and people of Moroccan descent, who come from various ethnic groups, form a distinct community in Belgium and part of the wider Moroccan diaspora. They represent the largest non-European immigrant population in Belgium and are widely referred to as Belgo-Marocains in French and Belgische Marokkanen in Dutch.
History
There has been a Moroccan presence in Belgium since 1912 when France began recruiting workers from its North African colonies as immigrant workers, allowing some to cross into Belgium. At the time, Morocco possessed a largely agrarian economy and labour migration was attractive to many young men. There were thought to be 6,000 Moroccans living in Belgium by 1930, predominantly in industrial towns in Wallonia. Belgium's economic recovery in the aftermath of World War II was based the rapid revival of coal mining and heavy industry which experienced an acute shortage of labour. The Belgian government created various guest worker programs aimed at encouraging workers to travel to Belgium on work contracts. The first such agreement was made with Italy in 1946 but collapsed after the Marcinelle mining disaster in 1956. Alternative agreements were made with Spain and Greece and later Turkey and the Belgian government began negotiations about recruiting workers from North Africa in 1957 around the time of Morocco's independence while the Algerian War was still ongoing. A guest worker agreement was signed with Morocco on 17 August 1964. This made Morocco the first North African state to make such an agreement with Belgium. In following years significant numbers of Moroccan workers, mainly single men, were recruited for work in Belgium. The program was cancelled in August 1974 amid the fall in demand created by the 1973–1975 recession. However, the spread of family reunification and high birth rates led to the rapid expansion of the community after the scheme's abolition. In following years, there was also immigration into Belgium from students and political dissidents opposed to the regime of King Hassan II.
Community
In Belgium, the number of people of Moroccan origin was 430,000 as of 1 January 2012, or about 4% of the country's population. This proportion is 6.7% for those under 15 years of age. This figure has more than doubled in 20 years. With a percentage of 4%, the Moroccan population has the highest percentage in Europe among Moroccans residing abroad. The Brussels-Capital Region has the most Moroccans in Belgium and Europe, followed by Antwerp, Liège and Charleroi. A large majority of Moroccans in Belgium originate from northern Morocco. It was reported in 2019 that six Moroccan-Belgians had been elected to the Chamber of Representatives and 21 in regional parliaments. It was reported in 2020 that more than 1,500 Moroccan-Belgian dual nationals in Morocco had request repatriation to Belgium during the COVID-19 pandemic. There is a small Moroccan-Jewish community which runs the Judeo-Moroccan Cultural Centre in Brussels.
Radicalization
In the 2012-2016 timespan, of the about 500 individuals left the country to fight in the civil war in Syria, the great majority were of Moroccan descent according to U.S. and Belgian authorities. In a report by the Combating Terrorism Center, of the 135 individuals surveyed in connection with terrorism, there were 12 different nationalities. Of those 65% had Belgian citizenship and 33% were either Moroccan citizens or had ancestral roots there.
