Transmediterranean Political Socialisation: The Hirak Movement, the Moroccan Diaspora and Europe as a Political Imaginary

In 2017, after the death of Mohsen Fikri, a Rifian fishmonger from Al Hoceima, a protest movement began to emerge both inside and outside Morocco, the Hirak, which well illustrates the complex socioeconomic and political entanglements produced by the migration processes in the Mediterranean basin. The Hirak calls for greater economic and social investment in the Rif region by the Moroccan government, as well as the freeing of political prisoners of the cause and the inclusion of collective memory of the region in the history of Morocco. Most European emigration comes from the Rif, so in recent years the mobilization of the diaspora in numerous European countries has been very significant. The Hirak movement is a very interesting case of transnational European citizenship, as the activists and sympathizers do not see a conflict between their European citizenship and their Rifian or Moroccan identity.