Export Production in Casablanca, Morocco: How Declining Globalization Affects Emigration and Unionization

This paper assesses the effects of declining globalization on the emigration and unionization of export employees in Casablanca, Morocco. Ninety-two in-depth interviews (2015-2017) were analyzed using qualitative methodology. The supply chains of export companies which had facilitated emigration deteriorated over many crises. Emigration and the desire to emigrate declined. Many union gains were diminished or cut. Unions resisted greater precarity, fighting losses and/or making compromises. Sixty percent of interviewees rejected emigration. Unionized migrant men and women want to emigrate most, especially younger men, but unionized Casablancans were a close second. Non-unionized migrant men and women reject emigration most. This research helps to predict how emigration in the present and future will be influenced by the division of the world into new regional blocks replacing globalization. As a case study, generalization is limited, but comparisons can be made.