ABSTRACT
This article aims to analyse French migration to Morocco and the social implications arising from the relationships between these migrants and Moroccan society. It presents the combined results of two fieldworks conducted within a wider research project funded by the MIMAMERM programme (Association Marocaine des Études et des Recherches sur la Migration and the Swiss foundation Population, Migration and Environmment PME) (Therrien 2014). Our analysis of the main migratory motives highlighted by the migrants’ narratives (a better quality of life and the desire for elsewhereness) enhances the theoretical framework on lifestyle migrations (Benson and O’Reilly 2009; Hoey 2009; Korpela 2009; O’Reilly 2007; O’Reilly and Benson 2009). Lifestyle migrants are described by O’Reilly (2007, 1) as
As this article shows, the notions of self-fulfilment and escape importantly structure the narratives of the interviewed migrants. The notion of lifestyle migration has been complemented by the concept of quest migrants more recently (Therrien 2012, 2013) in order to also encompass migration trajectories motivated by lifestyle rather than economic factors (McIntyre 2011; O’Reilly and Benson 2009) as well as by the quest for spiritual or existential well-being.
