ABSTRACT
In 1973, the Algerian government took the bold initiative of unilaterally
banning emigration of its citizens to France. At the global level such a
policy is rare; even 30 years later it continues to be mentioned in global
overviews of migration.1 Within the Maghreb, however, it is the sole exam-
ple of absolute sanction in migration negotiations with European govern-
ments.2 The French government brought an end to labor migration in 1974,
which was a trend seen in migration policies across Western Europe at that
time. Since the vast majority of international migration from the Maghreb is focused on Europe, European policy became the most significant control on
Maghrebi migration. With the exception of Algeria’s 1973 policy, migration
from the Maghreb to Europe has been at the whim of apparently endless
complications and revisions of European migration policies. Since 2000,
those policies appear to have come full circle, and the relatively large-scale,
legal migration of Maghrebi citizens to take up predominantly unskilled
jobs in Europe is once again a reality.3 At the same time, migration is being
taken more seriously by Maghrebi governments, and there are new intergovernmental fora to discuss the migration issue. This chapter explores this
new stage of Maghrebi migration governance to investigate whether it
represents a genuinely new collaborative form of Mediterranean migration
management, or simply a new stage in the development, or ‘‘externaliza-
tion,’’4 of European migration policy.
