Welcome and farewell: It’s under this title of Goethe’s poem that we wanted to share the contributions to the conference “Migration, Identity and Modernity in the Maghreb”, held in Essaouira from March 17 to 20, 2010.
This conference is an initiative made by French and Moroccan academics, joined by colleagues from around the world in a common commitment to a pluralist reading of the recent history of Morocco and the Maghreb. Hosted in Essaouira and supported by two authorities responsible for human rights and the implementation of the recommendations of the Equity and Reconciliation Commission, the conference attempted to address, publicly, for the first time in the Maghreb, the question of the departure of Jews, repositioned in its historical depth and put into perspective with the migration of Muslim communities. Without dodging the specific dimensions nor the politics of these departures, the conference was an opportunity to reassess the whole process by questioning migration projects, Migrants’ journeys and the dynamics of community constructions.
The memory of these migrant communities is also, undeniably that of the Maghreb, at various times in its history.
This conference resulted also in the publication of two other volumes on top of this one
