| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 429,580 (2012)[1] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Belgium Morocco | |
| Languages | |
| French,Dutch,Moroccan Arabic,Rifian,Shilha,Spanish,[2]Italian | |
| Religion | |
| Islam Minority:Judaism,Irreligion,Christianity[3] | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Arabs andBerbers in Belgium |
Moroccans and people of Moroccan descent, who come from variousethnic groups, form a distinct community inBelgium and part of the widerMoroccan diaspora. They represent the largest non-European immigrant population in Belgium and are widely referred to asBelgo-Marocains inFrench andBelgische Marokkanen inDutch.
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
|---|---|---|
| 1961 | 461 | — |
| 1970 | 39,294 | +8423.6% |
| 1981 | 105,133 | +167.6% |
| 1991 | 142,098 | +35.2% |
| 2002 | 90,642 | −36.2% |
| Source:[4] | ||
There has been a Moroccan presence inBelgium since 1912 whenFrance began recruiting workers from itsNorth African colonies as immigrant workers, allowing some to cross into Belgium. At the time,Morocco possessed a largely agrarian economy andlabour migration was attractive to many young men. There were thought to be 6,000 Moroccans living in Belgium by 1930, predominantly in industrial towns inWallonia.[5]
The rapid recovery of the Belgian economy afterWorld War II was based on the rapid revival ofcoal mining and heavy industry which experienced an acute labour shortage. As a response, the Belgian government entered into variousguest worker programmes aimed at encouraging workers to travel to Belgium on work contracts. The first such agreement was made withItaly in 1946 but the arrangement collapsed after large-scale loss of life among Italian workers in theMarcinelle mining disaster in 1956. Alternative agreements were concluded withSpain (1956) andGreece (1957) and laterTurkey (1964). Belgium also began to look to recruiting migrant workers from North Africa from 1957 but the process was complicated by the ongoingAlgerian War.[4]
A guest worker agreement was signed with Morocco on 17 August 1964. This made Morocco the first North African state to make such an agreement with Belgium.[4] In following years significant numbers of Moroccan workers, mainly single men, were recruited for work in Belgium. The program was cancelled in August 1974 amid the fall in demand created by the1973–1975 recession and the country's escalatingdeindustrialisation. However, the spread offamily reunification and highbirth rates led to the rapid expansion of the community after the scheme's abolition. In following years, there was also immigration into Belgium from students and political dissidents opposed to the regime ofKing Hassan II.[4]
As of 2023, there are a total of 699,296 North Africans in Belgium, of which a majority are Moroccans. A total of 258,603 North Africans reside in theBrussels-Capital Region, and 120,356 reside in Antwerp. A total of 275,421 North Africans reside inFlanders and a total of 165,272 North Africans reside inWallonia.[6]
| Number of Moroccans in larger cities[citation needed] | |||||||||
| # | City | People | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Brussels | 34,984 | |||||||
| 2. | Antwerp | 11,780 | |||||||
| 3. | Liège | 7,634 | |||||||
| 4. | Charleroi | 5,403 | |||||||
| 5. | Namur | 2,836 | |||||||
Moroccans form a major immigrant ethnic group in Belgium. The number of people with at least one parent born with Moroccan nationality was 430,000 on 1 January 2012, or about 4 percent of the national population.[citation needed] This proportion was 6.7% among those under 15 years of age. Belgium also represents one of the most important centres of theMoroccan diaspora. The Brussels-Capital Region has the most Moroccans in Belgium (45%), followed by Antwerp (22.7%), Liège (8.8%) andCharleroi (5.2%).
A large majority of Moroccans in Belgium originate from northern Morocco (Al Hoceima,Nador,Tangier,Tetouan andOujda).[7][8]
It was reported in 2019 that six Moroccan-Belgians had been elected to theChamber of Representatives and 21 in regional parliaments.[9]
It was reported in 2020 that more than 1,500 Moroccan-Belgian dual nationals in Morocco had request repatriation to Belgium during theCOVID-19 pandemic.[10]
There is a smallMoroccan Jewish community which runs the Judeo-Moroccan Cultural Centre (Centre de la Culture judéo-marocaine, CCJM) in Brussels.[11] The chief Rabbi of Belgium isAlbert Guigui, born inMeknès in 1944.
In the 2012–2016 timespan, of the approximately 500 individuals who left the country tofight in the civil war in Syria, the great majority were of Moroccan descent according to U.S. and Belgian authorities.[12] In a report by theCombating Terrorism Center, of the 135 individuals surveyed in connection with terrorism, there were 12 different nationalities. Of those 65% had Belgian citizenship and 33% were eitherMoroccan citizens or had ancestral roots there.[13]
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More than 500 Belgians have left for Syria since 2012 and most of them, according to Belgian and U.S. officials, have been of Moroccan descent.
Media related toMoroccan diaspora in Belgium at Wikimedia Commons
