Maghreb

Despite being in Africa, this region is isolated from the rest of the continent by the Atlas Mountains and the Sahara desert; therefore, the inhabitants of the Maghreb have stronger commercial and cultural ties to Europe, going back at least to the Phoenicians somewhere around 1,000 BC. In the 1800’s, the Maghreb was colonized primarily by France, though there were some areas of Spanish and Italian control. As a result, these countries all speak French and have many French cultural traditions and habits. Today, more than 2.5 million Maghrebi immigrants live in France, many from Algeria and Morocco. In addition, there are up to 6 million French citizens of Maghrebi origin.

Finally, the history between France and many of these countries is full of recent atrocities. Many of the Maghreb countries did not become independent from France until as late as the 1960s; these separations were typically extremely violent and Algeria, in particular, suffered a number of horribly brutal events at the hands of French soldiers such as torturing prisoners and mass murdering civilians. Therefore, even Maghrebi immigrants who have to move to France for employment or other practical reasons do not always trust, respect, or cooperate with the French government. Unfortunately, this only tends to increase hostility towards the Maghrebi as well, since they are seen as openly refusing to acclimate to or work with the authorities and values in France.

The Maghreb is a cultural group of people and countries usually defined as the region of Northwest Africa (west of Egypt). The traditional definition is the region including the Atlas Mountains and the coastal plains of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Mauritania and the disputed territory of Western Sahara (mostly controlled by Morocco). The term maghrib is Arabic for ‘west’.

However, there are a number of cultural considerations that make it difficult for the two groups to see eye to eye. The Maghreb is primarily Islamic, though there are small communities of Jewish and Christian Maghrebi. Due to the cultural and philosophical principle of laïcité, or extreme secularism, many French people believe that the Maghrebi cannot be “truly French” because they believe the Maghrebi will prioritize being Muslim over being French. This has become an even larger problem in recent years due to political developments both in and outside of France. Many Muslim countries have religious government and leadership, which is completely against the French viewpoint. However, the increasing immigration numbers from these countries is bringing some of these Islamic cultural norms to people’s attention, creating a political backlash against those ideas.

In addition to these socio-religious issues, the Maghrebi immigrants in France are facing financial hardships, unemployment and economic inequality. The majority of these immigrants are unskilled workers who work the lowest paid jobs, and they are willing to work for less money than local French labor. Consequently, labor riots have become more common, especially in the cities on the Mediterranean Sea where immigration from the Maghreb is highest. Racism and ethnic violence is increasing, with almost 50% of the immigrants unemployed.