Contesting “inclusive” development: Reactions to slum resettlement as social inclusion in Tamesna, Morocco

Abstract

Since 2004, Moroccan authorities have promoted the development of new cities to provide affordable housing to low-income residents. A major objective of this policy is to provide a site for the resettlement of slum residents. As policymakers justify poverty alleviation and social inclusion to advance their agenda, residents facing displacement have shown substantial resistance to these resettlement programs. Tamesna, the second new city established under this policy, was mainly established to provide a resettlement site for approximately three thousand households living in informal settlements in the surrounding rural commune of Sidi Yahya Zaer (SYZ). Only two-thirds of the households had resettled in summer 2017, and the resettlement process was delayed as some residents refused to participate. This paper questions the factors that influenced the refusal of many households to participate in the resettlement process that was ostensibly designed to meet their housing needs. Using a combination of ethnography, archive review and interviews with the local population, and housing developers, the paper examines the different circumstances and factors that shape residents' reactions to the resettlement process. We conclude that the residents' demands for inclusion diverge from and transcend the authorities' plans for social housing provision in the new city of Tamesna.