Rabat, 11 March, 2021 (ECA) – In partnership with the Moroccan Ministry of Interior, the Sub-regional Office of North Africa, Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) held on Wednesday 9 March 2022 in Rabat a workshop on “Migration statistics and recognition of migrant skills in Morocco: Perspectives and Outlook”.
The meeting aimed to present two analytical reports on migration statistics and migrant skills in Morocco, introduce national capacity building plan and discuss options to share lessons learned with other African countries seeking to equip themselves with similar systems.
Participants included representatives from the Ministries of the Interior; Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccan Expatriates; Higher Education, Scientific Research and Innovation; Health; Economic Inclusion, Small Business, Employment and Skills, the High Commission for Planning and UN organisations.
Morocco was previously known for being a country of origin, a country of transit, and is now becoming a country of destination for migrants. Given the sheer size of this issue and Morocco’s many years of experience, Morocco has a leading role on the policy level, said Zuzana Brixiova Schwidrowski, Director of the Sub-regional Office of North Africa, who noted the country’s positive approach to migration.
After adding a non-discrimination clause for the benefit of migrants in its 2011 Constitution, in 2013 Morocco became one of the first African countries to equip itself with a national strategy for migration. In addition to hosting the Global Compact for Migration in 2018 and taking ownership of its recommendations, Morocco is also currently hosting the AU African Migration Observatory.
"This programme speaks to migration statistics and migrants’ skills and qualifications, and strengthening the national capacity to collect reliable statistics and better inform decision-making. Our support includes the development of a digital statistics platform, policy reports and a methodological statistics guide for national and African officials. We also plan to support Morocco's ambition to share its experience within Africa,” said Zuzana Brixiova Schwidrowski.
Morocco officially has about 130,000 migrants, 50,000 of which saw their situation regularized between 2014 and 2017 according to Ali Saddik, Head of the Ministry of the Interior Migration Studies Department and member of the National Migration Observatory. Saddik stressed that all ministries are currently mobilized to ensure migrant integration and the successful implementation of the digital platform which aims to integrate national data on migration.
According to analysis carried out by ECA in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior on migrant skill recognition in Morocco, 30% of nationals consider migrants as an economic opportunity for the country. A significant share of labour immigrants to Morocco are however characterized by their limited skills as a third of them have not had access to secondary education. Of the 13.4 percent of active regular migrants that are currently unemployed in the country, 38 percent are Africans (13.4 percent from the Maghreb and 24.6 percent from the rest of Africa).
The ECA project on migration statistics and migrant skills recognition is currently being carried out in six countries (Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa and Zimbabwe) with the goal of promoting a mutually beneficial relationship between migrants, their host countries and their countries of origin. Discussions from the March 9th workshop will be complemented by the organisation of a national capacity building workshop with a view to creating national skills recognition mechanism, to be held on March 17 to 18 in Marrakech.
Issued by:
Communications Section
Economic Commission for Africa
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Ethiopia
Tel: +251 11 551 5826
E-mail: eca-info@un.org