Embedded Political Activism from Academic Returnees in the Context of Morocco

• In Event: Protest, Social Movements, and Political Competition in MENA

Abstract

Which ideas do returnees bring with them, and how are these ideas challenged, reinterpreted, and diffused in their home countries? This paper addresses two interlinked gaps in the literature regarding how migrant returnees seek to promote political change upon return. First, the literature suggests that foreign education influences democracy back home, yet it is unclear how this plays out in hybrid regimes. Hybrid regimes, unlike totalitarian ones, have the specificity of being restrictive yet at the same time conducive- offering some levels of openness. Second, previous studies have found that university professors are important agents of change as they can influence the sociopolitical context. Yet, despite the growing international mobility of professors, this literature is not well linked up with the notion of how their international migration experience influences their political engagement in general and in hybrid regimes in particular. Drawing on the case of the hybrid regime of Morocco, this paper aims to uncover the repertoire of actions that academic returnees employ to push for democratic change while considering the different constraints they may face. Employing the concept of embedded activism, which is to use politically correct frames to not appear controversial or oppositional to the authorities, I contribute to the literature on democratization, return migration, and activism by uncovering the repertoire of non-confrontational actions that these returnees use to bring about change. To answer these questions, 18 narrative interviews with academic returnees were conducted at various Moroccan universities. Using a combination of narrative and thematic analysis, the results show that these professors leverage their experiences abroad to try to push for democratic change upon return by employing a spectrum of non-confrontational strategies.

Author

• ahmed kadiri