What does Kais Saied’s racist statements hide?
The sequence of the xenophobic and authoritarian thoughts harbored in the mind of the President of Tunisia Kais Saied climaxed when he made remarks charging that the Blacks and the African immigration to his country Tunisia amounts to a conspiracy that aims at eroding the demographic make-up of his nation. He stated that these successive waves of African immigrants are “irregular” and are changing Tunisia in a harmful way to terminate its “affiliation” with Arab and Islamic countries. Those who take up this view adhere to the “great replacement theory,” which stipulates that the liberal political elites encourage immigration in order to “replace” and substitute White people in the Western nations where white ethnicity is the majority of the population.
While rights groups called for public protest in Tunisia, how far they will be successful in their effort to counter this racist overtone in the Tunisian President’s speech is doubtful. The Tunisian society which has fifteen percent of its population who are ethnically Black will not rest in peace after these troubling remarks. In addition, what President Saied said is a little thing to find among many of the wrong policies that he has been pursuing. What the Tunisian President has just said on Black immigration to Tunisia is not the right response to this problem. These biased statements are negating many previous good political traditions that existed in Tunisia before he came to power in 2019. At least, we as political analysts need no more proof than this to testify to the wrong immigration policy of the incumbent government in Tunisia and its political.
The successful Moroccan model
The Kingdom of Morocco, indeed, takes a different view of immigration. The leadership of Morocco’s conception of the African migration to their country has a logical origin. They understand it as a difficult passage from Africa to Europe in the majority of cases. The Brussels-based Migration Policy Institute (MPI) has published an important study explaining the tolerant immigration policy declared by Morocco. Morocco is a nation of 38 million people, and it has accepted 700,000 African immigrants. The country respects international law and honors the international treaties and conventions that stipulate and uphold the rights of immigrants and asylum seekers. It has accepted development assistance programs from the European Union (EU) to help settle immigrants and for the provision of employment for them. As an example, in the year 2014, Morocco sanctioned legally the residency status of 24,000 immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa. That offer granted them many work rights and the accessibility to a variety of social services.
The great thing about Morocco’s African immigration policy is the expression of the good spirit of her men and her leaders. As stated wisely by the King of Morocco King Mohamed VI in 2018 after his nation signed to rejoin the African Union, “Morocco’s commitment in advocating for the causes and interests of Africa is not new today, it is rather an immutable orientation that we inherited from our ancestors, and which we continue to reinforce with confidence and pride.” When the trend of big African immigration policy started in the 1990s, Morocco enlarged its role in the black continent. The idea of promoting Morocco’s economic and political interests in Africa went parallel and are till at present go hand in hand with a brilliant strategy to seek more integrative roads for the Kingdom of Morocco to establish long-term consolidation plans with the African continent.
The truth within the leadership of Morocco recognizes and welcomes the truth about this African immigration phenomenon in world politics. It is the basic appreciation of human nature. It is the ability to utilize the best resources of these immigrants to build a better society for all people. It is the noble policy of the diversity of Morocco to render it a more productive society. Decency is a potent factor in the character of good nations like Morocco. Morocco’s African immigration policy is making its attributes as a nation-sate more humane, more reasonable in relations among people and more distinguished in its experience.
The French role and the acquisitions game
One point in dispute is the time and circumstances of this growing Moroccan influence in Africa. It is certainly not probable that the expectation of many African nations about cultivating good ties with Morocco exist before the big role played by France as both a colonial and a post-colonial power in Africa. French history in Africa has always boasted of a splendid reign. It is one famed for conquest and often for civilizing the Africans whom they occupied their lands. However, that French glory in Africa was dashed with darkness, as millions of Africans suffered miserable living conditions under close connections between their governments and France.
The political leadership of Morocco is creating many opportunities for the African nations that will command a good future for the Africans. As a result, the political importance of Africa is being enhanced. Morocco’s African immigration policy is a reflection of the varying history and institutions of its leadership and people. It is a policy that is achieving great progress. All that such discrepancies between Morocco and Tunisia over the two nations’ attitude toward the immigration of Africans to their two countries hold the truth that Africa is entering a new stage of its history whereby it will be a positive contributor to the global economy and a significant player in world politics in the near future.
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Kais Saied- Kais Saied- Tunisia – France – Africa
