Les Cahiers d’EMAM (Dec 2022)
Distorsions économiques et spatiales dans le Nord du Maroc. Quels mondes en présence et quelle intégration possible ? Le cas de Fahs Anjra
Abstract
The Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima region is characterized by an accelerated industrial dynamic in recent years and by a rare economic and urban effervescence. The hopes based on this dynamic are numerous and the production and export figures, published regularly, with regard to the automobile in particular, sound like so many promises of a bright future. But for whom? First we characterize the socio-economic differences between the provinces of the region, emphasizing how the Tangier pole, within a radius not exceeding 30 km from the city, is the main source of the current dynamism. Secondly, the focus is closer, more qualitative and delves into the intra-territorial dualisms generated by the current economic and urban choices, taking the case of Fahs-Anjra. This province, created to accommodate and manage an homogeneous industrial project, which notably houses the Renault factory, Tanger Automotive City, and the Tanger-Med Port, is both the richest and the poorest in the region, depending on your point of view. Are you looking from the viewpoint of standard economic balance sheets or that of the inhabitants of the municipalities (“communes”) and douars that compose the region? Here it is an agro-pastoral way of life that is threatened by the installation of industrial-port complexes, without a convincing alternative emerging. Finally, we look at another case within the province of Fahs-Anjra: the long-planned “new town” of Chrafate, where it was planned in particular to house the staff of the surrounding factories. But while the inhabitants of the douars that made up its territory were expropriated, this “new town”; has still not emerged. from the ground.
