Introduction Framing and Contextualizing Muslim Moroccan Migrants in Europe

Abstract

Research on migration processes in Europe and the Mediterranean region shows that the vast majority of Muslim immigrants are from North Africa and the Middle East. This does not preclude the plural and complex environment in which these immigrants move, live, and integrate. Turks represent about half of the Middle Eastern people in Europe, while North Africans constitute 37 percent (Moroccans alone 27 percent), Iranians four percent, Iraqis three percent and Lebanese two percent (Al-Shahi and Lawless 2005: 10; Daoud 2011: 44). After the Arab Spring, Muslim immigrant populations from the region have continued to increase. The immigrant flows from Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya have increased dramatically due to civil wars, armed conflict, political violence, repression, and religious discrimination.