Rabat — For “Zakaria,” a master’s student in education, the choice to leave Morocco feels inevitable.
Even with better prospects than most—steady work, a college degree, and relative financial stability, especially thanks to his home conveniently suited in the well-off municipalities surrounding Rabat—he is convinced that the country offers him no viable future.
“I won’t find any opportunity in Morocco… to work in my field,” he said. He noted that his dream destination is the United States and that “the majority” of his friends have already left Morocco, mainly either to the US or to Europe. Though many Moroccans also go east to the United Arab Emirates or Saudi Arabia, the majority prefer to travel westward in search of greener pastures.
But Zakaria’s opportunity to go west is strangled by rapidly-growing anti-immigrant sentiment and resulting difficulty in obtaining visas.
Who is blocking immigration? And why?
Part of the decrease may be motivated by a dramatic increase in immigration to the West over the last several years.
As of 2024, more immigrants than ever live in the European Union, with a record 44.7 million people born outside the EU residing there as of January 1, 2024. When it comes to visas: after reaching a record 3.7-3.8 million first residence permits in 2023, the EU cut that number by about 8% in 2024. The majority of visas being cut are work-related, rather than student-related.
Last year—the same year that immigration reached record numbers in the EU—anti-immigrant sentiment also swelled in the form of mass demonstrations and anti-immigrant voting trends. Remarkably, the younger generation formed the majority of the anti-immigrant bloc. Research points to economic fears as the driver of anti-immigrant attitudes. A panel study of 23 European nations indicate that fears about job availability correlate negatively and strongly with political stances on immigration.
Morocco has largely bucked this trend, with more EU work visas actually being approved than in years past. But more Moroccans are applying than ever for such visas, and there is no evidence that approval rates are actually rising, even as the absolute number crawls upward.
And short-term visas, for which approval rates are published, have dropped sharply in the last several years.
When it comes to the United States: anti-immigrant sentiment is on the rise as right-leaning politicians stoke concerns over immigration and job availability. US President Donald Trump has pinpointed immigrants as exceptional sources of crime. He has also levied a slew of immigration restrictions against Arab and African nations, including his recent pause on immigration from “third-world” nations that came after an Afghan national opened fire on National Guardsmen in Washington, D.C.
Though Morocco is not specifically targeted by immigration restrictions and its visa approval rates fare well in comparison to those of other Arab and African nations, the US still issues few visas and work permits to Moroccans in comparison to Chinese, Indian, and European immigrants.
“[Arab travel restrictions have] had immense and lasting impacts on the Arab and MENA communities in the US,” researchers Matthew Jaber Stiffler and Adam Beddawi wrote in a study earlier this year. “[Trump’s] Muslim Ban… had deleterious effects beyond the countries named in the ban.”
According to their research, in the five years after America first installed a travel ban directed towards Arab nations, the annual number of lawful permanent resident statuses was slashed in half. And anti-Arab sentiment in the US remains elevated after hitting a new high in 2024.
‘Stuck’ at home
More Moroccans than ever hope to leave the country. Survey data shows that 70% of young Moroccan adults and 35% of all Moroccans want to emigrate. Unofficial data—meaning anecdotal evidence from dozens of Moroccans surveyed for this article—dramatically suggests that “everyone” wants to leave.
Zakaria hopes to follow in his friends’ footsteps and leave the country. But the process is “long, expensive, and unpredictable,” he said.
“Even if you prepare everything, there is always a chance of rejection, and that makes planning a future abroad very stressful,” he said. “I really want to travel legally and safely, but the system sometimes feels unfair.”
“Honestly, it’s frustrating because I have dreams I want to follow, and the visa barrier makes them feel farther away,” he concluded.
Zakaria, however, is just at the beginning. Many of his friends have only recently left Morocco and he has not even yet begun to engage in the emigration process. He has not joined the ranks of his fellow citizens who have spent years applying for West-facing visas.
One of these is 35-year-old Soufiane Ichchou, who has participated multiple times in a global visa lottery for the United States. He used to feel both hopeful and stressful when he applied to the lottery, which provides about 5,000 Moroccans with an immigration visa each year. Soufiane says that “everyone” applies. If he were to emigrate to the US, he says he would give up his call center job and try to start his own business or enter sales.
He has entered the lottery 11 years in a row and has not been selected yet.
It is a disappointment each time the lottery passes him over. He says that college students who wish to immigrate are not really stuck—“it’s just in their mind”—compared to those who, like him, have spent years trying to emigrate.
“Anyone you ask… is trying to go either to Europe or to [the] US, Canada,” said Ichhou. “[I want to go] for work and quality of life… I’m not poor [here]… but it will be better if I can find better.”
Soufiane’s mother, Rachida, has watched him enter the lottery time and again and hoped along with him for his success. When asked if she was sad that he might leave, she said that her feelings did not even matter in this issue.
“It is necessary,” she said, and then repeated the word several times. To Rachida, it is obvious that her son must emigrate if he wants a better life. She believes that he will not find in Morocco the successful future she wants for him.
