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Diaspora activism in transnational social spaces CASE STUDY: RIFFIAN DIASPORA ACTIVISM IN THE WAKE OF THE HIRAK IN BELGIUM AND THE NETHERLANDS Word count: 8,684 Emmelien Lievens Student number: 01810222 Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Koenraad Bogaert Journal Article A dissertation submitted to Ghent University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Conflict and Development Studies Academic year: 2019-2020 Deze pagina is niet beschikbaar omdat ze persoonsgegevens bevat. Universiteitsbibliotheek Gent, 2021. This page is not available because it contains personal information. Ghent Universit , Librar , 2021. Abstract In October 2016, the Hirak, a popular movement, arose in the Rif, the Northern mountain region of Morocco. Later, protest occurs in the Riffian diaspora in Europe and the stronger the repression of the Makhzen1 was in Morocco, the stronger the protest in Europe became. This article tries to give an insight in the activism that occurs in Belgium and the Netherlands, based on in-depth interviews with activists of the Riffian diaspora. Diaspora protest is often projected as an act of solidarity towards the people and/or the state of the country of origin. I state that this view is too narrow. By analyzing diaspora activism in its transnational social spaces, we distinguish four actors to provide a holistic view on the Riffian diaspora activism: the Riffian diaspora, the Hirak movement, the Makhzen and the Belgian, Dutch and European governments. In the first instance, they try to support the Hirak movement, secondly, they contest the diaspora politics of the Makhzen toward them. Thirdly, we see that they address them to the Belgian, Dutch and European governments to strengthen them in the previous two. In this case study, we could say that diaspora communities are not only mobilizing around grievances of the country of origin, but also around grievances connected to their position as a diaspora community in their country of settlement. Acknowledgment This article is the result of an intense year. It would not have been possible without the help of some people, who I would like to thank. In the first instance, I would like to thank my respondents who participated and gave me useful insights. Secondly, I want to thank my promoter Koen Bogaert for his support, input and feedback. Not only as a promoter, but also as a professor he gives my various interesting insights on how to conduct a research. I also want to thank professor Marlies Casier, who helped me find my way in the literature about diaspora and transnationalism. Further I want to thank my friends and family who were always willing to listen and debate about my article and who have been supportive the last year. At last, I sincerely want to thank my parents for giving me the opportunity to follow this master and for creating a loving and comfortable environment in which I could write this article during the Covid-19 crisis. 1 In this article, I will use the term Makhzen instead of the Moroccan government. This term referred to the royal family and its network of elite. Thereby I want to emphasize that their power is central and dominant compared to the elected government. 1 Introduction “Thanks for giving attention to the Hirak.”, stated one of my first respondents. In the following interviews, similar comments highlighted the need for sharing the story of the Hirak. “Little attention goes to the Hirak, journalists don’t want to write about it. It’s probably not dramatic enough.” (Anonymous, personal communication, 17 April 2020) In October 2016, the Hirak, a popular movement, arose in the Rif, a Northern mountain region of Morocco. The movement is suing the long- standing abandonment of the region. It got support in the rest of Morocco and abroad. Also, in Europe protest occurred in the Riffian diaspora. To be honest it was also out of indignation that I did not hear about the Hirak movement before, that I started this research one year ago. My respondents, part of the Riffian diaspora in Belgium and the Netherlands, all try to share the story of the Hirak in their own way. Although also I am convinced that this story needs to be spread, I came across another valuable story to be shared. In this article, I want to look at the Riffian diaspora itself and more specific the activism that occurs within this group in the wake of the Hirak movement. Diaspora protest is often portraited as a form of mobilization within a diaspora community that aims to intervene in the political struggles in the country of origin. They want to show solidarity with the state and/or the people there. Within diaspora studies, a lot of literature concentrates on the unique position of diaspora in conflicts of their country of origin, for example by seeing them as agents of democratization. Also, the demonstrations in Brussels and other European cities, have been seen as the Riffian diaspora who demonstrates in support of the Hirak movement in the Rif. Through answering the research question ‘How does diaspora activism in the wake of the Hirak movement play out in the Riffian diaspora in Belgium and the Netherlands?’, I try to show the narrowness of this view. By analyzing the Riffian diaspora in their transnational social spaces, we see that their activism is embedded in a network of relations. In the case study we focus on the agency of the diaspora community and analyze the relations the diaspora community has towards certain actors. I state that diaspora protest not only goes about grievances in their country of origin, but also says something about their own grievances as diaspora community in their country of settlement. In the case study of the Riffian diaspora, I distinguish three dimensions to describe the activism that occurs in the wake of the Hirak movement. In first instance, the Riffian diaspora mobilizes indeed around the grievances of the Riffian people living in Morocco. Secondly, they contest the Moroccan diaspora politics towards them. In third instance, they also mobilize around the politics of the Netherlands and Belgium and in a larger context the European Parliament, in response to the Moroccan politics and the Moroccan diaspora. The article is structured as follows, first we expand on the research method and the research design. In the second section I put this case study within a broader theoretical debate, by elaborating on the concepts of diaspora and transnational social space. Before I elaborate on the three main premises cited above, I give a brief history of the migration from Morocco to Belgium and the Netherlands. Research question and methodology In this article, I try to give an answer to the following research question: How does diaspora activism in the wake of the Hirak movement play out in the Riffian diaspora in Belgium and the Netherlands? This case study has the aim to understand diaspora activism by analyzing it in transnational social spaces. This angle of analyzing diaspora activism, can been applied on activism of other diaspora 2 communities. We can consider this research as “an intensive study of single unit for the purpose of understanding a larger class of (similar) units” (Gerring 2004, p.341). Through the transnational character of the activism, it’s difficult to have a territorial demarcation. For this research, I have chosen to concentrate on diaspora activism in Belgium and the Netherlands because of the intense cooperation between the Belgian and Dutch activists. Similar activism occurs in Spain and France, but because of their colonial background in Morocco, I consider them as an area that should be analyzed separately. Little literature exists about the Hirak movement and the demonstrations abroad, so I used in-depth interviews to overcome the limited written sources (Della Porta, 2014). My primary sources are interviews I conducted with activists, which makes it possible to bring more human agency to the center of my analysis (Blee, 2013). The interviews give me insights in the motives, beliefs and emotions of the activists. Working with semi-structured interviews creates the possibility to get more in-depth answers on certain questions and change the questions over time and with various respondents. For instance, in the interviews with the female respondents I asked more about the experience of women within diaspora activism. These data are complemented with secondary sources like recordings of debate evenings on the theme, reports of human rights organizations and previous research and analysis on the theme. In the beginning, I went searching for people who are supportive of the Riffian protest in Belgium and the Netherlands, departing from my own contacts within the peace movement. Besides that, I also contacted people mentioned in news articles about the protest, which often led me to spokespeople of the Riffian protest, who are in most cases highly skilled middle-aged men. Getting them aboard as entry point helped to take away some suspicion around the research and towards myself as researcher. From that point onwards, through a snowball effect, I came to the achieved sample. This article is based on in-depth interviews with ten interviewees. Nine of the respondents are activists: four Belgian and five Dutch. Three of the participating activists are female, the others were men. I chose to keep all the activists anonymous, with the main reason to keep them under the radar of the Makhzen and its ‘long arm’. In addition, I also had an interview with expert Sietske de Boer, a Dutch journalist and writer who has lived in Morocco for 12 years. It was interesting for me to talk to her about our position as outsiders. The first five interviews were held in person, in both Belgium and the Netherlands.

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