ABSTRACT
This chapter further assesses social capital within the Moroccan community living in London. It does so at a meso level, focusing particularly on voluntary and community organisation. The creation and renewal of social capital are seen as intimately tied up with the voluntary sector (Putnam 1993a, 2000), including ethnic associations (cf. Fennema & Tillie 1999; Tillie 2004). I profile ten Moroccan community groups/organisations to evaluate their role as incubators for the transformation of ‘bonding’ to ‘bridging’ and ‘linking’ social capital. The different types of social capital were assessed by four main indicators: first, the typology of the organisation; second, community involvement and pro-activity; third, effectiveness and ability to influence decision making; and fourth, connections and partnerships. This focus differs from the existing literature on at least three analytical levels: first, it avoids one-dimensional speculation that membership in voluntary/ethnic associations leads to greater trust, and hence greater political participation amongst immigrants (Fennema & Tillie 1999, 2001); second, it categorises migrant associations instead of treating them as a homogenous core (Hamidi 2005); and third, it avoids analysing them in isolation from their local and national contexts.
