Moroccan-French Youth Face Identity Crisis and Backlash During Summer Visits

The young MREs, called "French Arabics" on social networks, are accused by the locals of all kinds of incivility: urban rodeos, refusal to comply, confrontations, etc. "In the summer, it’s simple: if a stupid thing is done, it’s by a Frenchman. These guys, they arrive with their hands in their pockets, splash money and think they’re at home. But they have no education, no respect, and they think we’re part of the same family. I have nothing to do with them," denounced Mohammed, 30, a resident of Casablanca, to Charlie Hebdo.

The children of MREs are rejected in France as well as in Morocco. A phenomenon that sociologist Éric Marlière, a professor at the University of Lille who has studied the issue of the "return to the homeland" of these third-generation French, tries to explain. "It’s surprising, the young person from the housing project is also stigmatized in the homeland as in France... Many young people idealize their country of origin. When they arrive there, they realize that the connection is not obvious with their cousins or the young people of the village. They have the language barrier, and above all their habitus as French," he develops.

He will continue: "Even physically, there is segregation. They have acquired the habits of young people from the neighborhood, with the norms of the street: culture of provocation, consumerism, gang logic, which is not well seen there. They will be seen as thugs. These young people from the housing projects manage to adapt neither to France nor to their country of origin. This generates conflicts, and great disillusionment." The sociologist also noted that these young MREs have "a vision of the country that dates back to the 1960s, with very old habits. This creates gaps when they arrive on the spot."

These third-generation French visit Morocco in search of benchmarks they no longer find. "The homeland is no longer like before. I no longer have anyone to visit, except distant cousins. I don’t know why I keep going there, but it’s still my country of origin," confesses Samy, a 17-year-old Franco-Moroccan in a TikTok video. "They are not seen as legitimate. Many Maghrebis do not consider that they have succeeded through merit, but that they are small bourgeois who do not measure their luck," concludes Éric Marlière.