Latest news with #CCME
Ya Biladi
a day ago
- Health
- Ya Biladi
Addressing Morocco's medical brain drain : Driss El Yazami advocates global dialogue
Driss El Yazami, president of the Council of the Moroccan Community Abroad (CCME), called for «an active international policy» to strengthen dialogue with global organizations and attract medical expertise, both national and foreign, to address Morocco's healthcare worker shortage. Speaking at a study day organized by the Istiqlalian group on the migration of Moroccan medical professionals, he stressed the importance of a «territorial policy involving regions and communities». The event gathered Minister of Higher Education Azzedine El Midaoui, former Health Ministers Houcine El Ouardi and Abdelouahed El Fassi, medical faculty deans, doctors, and members of the second Chamber. El Yazami advocated for «openness to foreign talents» and promoting the «Moroccan dream» as a means to strengthen ties between Moroccans worldwide and their homeland. He highlighted that physician mobility is a global phenomenon, not unique to Morocco, urging avoidance of "alarmist approaches" in favor of proactive national and international strategies. Migration, he said, «is neither a crime nor a scourge but a fundamental right and a reflection of deep social changes in Moroccan society». El Yazami noted that migration reasons extend beyond economics to include personal fulfillment, emphasizing the crucial role of Moroccan talents abroad in shaping the debate. The CCME insists that citizens abroad should be «fully integrated into discussions about Morocco's future, especially regarding health, education, and public policy».
Ya Biladi
27-05-2025
- Politics
- Ya Biladi
Morocco: A groundbreaking study on the integration of migrant women and minors
The result of several years of research, the collective work Women and Minors in Migration – Journeys, Resistance, Integration has just been published by La Croisée des chemins, in partnership with the Council of the Moroccan Community Abroad (CCME). Coordinated by Fatima Ait Ben Lmadani and Hicham Hafid, the book explores «a little-known reality in Morocco, despite the debates—and even stigmatization—it provokes beyond our borders». With contributions from Rachid Benlabbah, Khalid Chegraoui, and El Mouassaoui El Ajlaoui, the book examines «the impact of Morocco's immigration policy on reducing the vulnerability of Sub-Saharan women and minors and facilitating their integration into Moroccan society». The authors address issues such as housing, employment, healthcare, education, and cultural rights, as highlighted by the publisher and the coordinators. The book also delves into «the role of both institutional and non-institutional actors, with a focus on how Sub-Saharan migrants navigate integration mechanisms and assert their capacity to negotiate». What sets this study apart is its long-term perspective, a deliberate choice that enabled the researchers to «closely track this population, the evolution of their needs, and the public authorities' responses over time». In other words, the authors seek to explore «the integration process of women and minors through the lens of migrants as active participants in shaping these policies». This focus builds on the findings of a previous study by the research group on the regularization of Sub-Saharan migrants. The study combines both qualitative and quantitative approaches, including «individual interviews, focus groups, and questionnaires conducted along the Casablanca–Rabat–Salé and Tangier–Nador–Oujda corridors». This is further complemented by an analysis of legal and administrative documents, as well as «statistical, demographic, and economic data».
Ya Biladi
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Ya Biladi
Migrations and World Literatures : A global journey by Salim Jay
Migrations and World Literatures is the latest work by French-Moroccan writer and literary critic Salim Jay. In collaboration with the Council of the Moroccan Community Abroad (CCME) and published by La Croisée des Chemins, this book presents an anthology of novelists from around the world. Drawing from personal experiences and collected testimonies, they narrate «the intimate ins and outs of migration». The author continues his exploration of themes first addressed in Mediterranean Literatures and Migratory Horizons, expanding «towards Somalia and its connection to Italy, Iraq and Syria, not forgetting Cameroon and the United States, Mexico and Hungary, Senegal and Guinea», while also featuring writers from the Maghreb. «Readers will not be surprised by the candor and subtlety of Mohammed Khaïr Eddine recounting his return to Morocco. More surprising is discovering Badawi by the Franco-Syrian Mohed Altrad, now covered in gold, and the harsh reality once lived by George Orwell in Down and Out in Paris and London. Readers will be charmed by Miguel Torga with Senhor Ventura, who takes us to China, and moved by I Did Not Want to Leave by Abdoulaye Soumah, among three dozen fraternal voices that make up Migrations and World Literatures», notes the publisher. Salim Jay particularly questions «the idea that we are human beings and that Earth is our address», hoping to «one day legitimize that no one, anywhere, is confined to their home». Until «the world becomes the country of all and the countries of the world open to everyone», Jay offers a journey through literatures. This anthology is part of that journey, constituting «an invitation to read others, all others, without discrimination, just as we would like it to be possible to approach and welcome others without discrimination».
Ya Biladi
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Ya Biladi
Migration and culture at the heart of Gnaoua Festival's 12th Human Rights Forum
The Essaouira Gnaoua and World Music Festival will organize the 12th edition of its Human Rights Forum on June 20-21, 2025, focusing on «Human Mobilities and Cultural Dynamics». The two-day event, held in partnership with the Council of the Moroccan Community Abroad (CCME), will bring together intellectuals, artists, and researchers to examine migration narratives and their cultural impact. Professor Andrea Rea from the Free University of Brussels will deliver the opening lecture on new mobility geographies. Historian Pascal Blanchard will analyze social representations of migration, while political scientist Fatima Zibouh and digital sociology researcher Dana Diminescu will explore tensions between migration narratives and public policies. The forum will feature prominent artistic voices, including filmmakers Faouzi Bensaïdi and Elia Suleiman, writer Véronique Tadjo, and artist Barthélémy Toguo. Literary contributors include authors Elgas, Rim Najmi, Taha Adnan, and Abdelkader Benali. According to festival producer Neila Tazi, the forum extends the festival's mission by exploring how ideas circulate like musical rhythms. CCME president Driss El Yazami emphasized the forum's role in highlighting migration's creative contributions against narratives of closure.
Ya Biladi
30-04-2025
- General
- Ya Biladi
Mostafa Akalay Nasser explores Tetouan's urban evolution from 1860 to 1956
A true historical and academic goldmine, the book «La ville nouvelle de Tetouan (1860–1956)» (published by Sochepress) is an encyclopedic compendium that deepens our understanding of the Hispano-Moroccan heritage of this northern city. Its author, Mostafa Nasser Akalay, has just released a French edition—with support from the Council of the Moroccan Community Abroad (CCME) and the Euro-Mediterranean University of Fès (UPF)—making previously inaccessible information on the urbanization of the former corsair stronghold of Sayyida al-Horra (1493–1562) available to a non-Spanish-speaking audience. Holding a Ph.D. in art history from the University of Granada and training in urban planning from the University of Paris VIII, Paris IV La Sorbonne–CNAM, and the École des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris, Akalay has dedicated 45 years of research to the architecture of Tetouan. Presented at the 30th edition of the International Book Fair (SIEL 2025), his French-language work offers a captivating portrait of the city, analyzed exhaustively in its historical context, tracing key moments that shaped its architectural and urban development from the late 19th to the mid-20th century. In his study, Akalay provides a scientific lens that blends spatial anthropology, urban evolution, and the city's layered growth. One clear idea emerges, although it requires this accessible academic approach to be fully understood: Tetouan's architecture evolved without a rupture between Arab craftsmanship and colonial use. In this city, colonial forms drew inspiration from Al-Andalus, particularly the medieval Muslim art of Granada, an extension of the Caliphate empire until the end of the 15th century. An Architectural Legacy Reconnected to Its Roots Founded by Abu Hassan Ali Al-Mandari—who brought with him inspiration and bitterness from Granada following the Reconquista (1492)—Tetouan is examined here through the lens of modern Spanish and Hispano-Moroccan urbanism following the city's capture in 1860. «I became interested in the post-African war period, marked by a victorious, military urbanism that attempted to erase the Muslim imprint on the medina through infrastructure meant for transporting military equipment, along with the renaming of alleys with Spanish names», the author explains to Yabiladi. Two years later, beginning in 1862, «Tetouan residents rebuilt the medina identically, and it wasn't until between 1912 and 1913 that the new city (El Ensanche) was founded». This, he says, represents «a form and a theory on the law of city extension, but also a typically Spanish urban solution—juxtaposing a geometric grid city with the medina, without separation between the two urban models, the Islamic prototype and the European Spanish city—unlike the French segregationist urbanism in Rabat or Casablanca, where the two urban orders were kept apart», the researcher tells us. [CODING]0 By demolishing part of the old wall, architects connected the medina to the wider city, including the large parade ground (Plaza de España). In 1860, following a colonial confrontation, a second phase began—one marked by interculturality, as Akalay details in his work. «Starting in the 1920s, the Spaniards began imitating Nasrid and neo-Moorish Andalusian architecture. Art Deco gained popularity around 1925, and modernist styles thrived during the 1950s and 1960s, along with aerodynamic architecture and an eclectic, neo-Arabizing syncretism», he tells our editorial team. Reclaiming History Through Architecture and Urbanism Passionate about the study of space and its people, Mostafa Akalay Nasser says he has been «inhabited» for over 45 years by this «exported, non-colonial, hybrid» architecture. By publishing this long-term research in French for a broader, non-Spanish-speaking readership, he hopes that «Moroccan citizens, especially those from Tetouan, will reclaim this architecture—one that was not imposed on them, given the Andalusian Muslim past and its influence on cities, beginning with the Alhambra of Granada, which even inspired the French to develop the neo-Moorish style, known as neo-Mudejar in Tetouan». «With the Spanish presence in the city and the housing crisis, some newcomers who invested in the medina didn't feel alienated from this space, which evokes medieval Spain», he adds. Far from indulging in nostalgia for a lost golden age of Al-Andalus, Akalay builds his documentation on archives, national and university libraries, and materials preserved by lawyers' orders in Spain since the 1980s. He explains that «Francophone Moroccan historiography has remained confined to French architecture and the Protectorate zone, endlessly repeating itself». As a result, «northern Morocco often remains unfamiliar to Moroccan Arabic and French speakers», reinforcing its ambition to break this pattern through archival research, particularly on colonization. Now that his book is accessible to new audiences beyond those who read the Spanish edition, Akalay shares his hope for the creation of «a heritage interpretation center for El Ensanche, so that the people of Tetouan can reclaim this architecture as part of their own history—and actively contribute to the preservation of this architectural jewel, which is threatened by time and real estate speculation». Such a center, grounded in research, conservation, and a dynamic view of history, «could serve as a rich resource for training guides and heritage specialists». His goal, he says, is for «residents to better understand their history and share it with others, to appreciate the value of their buildings and help protect them». Among those buildings, Akalay highlights «La Equitativa» of Tetouan, «renowned for its Orientalist Arabizing style and a true masterpiece known to architecture enthusiasts of Casto Fernández Shaw».
