Morocco’s two-speed economy leaves young workers behind

{"text":[[{"start":8.24,"text":"In her Moroccan port city of Safi, it was Salma’s job to pack sardine tins into small cardboard boxes. The red tins would tumble out of the oven, still burning, into a deep metal crate."}],[{"start":20.58,"text":"On days when the sea yielded more, Salma would work for up to 18 hours until the entire catch was boxed. The tips of her fingers turned black from the hot metal."}],[{"start":30.64,"text":"A year later, after gaining a degree, 24-year-old Salma is working in a vast air-conditioned glass building in the capital, one of the shimmering edifices that exemplifies Morocco’s recent economic development. Her slippers click on marble tiles. The FT used a pseudonym to protect her identity."}],[{"start":50.08,"text":"Despite the glamour of her new job, she still lives on a tight budget. Like many young Moroccans, she struggles with low wages and the sense that opportunity lies somewhere else. Like them, she hopes to do more than just survive."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":63.52,"text":"Morocco’s economy has grown and poverty has declined in recent decades, as it has focused on budget discipline and infrastructure investments. But that growth, evidenced by the swooping stadiums and shining towers along the north-west coast, has not translated into enough good jobs or better wages for most people, economists say."}],[{"start":83.66,"text":"That failure was brought into sharp focus last week when more than 72,000 people, mostly young Moroccans hoping for better prospects, streamed across the border into the Spanish exclave of Ceuta. At least 82 people died, according to the Spanish authorities, but a Moroccan NGO puts the figure as high as 141; still, many say they’re willing to try again."}],[{"start":106.68,"text":"Mehdi Lahlou, a professor of economics at the National Institute of Statistics and Applied Economics in Rabat who researches migration, said a reduction in purchasing power, the marginalisation of rural areas, and lack of state services drove people to emigrate. “The fruits of this economic growth do not reach most Moroccans.”"}],[{"start":125.84,"text":"Morocco’s successes are many; it has in recent years built powerful car and aeroplane industries, one of the few countries in the region to attract such manufacturing. A major new industrial port has increased export and logistics capacity, while its national phosphate producer makes Morocco a key global fertiliser supplier."}],[{"start":144.56,"text":"Still, the country’s big public investment projects, including in sports — it will co-host the 2030 World Cup — and high-speed railways, ‘‘are all highly capital-intensive investments and don’t create commensurate job opportunities”, Lahlou said."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":160.68,"text":"Unemployment remains about 13 per cent, with the rate for young people three times higher — yet even many of those with jobs wish to emigrate."}],[{"start":168.62,"text":"The kingdom’s ambition is visible on the edges of the capital Rabat, where a tower built to look like a rocket rises above an area of trees growing weak under the sun. “Welcome Aboard the Mohammed VI Tower,” reads an interactive screen in the inner sanctum of the building, which was named after the king and completed last year."}],[{"start":187.68,"text":"Traditional potters who dug clay and had workshops in the area before the developers arrived have been temporarily moved to the inner city."}],[{"start":194.88,"text":"Nearby, a guard keeps pedestrians off the lawn of the new Royal Theatre designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, whose opening this year was attended by Brigitte Macron and Morocco’s royal family. On Rabat’s corniche a massive ice hockey stadium recently opened, despite the sport being relatively unknown in Morocco."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":214.32,"text":"When Salma leaves her job, she goes home to a ground-floor apartment she shares with a friend in the neighbouring city of Salé. The room is dim because the window does not open all the way, and at night she sleeps on a zebra-patterned blanket on the floor next to her roommate."}],[{"start":229.48,"text":"Her pay is $428 a month — less than half Morocco’s average public sector wage of $1,000 — and not enough to live the way she wants. To supplement her income, she writes scripts for YouTubers and does voice-overs for advertisements."}],[{"start":243.92,"text":"After university, she had wanted to stay in Safi, a city dominated by sardine and phosphate industries, where her mother still works in a factory cutting the heads off fish."}],[{"start":253.16,"text":"“I went to so many places, but I didn’t get any work in Safi . . . because there’s more supply than demand. There are so many young people who want work,” she said."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":263.56,"text":"Najib Akesbi, an economist in Rabat, said that the massive investments had created a “vitrine” of success from the outside. He said the development of costly high-speed rails and stadiums — concentrated in the north-west coast of the country — had come at the expense of the rest of Morocco and social programmes such as healthcare."}],[{"start":281.52,"text":"These contrasts — what he called a “forgotten Morocco” — led to a wave of nationwide “Gen Z” protests last year, sparked by the death of eight pregnant women in a public hospital in Agadir."}],[{"start":292.56,"text":"The Moroccan government has acknowledged those social disparities and says it is working on expanding the social safety net and healthcare."}],[{"start":299.44,"text":"Mehdi, 20, a metalworker and professional footballer, left his home in Salé last Tuesday to attempt the crossing to Ceuta."}],[{"start":307.76,"text":"It was Mehdi’s fifth try: he knew what to bring and what his route would be. He packed fins and plastic bags to wrap his phone, money, snacks and water."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":317.2,"text":"He swam for seven hours until he crossed the border into Ceuta and then to shore, and remained in the Spanish exclave for a week, before deciding to swim back to Morocco on Tuesday night, fearing armed Spanish forces."}],[{"start":329.44,"text":"Mehdi cannot find steady work: he’s jumped from gigs in carpentry and painting to electricity and construction. As a football player, he was paid about $1,000 monthly but he said the wage went towards the microloans his family had taken out to pay for basic needs."}],[{"start":344.8,"text":"“Before I graduated, I expected I would find work opportunities. But in Morocco, we say that when you finish studying, that’s when real life begins,” he said. “Most Moroccans are living like this.”"}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":364.48,"text":"The Moroccan economy’s “most consequential structural weakness” is “its insufficient capacity to create jobs at the scale demanded by a growing working-age population”, according to the World Bank’s latest report. Up to two-thirds of investment in Morocco is estimated to come from the public sector."}],[{"start":371.88,"text":"Akesbi said the private sector was wary of making the kind of long-term investments that would generate deeper jobs and growth because of how centralised government control over the economy was, the lack of competition and the advantage of rent-seeking businesses which held oligopolies in major sectors like fuel. “They’re interested in short-term profits.”"}],[{"start":392.44,"text":"As Mehdi was swimming back through the night, long after most of his fellow migrants had been returned, he saw a corpse floating in the water."}],[{"start":400.16,"text":"He reached the shores of the border town of Fnideq early on Wednesday, walked dozens of kilometres and then took a bus back to Salé."}],[{"start":407.78,"text":"He stopped at home and saw his grandmother and mother. Overwhelmed at his sudden return, they forbade him from ever going back."}],[{"start":415.8,"text":"Around 7am, he went to the Salé public beach in time to start work renting sun umbrellas. He makes about $15 a day, depending on how many beachgoers there are."}],[{"start":425.64,"text":"He said he would wait about two weeks and then try for Ceuta again."}],[{"start":429.96,"text":"Data visualisation by Daniel Jones and cartography by John Nelzon Chan"}],[{"start":438.57,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1786433572_4637.mp3"}