Does unemployment spark collective contentious action? Evidence from a Moroccan social movement

Abstract

This paper addresses unemployment as a source of social discontent and occasional catalyst for collective action, based on the example of the mobilisation of unemployed Moroccan university graduates. High unemployment rates, especially among recent university graduates, were presented as a main reason for the social unrest in North Africa, fuelling popular revolts against government regimes in Tunisia and Egypt. Morocco is the only country in the region where unemployment has been the leitmotiv of an enduring collective action since the 1990s, but organisations of the unemployed kept their distance from the local version of the Arab Spring, known as the February 20th Movement, because any political alliance is perceived as potentially jeopardising their chances of getting hired in the public administration.