‘We’re not coming from Mars; we know how things work in Morocco!’ How diasporic Moroccan youth resists political socialisation in state-led homeland tours

Abstract

Diaspora policies, to be defined as emigrant state policies aiming at maintaining and strengthening ties with its expatriate population, have become a regular feature of 21st century international politics (Gamlen 2014). A particular diaspora policy strategy adopted by various emigration countries including Morocco is the introduction of state-led homeland tours. These can be understood as an origin-state tool to socialize mainly young expatriate community members with homeland orientations and identities. Both by opponents as by sympathizers of these tours, it is often assumed that homeland tours are effective in their socialization project (Kelner 2010). However, this assumption undervalues the agency of tour participants. This article presents an in-depth investigation of the Moroccan Summer Universities, annual stateled homeland tours for college and university students of Moroccan descent, based on participant observation and qualitative interviews. The analysis highlights the tour participants' resistance against both discourses and practices of these homeland tours' organizers. As such, the article attends to the need to understand better how state diaspora policies are received by

‘Giving back’ through mobility trajectories: motivations for engaging in development encounters in Ghana among transnational youth

“…Even less has been researched about the motivations of young people, who are increasingly seen as an 'untapped' resource by governments in the Global South (Mahieu 2019). Differing from the community-oriented development activities of migrating adults, young people generally support development at a broader level (Singla, Fabricius, and Holm 2011).…”

“…This type of transnational engagement is mainly attributed to negative experiences in the country of residence, and is framed by return migration (Potter 2005;Reynolds 2008) or institutionalised programmes as part of diaspora policies (e.g. Mahieu 2019). Charitable activities organised by young people themselves remain under-researched (Robertson, Harris, and Baldassar 2018, 209).…”

Bifurcated homeland and diaspora politics in China and Taiwan towards the Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia

“…The purpose of course was to establish the ROC's legitimacy in the eyes of the Overseas Chinese as the 'free Chinese alternative to Communism and as a free world partner in the defense against Communist expansion in Asia' (Wang 2011, 78). Such efforts resemble what Israel's provision of educational trip for Jewish youth to Israel (Abramson, this volume), as well as the state sponsored homeland-tour for overseas Moroccan youths (Mahieu 2019). In addition, when the Cultural Revolution was wreaking havoc in the PRC, the ROC government initiated a Cultural Renaissance Movement (wenhua fuxing yundong), which portrayed Taiwan as symbol and keeper of traditional and authentic Chinese culture (Chun 1994).…”

Transnational Mobilization of Future Generations by Non-Democratic Home States: Turkey’s Diaspora Youth Between Empowerment and Co-optation

“…As such, they reinforce self-pride and love for the homeland while also deepening a sense of belonging to ancestral heritage . In this regard, studies on Taglit-Birthright Israel Tours suggest that such tours provide an opportunity for young diasporans to experience authentic Jewish public life and culture (Cohen, 2008) and for them to become part of a larger Jewish collective community which lies at the heart of the nation-building project (Mahieu, 2019b). 10 In non-democratic contexts, these underlying interests become even more visible as scholars identify incentives to perpetuate state power, regime survival, legitimation, co-optation as well as monitoring and surveillance.…”