No abstract

This manuscript describes findings from 53 interviews conducted with Moroccan and migrants from The Democratic Republique of the Congo living in Belgium, with an emphasis on discussing the extent to which environmental factors in the migrants’ home countries may or may not have influenced their migration decisions. A comparative approach clarifies and disentangles the relationship between natural environmental factors and other drivers of migration in two distinct contexts. Applying a comparative approach and having extensive biographical accounts of each interviewee’s migration trajectory and history enables us to understand how individual migration aspirations develop gradually and how the importance of environmental factors changes during different stages. Conceiving of migration as a multi-stage process, this study demonstrates how environmental factors are closely linked to other factors and play different roles during a migration trajectory.

As demonstrated in the previous chapters, land in Morocco is mainly used for farming and pastoral activities. These activities are more vulnerable to the consequences of increased precipitation and drought due to climate change. Various modern and traditional adaptation strategies – among which migration to urban centres or abroad – have been used to deal with environmental changes. This suggests that a large share of inhabitants are in some way aware of the changes in their natural environment and already familiar with adaptation strategies (Schilling et al. 2012; Mertz et al. 2009). However, in most studies, researchers focusing on this topic do not relate this to people’s overall views on environmental change and the adaptation strategies employed by the actors involved. When they do, they hardly focus on people living in the MENA region (Nielsen and D’haen 2014); West-Africa (Mertz et al. 2010, 2012; Afifi 2011; De Longueville et al. 2020); DR Congo (Bele et al. 2014; Few et al. 2017); and India (Howe et al. 2014). The only exception is the study on Morocco by Nguyen and Wodon (2014); Wodon et al. 2014). Hence, it is unclear how these environmental changes are actually perceived and how they influence the ways people view and respond to them, and (actively) develop adaptation strategies to deal with such changes (cf. Chap. 10.1007/978-3-030-61390-7_6). This is especially important since perceptions of environmental changes and the risks associated with them vary across and within cultures (Vedwan 2006; Mertz et al. 2009, 2010; Leclerc et al. 2013). Furthermore, there is a perception bias with regard to the perceived environmental changes, as some types of changes, such as rainfall patterns, are more easily noted and compared to others, such as temperature changes (Howe et al. 2014; Few et al. 2017; De Longueville et al. 2020; Bele et al. 2014). Additionally, people mainly remark on changes when these apply to their livelihood activities (Bele et al. 2014; Howe et al. 2014; Wodon et al. 2014; De Longueville et al. 2020). In current research and policymaking, ongoing debates on environmental migration and displacement too frequently assume that everyone perceives environmental change in a similar fashion. This becomes problematic in debates on environmental migration or climate refugees when environmental changes are assumed to automatically result in some kind of (forced) migration, leaving little space for the views and agency of the people involved (Stern 2000; McLeman and Gemenne 2018; Khare and Khare 2006; Rigby 2016).

In this chapter, I delve deeper into the role played by ‘cultures of migration’ in the development of migration aspirations in both Tinghir and Tangier, and how these cultures of migration interact with environmental factors. This chapter builds further on previous insights from migration systems theory, which posits that migration results in multiple flows of material goods, ideas and money (Mabogunje 1970; Levitt 1998). In other words, this theory states that migration results in more than exchanges and flows of people. By building further on the concept of ‘cumulative causation’ (Myrdal 1957), migration systems theory advances that migration results in the transformation of social and economic structures, facilitating more migration. This idea is crucial to fully understand the development of migration aspirations because it pays attention to how contextual feedback loops can either positively or negatively stimulate the further development of migration aspirations (De Haas 2010). Hence, cultures of migration are established through the information sent by emigrants that have left a given region and provide feedback on their migration experiences in the country of destination to their migrant networks living in their region of origin and which ultimately result in shared ideas and beliefs on migration in a particular region (Timmerman et al. 2014).

In the current study, we depart from migration biographies of first-generation Moroccan migrants living in Belgium to understand how environmental factors interfere in migration decision making and how its importance varies over life stages. Most Moroccan migrants came to Belgium as labor migrants or family “reunifers,” so little research has inquired whether and how environmental changes have played a role in making migration more appealing, at least during certain stages of people's lives. By applying a case study approach to three selected Moroccan migrants’ biographies, we aim to meticulously demonstrate how peoples’ migration aspirations have gradually developed over the life course and cannot be pinned down to either natural, cultural, or socio-economic factors. Rather, they should be understood within the wider changing socio-economic and natural environment while considering the interplay of factors within these environments.