produced particularities that make racialised "Others" emerge and explore how human differences are created in terms of race, gender, and class. Migrants are historical actors that shape and are shaped by the social fabric of a border region. I thus argue that categories of difference are not fixed entities, but instead they are simultaneously reworked, reinforced, contested, and subverted.

Abstract: This article analyzes the differential problematizations of “Muslim Ceutíes,” “migrants,” and “porteadores” (carriers) in the Spanish enclave town of Ceuta located on the south shore of the Gibraltar Strait in North Africa. I argue that convivencia, a local discourse and practice of tolerance meaning “living together,” can be analyzed as a regime for governing differences premised upon tolerance, and nevertheless contributing to the reproduction of a pacified and racialized social order. I also discuss the securitization of the border and argue against considering desecuritization and depoliticization as antidotes to securitization. I suggest that these strategies are complementary components of a flexible regime for managing the supposed threat posed by migrants in Ceuta. I further substantiate the thesis of a flexible regime for governing risks at the border by showing how various border crossers are framed and governed in Ceuta.

Keywords: Ceuta; Convivencia; European Border; Race; Securitization; Tolerance.

Historically, education has always been the springboard for socioeconomic development of nations. Undoubtedly, education proved to be the catalyst of change and the front wagon that drives with it all the other wagons pertaining to other dynamic sectors. In effect, the role of education can be seen to provide pupils with the curriculum and hidden curriculum skills alike; teaching skills that will prepare them physically, mentally and socially for the world of work in later life. In Morocco, the country spends over 26% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on education. Unfortunately, though this number is important, Moroccan education (primary, secondary and higher education alike) still suffers from the mismatch between the state expenditures on education and the general product in reality. In this article, an attempt is made to touch on some relevant issues pertaining to higher education with special reference to Morocco. First, it provides some tentative definitions, mission and functions of university and higher education. Second, it gives a historical sketch of the major reforms that took place in Morocco as well as the major changes pertaining to these reforms respectively. Third, it provides a general overview of the history of higher education in Morocco, it also tackles an issue related to governance in higher education which is cost sharing. Fourth, it delves into the history of English Language Teaching (ELT), lists some characteristics of the English Departments in Morocco. Fifth, it discusses the issue of private vs. public higher education. Last, but not least, it tackles the issue of Brain Drain.

Un equipo de investigadores —Jesús Albert Salueña, Luis Feliu Bernárdez, Jorge Garrido Laguna, Irene González González, José Luis Isabel Sánchez, Juan Pando Despierto y Francisco Ramos Oliver—, bajo la dirección de José Manuel Guerrero Acosta, ha participado en la elaboración de un repertorio biográfico de algunos de los personajes que protagonizaron este periodo histórico, ya sea participando en las campañas militares, ocupando puestos en la administración de su territorio o implicándose en la mejora de la educación y la sanidad de sus habitantes; así como de artistas que lo retrataron a través de la literatura o las artes plásticas.

This essay develops key connections along lateral axes with other Moroccan litera- tures written in Castilian/spanish, Catalan, and English through a transcolonial per- spective. The unprecedented social and political developments that are taking place in  Morocco  today  have  also  generated  a  renewed  interest  in  the  country’s  literary production.  instead  of  regarding  the  writings  of  Moroccan  nationals  as  part  of Maghrebi literature, critics are now becoming more sensitive to the unique features of  this  literature,  against  the  backdrop  of  a  colonial  and  postcolonial  history  that  is markedly  different  from  that  of  the  two  other  countries  of  the  reduced  Maghreb: Algeria and Tunisia.1 Literary fiction texts can serve as evidence in a similar fashion as  empirically  based  political  or  social  observations;  processes  represented  within and  implicit  around  fictional  works,  which  can  be  discerned  by  a  reader  or  inter- preter, convey a reality or veracity about their geopolitical locations that is germane as[to],  say,  statistical  data  or  sociological  field  work  or  political  reports  (Gupta, “Literary studies” 873).

Inspired by Kenbib’s Les Protégés (1996) this article will develop
an exploration of the way Spanish protectorate scholars used musicology
to “look” at their Jewish protégés in Morocco and how traces of this
scholarly gaze remain in place until today. Through an exploration
of various works from the time of the protectorate and others from
after Independence, I will show how protectorate tropes continue to
operate within the manners in which the Spanish study and sometimes
ignore the music of Moroccan Jews. Some will claim Jewish music
for their own nationalistic projects, others disengage from Moroccan
Jewish repertoires, showing a general political indifference towards the
cultural and intellectual particularity of Jews and most importantly the
very Moroccan experience of their musical expression.

Taking the perspective of the Central and West African women blocked at the Moroccan-Spanish border, reveals how EU policies, in exporting their anti-migrant war to African countries, seem to have reinforced a continuum of male dominance: by creating, along the migratory route, a succession of spaces where African women must resist and/or succumb to multiple relations of power and domination in order to be able to cross the securitized borders, controlled by a plurality of actors but often all men. Breaking with binary and essentialist views that often present them as merely passive subjects of their migration, the women interviewed disclose hidden mechanisms and effects of the externalization of EU migration control policies on the bodies and lives of those who fight for their freedom of movement. Based on 30-months of ethnographic research in Morocco and the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, this article aims to show how EU border externalization provokes racialized and gendered vulnerabilization of people seeking mobility and notably reinforces gender-based violence against migrant women. There are several levels of violence against women seeking mobility at borders, we will focus on two: violence emanating from certain men who are part of the organization of the crossing, and violence exerted by the States policing the border. Both of these cases illustrate the interaction between mobility control policies and control over women's bodies as an effect of border externalization.

This article is part of a special issue on "Externalization at work : Responses to migration policies from the Global South", edited by Ayşen Üstübici, Inka Stock & Susanne Schultz.
See: https://comparativemigrationstudies.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40878-019-0128-4

Recently the spotlight of world news was and still is on the thousands of migrants waiting in Greece or Eastern European countries to be admitted in the European Eldorado. Many of them come from Syria, escaping war and the persecution to which they are subjected from the inhuman Assad regime and ferocious ISIS. Among, them, however, there are thousands of economic refugees from Sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa, in search of better life opportunities: economic refugees.
At a different European “border” checkpoint, there are hundreds of poor Moroccan women of Amazigh (Berber) background waiting every morning to enter the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Mellila to be used as mules porteadoras to transport huge bales of contraband goods into Moroccan territory to be sold in markets all over the country.
According to the New York Times, the city of Melilla alone sells the equivalent of $300 million a year in this cross-border “dirty trade” and this keeps this city afloat economically and justifies the silence of the Spanish government on this gross exploitation of the women of Morocco.