Emigration as popular culture: the case of Morocco

Abstract

This article explores the symbolic dimensions of emigration by enquiring into the relationship between emigration as a social phenomenon in Morocco, and Moroccan popular culture. The article critiques the discourses of unity and reconciliation inherent in analyses of Moroccan popular culture and contends that the popular in Moroccan popular culture is a pseudo-popular that speaks for the voices of the centre. This article concentrates on three taken-for-granted, non-institutionalized, popular cultural spaces in Moroccan popular culture: popular jokes, the Derb and the queue outside western embassies, and argues that emigration in Morocco is not an isolated social phenomenon, but a pervasive part of the make-up of its popular culture. (Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Ltd from Sabry, Tarik (2005) Emigration as popular culture: the case of Morocco. © 2005 SAGE Publications.