Moroccan Descent Research Articles

Reducing interethnic bias through real-life and literary encounters: The interplay between face-to-face and vicarious contact in high school classrooms

Literary intergroup contact—reading about ingroup members’ encounters with outgroup members—is a useful first step toward the reduction of intergroup bias in settings with limited face-to-face intergroup contact, such as ethnically segregated schools. What, however, happens to this bias-reduction potential of interethnic stories in classrooms rife with face-to-face interactions between ethnically diverse students? And does this interaction between literary and face-to-face contact function similarly 1) for ethnic-majority students and ethnic-minority students and 2) for affective and cognitive measures of interethnic bias? A between-subjects experiment was conducted among 977 students in 63 classrooms in a Belgian province with a history of Moroccan migration. Half of the classes read from a ‘white-Belgian-majority’ book (control group), the others from a ‘Moroccan-Belgian’ book (literary contact group). Multilevel regression analyses indicated two opposing trends: 1) more face-to-face contact with Moroccan classmates strengthened the effect of literary interethnic contact on self-identified Belgian students’ attitude toward Moroccans, but 2) more face-to-face contact with Belgian-majority classmates reduced the effect of literary interethnic contact on the attitude toward Belgians of self-identified non-Belgian students. Moreover, the Moroccan-Belgian book was associated with a lesser awareness of discrimination against Moroccan youngsters for students who did not identify as Belgian in classes with few students of Moroccan descent, and for students who felt (very) Belgian in classes with relatively many students of Moroccan descent. The quality of face-to-face intergroup contact is offered as a post-hoc explanation.

An “Interior Occident” and the Case for an Oriental Modernity: The Livornese Printing Press and the Mediterranean Publishing Networks of Elia Benamozegh (1823–1900)

Elia Benamozegh (1823–1900)—Italian rabbi, kabbalist, publisher, and thinker of Moroccan descent who lived in the Tuscan port city of Livorno—is known for his copious writings in Hebrew, Italian, and French encompassing exegetical, historical, and philosophical studies and especially for his posthumous magnum opus, Israel and Humanity . Eager to foster religious unity across faiths, demonstrate Jewish universalism, and fight against secularism, he inspired Christian-Jewish encounters in twentieth-century France. This article is the first study of Benamozegh's work as a publisher, revealing the deep significance of his ties with the Mashriq and Maghrib. The scope of Benamozegh's publications and the contentious reception of his work provide an opportunity to reexamine important yet less studied aspects of modern Jewish thought, including the dynamics of modern Sephardi thought and self-representation and the intellectual, transnational networks that spanned the Mediterranean and the Middle East in an age of nationalism and colonialism.

Happy Mimouna: On a Mechanism for Marginalizing Moroccan Israelis

The article focuses on the ways in which the mimouna, a distinct Maghrebi Jewish spring holiday, is framed by the Israeli mainstream as a non-serious event, and its practices as primitive. Yet, while manifesting excluding practices and utterances towards it, the holiday is also endorsed by most Jewish Israelis. It asserts that this duality results from a single and unified socio-political mechanism employed by mainstream Israelis to marginalize Israelis of Moroccan descent: a mechanism of exclusion-by-inclusion. The article begins by tracing the early versions of it in Zionists' reports on the mimouna in the beginning of the twentieth-century Morocco, moves quickly to Morocco under colonial regime, and ends by demonstrating these practices in present-day Israel.

‘We’re not coming from Mars; we know how things work in Morocco!’ How diasporic Moroccan youth resists political socialisation in state-led homeland tours

ABSTRACTDiaspora policies, to be defined as emigrant state policies aiming at maintaining and strengthening ties with its expatriate population, have become a regular feature of twenty-first century international politics. A particular diaspora policy strategy adopted by various emigration countries including Morocco is the introduction of state-led homeland tours. These can be understood as an origin-state tool to socialise mainly young expatriate community members with homeland orientations and identities. Both by opponents as by sympathisers of these tours, it is often assumed that homeland tours are effective in their socialisation project. However, this assumption undervalues the agency of tour participants. This article presents an in-depth investigation of the Moroccan Summer Universities, annual state-led homeland tours for college and university students of Moroccan descent, based on participant observation and qualitative interviews. The analysis highlights the tour participants’ resistance against both discourses and practices of these homeland tours’ organisers. As such, the article attends to the need to understand better how state diaspora policies are received by young members of the diaspora, in a situation where state–diaspora relations are tense and policies are top-down.

Key and the use of Moroccan function words in Dutch internet discourse

Abstract In the Dutch used by Moroccan heritage youth one often encounters Moroccan Arabic and Berber function words inserted in otherwise Dutch discourse. This article studies a subset of these function words within the internet forum chaima.nl, a forum geared towards adolescent girls and young women of Moroccan descent in the Netherlands and Flanders. It aims to show that one major function of the insertion of these function words is to key the utterance as (self-)ironic and not-too-serious.

Human biomonitoring from an environmental justice perspective: supporting study participation of women of Turkish and Moroccan descent

BackgroundEnvironmental justice research shows how socially disadvantaged groups are more exposed and more vulnerable to environmental pollution. At the same time, these groups are less represented and, thus, less visible in biomedical studies. This socioeconomic participation bias is a form of environmental injustice within research practice itself.MethodsWe designed, implemented and evaluated a targeted recruitment strategy to enhance the participation of socially disadvantaged pregnant women in a human biomonitoring study in Belgium. We focused on women of Turkish and Moroccan descent and developed a setup using personal buddies that enabled information transfer about study conditions in the pre-parturition period as well as support and follow-up with questionnaires in the post-parturition period.ResultsWe identified four barriers to the participation of women with a vulnerable social and ethnic background which were related to psychosocial and situational factors. Lack of trust in researchers and no perceived study benefits were important personal barriers; the complex study design and difficult self-administered questionnaires were equally significant barriers.ConclusionBy investing in direct, person-to-person contact with trusted buddies and supported by practical advice about cultural and linguistic sensitivity, it was possible to increase study participation of socially disadvantaged people. Above all, this required openness and flexibility in the mind-set of researchers so that study design and procedures could be better grounded in the experiences and circumstances of underprivileged groups.

Pulmonary hypertension with warm hands

A 19-year-old woman of Moroccan descent presented with severe dyspnoea on exertion. She had difficulty walking stairs (New York Heart Association functional class 3) and accompanying symptoms included fatigue, palpitations...

Second-generation Moroccan Women in Europe: Higher Education and Labour Market Positioning

Abstract This paper deals with the career paths followed by women descendants of Moroccan immigrants in Belgium, focusing particularly on a study of the situation of women with higher educational qualifications, and showing how these daughters of immigrants perceive higher education as advantageous to their position in the family, for the development of their careers, and for their socialisation. Its objective is to demonstrate how education and paid employment are being adopted as strategies for upward mobility by women of Moroccan descent in Belgium. A qualitative approach and a comprehensive interpretive overview was used to gather information from in-depth interviews with women descendants of immigrants in Belgium. The results show that the category of “higher educational qualifications” goes hand in hand with considerable social prestige and leads to a number of social privileges. This is a generation with greater social and psychological motivation in the academic sphere, the product of an appreciation of studying and higher education as a route to social advancement and independence from patriarchal models. The personal development of these women can be understood as a force with the potential to raise the class status of the family as a whole.

Breast cancer genetic counseling among Dutch patients from Turkish and Moroccan descent: participation determinants and perspectives of patients and healthcare professionals

Lower participation rates in cancer genetic counseling are observed among different ethnic minorities. The goal of our study is to gain insight into determinants of Turkish and Moroccan patients’ participation in breast cancer genetic counseling and DNA testing, from the point of view of healthcare professionals and patients. Questionnaire-based telephone interviews about awareness, perceptions, and reasons for (non-) participation in cancer genetic counseling were conducted with 78 Dutch breast cancer patients from Turkish and Moroccan descent. The interviews were held in Arabic, Berber, Turkish, or Dutch by bilingual research assistants. Additionally, 14 breast cancer patients participated in one of two focus group meetings, and two focus groups were held with 11 healthcare professionals. SPSS and QSR Nvivo were used to examine the quantitative and qualitative data, respectively. Half of the total group of patients (N = 78) and 79% of patients eligible for genetic counseling and testing (N = 33) were aware of the possibility of genetic counseling. The most important determinants for nonparticipation in genetic counseling were experienced difficulties in patient-doctor communication, cultural factors (e.g., social norms), limited health literacy, limited knowledge of the family cancer history, and anxiety about cancer. Religious beliefs and knowing personal and family members’ breast cancer risks were motives to obtain genetic counseling. Despite the fact that our study showed that Moroccan and Turkish women reported several personal motives to obtain genetic counseling and testing (GCT), patients and healthcare professionals experience significant language and health literacy difficulties, which make it harder to fully access health care such as genetic counseling and testing.

Zoals de ouden zongen, piepen de jongen?

From birth on, children are confronted with an ever-growing variation of languages. In Dutch primary schools the main language model nowadays is a submersion model centring round Standard-Dutch. The disappointing results of several small-scale bilingual experiments and the large-scale implementation of a bilingual model for immigrant children in the past had led the Ministry of Education to abandon bilingual education, that is, with the exception of models with English, German or French as a second language. The focus of the present article is on language variety at home and school. The main question is how the mother tongue, viz. the language the parents speak, influences their child’s proficiency in Dutch. Analysing data of 14,000 grade 2 pupils that were collected in the 2007, 2010 and 2013 measurement waves of the national COOL5–18 study, this paper first of all describes how often children speak their mother tongue. A distinction is made between Dutch; Frisian and Dutch regional languages and dialects; and foreign languages. The latter mostly refers to Turkish and Berber language varieties. Next, the correlation between speaking the mother tongue and the children’s proficiency in Dutch is analysed. The results show that for children of Dutch, Frisian and Dutch regional languages and dialect speaking parents there are no differences in level of Dutch relative to the number of times they speak their mother tongue. For children of a foreign language speaking parents, however, there is a tendency that the more often they speak their mother tongue the lower their proficiency in Dutch is. This negative relationship is not reduced by accounting for the mother’s educational level and proficiency of Dutch. Most of the children who speak a foreign language are of Turkish or Moroccan descent who in terms of school achievement lag considerably behind their native-Dutch peers. It is suggested that implementing so-called transition classes with targeted language courses during one school year and a follow-up in later years may help diminish this gap.

New Insights Into the Genetic Basis of Inherited Arrhythmia Syndromes.

Inherited arrhythmia syndromes encompass several different diseases, including long QT syndrome (LQTS), Brugada syndrome (BrS), catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT), short QT syndrome (SQTS), idiopathic ventricular fibrillation (IVF), and progressive cardiac conduction system disease (PCCD).1 The heart is typically structurally normal with no evidence of disease macroscopically. They are an important cause for sudden cardiac death in the young, and an autopsy is typically negative.2,3 Ventricular arrhythmias are caused by mutations of ion channels and their interacting proteins, predominantly involving potassium, sodium, and calcium handling.4 Genetic studies have identified the specific genetic abnormalities that underpin these diseases, even permitting diagnosis in the deceased using postmortem genetic testing (the molecular autopsy).3 Most arrhythmia syndromes are inherited in an autosomal dominant manner, such that first-degree family members have a 50% chance of inheriting the disease. Identification of the mutation allows for predictive genetic testing in other living family members.4 Variable penetrance is common in all arrhythmia syndromes, the same mutation in the same family causing wide variation in phenotype.4 This suggests that other factors such as genetic modifiers and environmental factors may influence the phenotype. This review will highlight the latest developments in understanding the genetic basis of inherited arrhythmia syndromes and discusses the new opportunities and challenges faced with evolving genetic technologies including determining pathogenicity and the utility of large genetic databases. Finally, we will discuss newly described entities that continue the evolving theme of genetic syndromes with phenotypic overlap. Early views that a single genotype associates with a particular phenotype continue to be challenged by our greater understanding of the genotype–phenotype relationship. ### Long QT Syndrome Congenital LQTS is diagnosed in the presence of a prolonged corrected QT (QTc) interval after secondary causes (eg, QT-prolonging medications or electrolyte abnormalities) are excluded.1 The 2013 Heart Rhythm …

Parallel Lives on the Plaza

In the last two decades, many city center plazas in the Netherlands have been redeveloped to become more attractive “meeting spaces” and not merely profitable “market places.” This article analyzes the use and experience of Schouwburgplein, an urban plaza in Rotterdam, as meeting space by young Dutch women of Turkish and Moroccan descent. Our analysis reveals a paradoxical interplay between “social comfort” and “social control” in public space. To feel comfortable, the young women avoid interaction with non-befriended young men of immigrant descent and use the plaza in company of friends and family, mostly young females of immigrant descent. However, being among known and unknown youth of Turkish and Moroccan descent on the plaza also implies subjecting oneself to uncomfortable social control. Moreover, the young women of Turkish and Moroccan descent seem occupied with being part of what they consider “their” youth group and some even reveal indifference toward “others” on Schouwburgplein—resulting in “parallel lives” on the plaza.

Abstract 18895: A Novel Gene Involved in Severe Neonatal Cardiomyopathy

Cardiomyopathies (CMP) in children are heterogeneous disorders of cardiac muscle with a relatively high incidence in infancy (8/100.000) as compared to older children (0.7/100.000). Beyond infancy, CMP is the most important indication for heart transplantation and transplantation free survival at 5 years after initial diagnosis is only 54%. Mutations in over 65 genes encoding sarcomeric, cytoskeletal and calcium-metabolizing proteins, cell-signaling molecules, and mitochondrial enzymes have been shown to cause CMPs. This has led to new recommendations for diagnostic evaluation and family screening incorporating genetic testing. However, present (targeted/custom based) diagnostic tests do not represent the whole spectrum of genetic etiologies and are leading to a correct diagnosis in just a subset of pediatric CMP patients. We present four children from two consanguineous families of Dutch and Moroccan descent with severe neonatal onset of CMP, ranging from lethal cardiomegaly with reduced contractility in three to severe left ventricular hypertrophy that remained stable in one child. A combined approach using homozygosity mapping and exome sequencing in both families identified a homozygous splice site variant resulting in exon skipping in the Dutch family, and a homozygous nonsense mutation in the Moroccan family within the same gene. This novel disease causing gene is implicated in the early differentiation of cardiomyocytes. Both variants were confirmed with Sanger sequencing and absent in large control populations. Previously published studies in a knockout mouse model demonstrated the functional role of this gene in CMPs. Additionally, we investigated the effect of the homozygous splice site mutation on the expression of different proteins at myocardial cell-cell junctions and myofibrils. These results point towards a role in intercalated disk remodeling. Electron microscopy- and protein expression studies on heart tissue of the patients are ongoing. Our findings add a new autosomal recessive gene to the list of genes already implicated in pediatric CMP, underscoring its genetic heterogeneity. Furthermore, our study indicates that the application of exome sequencing can improve the diagnostic yield in pediatric CMP.

Highbrow cultural participation of Turks and Moroccans in the Netherlands: Testing an identification and social network explanation

Little is known about ethnic differences in highbrow cultural interests, because research on social differentiation in cultural participation has traditionally focused on educational or income inequalities. Employing data from the Netherlands’ Longitudinal Lifecourse Study 2010 we explored the extent to which educational attainment, national identification and social integration explain inequality in cultural participation among Turkish and Moroccan immigrants, and to what extent the effect of education was moderated by aspects of social identification and integration. Our results indicate that Turks and Moroccans, who identify more with the Netherlands and have a social network that includes larger numbers of Dutch and higher educated friends, are more active in the cultural realm. Most interestingly, we found that strong identification with Dutch society actually moderates the relationship between an immigrants’ educational attainment and their cultural participation: that is, highly educated people of Turkish and Moroccan descent, who strongly identify with the Netherlands, participated more in highbrow culture than their highly educated counterparts who identified less with the Netherlands.

Ethnolektales Codeswitching und Identitätskonstruktion: Deutschmarokkanerinnen auf Facebook

Codeswitching (CS) in computer-mediated communication (CMC) and language use of the descendants of Moroccan ‘guest-workers’ in Germany are two under-researched areas. This paper contributes to these areas by investigating the language use by female German-Moroccans on a Facebook group. The data illustrate that these female German-Moroccans use German as language of interaction and code-switch to their language of origin. CS is restricted to pragmatically delimitable constituents and codemixing does not occur in the data. It seems that the way bilinguals with Moroccan descent employ their language of origin differs from that of bilinguals with Turkish background. Bilinguals with Turkish background display a preference for codemixing. It is assumed that the ethnic/linguistic heterogeneity of the Moroccan group plays a crucial role in the choice of the language of interaction and the type of language alternation. CS has an identity-related function. In diasporic context, CS is a way by which Moroccan bilinguals construct their identities.

Do Attitudes toward School Influence the Underachievement of Turkish and Moroccan Minority Students in Flanders? The Attitude-Achievement Paradox Revisited

While many ethnic minority students underachieve compared with their ethnic majority peers, they often hold very positive school attitudes. Mickelson (1990) explained this attitude-achievement paradox by the existence of a double set of attitudes. Abstract attitudes reflect the dominant ideas about schooling, while concrete attitudes refer to a person’s perceptions of reality and originate from the educational benefits people expect to obtain on the labor market. According to Mickelson, only students’ concrete attitudes influence achievement. Applying Mickelson’s theory in Flanders, regarding students of Turkish and Moroccan descent, we could not find evidence that abstract and concrete attitudes play a role in the achievement of ethnic minority students. Qualitative research suggests that this could be due to distinct interpretations of success and ways of dealing with perceived constraints. This contrasts with ethnic majority students, who are more likely to end the school year unsuccessfully if they hold pessimistic concrete attitudes.

Collective identity factors and the attitude toward violence in defense of ethnicity or religion among Muslim youth of Turkish and Moroccan Descent

Collective deprivation, connectedness to mainstream society (friendship and psychological closeness to majority individuals) and in-group identity factors (i.e. strength of in-group identity, and perceived in-group superiority) were investigated among Muslim Dutch youth of Turkish and Moroccan descent, in relation to their attitudes toward violence in defense of religion or ethnicity, and the willingness to use such violence. Data come from a sample of students (N=398, age 14–18 years). Results show that perceptions of in-group superiority were predicted by higher connectedness to the in-group and lower connectedness to Dutch society in both ethnic groups and by collective relative deprivation among Moroccan-Dutch participants only. In both groups, attitudes toward violent in-group defense and violence willingness were predicted by perceptions of in-group superiority. Collective relative deprivation directly predicted more positive attitudes to violent in-group defense among Turkish-Dutch youth, as well as indirectly (via in-group superiority) among Moroccan-Dutch. Connectedness to the in-group directly predicted the willingness to use a violent in-group defense among the Turkish-Dutch participants and again indirectly (via in-group superiority) among Moroccan-Dutch participants. The results underline the relevance of collective identification processes to the attitudes of violent in-group defense among young Muslims of the second generation in a rather tensed socio-political climate. The study outcomes emphasize the importance of examining the dynamics between different Muslim groups, as their unique acculturation patterns yield particular pathways to the attitudes toward violent in-group defense and the willingness hereof.

Stuck with the stigma? How Muslim migrant women in the Netherlands deal – individually and collectively – with negative stereotypes

This explorative study focuses on how first- and second-generation migrant women of Turkish and Moroccan descent in the Netherlands cope with increasing stigmatization – both individually and collectively. This study applies stigma coping responses identified in the psychological literature to qualitative interviews and focus group discussions with migrant women and migrant women’s organizations. The results help to uncover the dynamic changes of responses to stigmatization over time and detect differences between individual- and collective-level strategies. Furthermore, while most studies tend to omit the importance of intersecting social markers (e.g. gender and ethnicity) when it comes to dealing with stigmatization, this study explores how women’s coping strategies might be influenced by the intersection of their generational status, age, educational level, and ethno-nationality/cultural background. The findings have important implications for both stigmatization research and for Dutch policy makers.

Adapting an effective lifestyle intervention towards individuals with low socioeconomic status of different ethnic origins: the design of the MetSLIM study.

BackgroundPeople with low socioeconomic status (SES) and some ethnic minorities are often underrepresented in lifestyle programmes. Therefore, a lifestyle programme was developed especially targeting these groups. Developing this lifestyle programme and designing an intervention study to test the effectiveness of this programme was an informative process in which several obstacles were encountered and choices had to be made. Study protocols, however, rarely describe these obstacles encountered in the protocol design process, and it is not always clear why researchers made certain choices. Therefore, the aim of this article is to describe both the final MetSLIM study protocol and the considerations and choices made in designing this study protocol.Methods/DesignThe developed MetSLIM study has a quasi-experimental design, targeting 30- to 70-year-old adults with an elevated waist circumference, living in deprived neighbourhoods, of Dutch, Turkish or Moroccan descent. The intervention group participates in a 12-month lifestyle programme consisting of individual dietary advice, four group sessions and weekly sports lessons. The control group receives written information about a healthy lifestyle and one group session provided by a dietician. The study contains an elaborate effect, process and economic evaluation. Outcome measures are, among other things, change in waist circumference and the other components of the metabolic syndrome.DiscussionMatching the preferences of the target group, such as their preferred setting, has implications for the entire study protocol. The process evaluation of the MetSLIM study will provide insight into the consequences of the choices made in the MetSLIM study protocol in terms of reach, acceptability and delivery of the programme, and the effect and economic evaluation will provide insight into the (cost)effectiveness of the lifestyle programme in order to reduce waist circumference among individuals with low SES of different ethnic origins.Trial registrationNetherlands Trial Register NTR3721 (since November 27, 2012).

Higher perceived HRQoL in Moroccan children with asthma and their parents.

We explored the differences in the perceived HRQoL between children with asthma from Moroccan and Dutch descent and their parents. In total 33 children (aged 6-18 years) from Moroccan (16) and Dutch descent (17) and their parents participated. All children were currently under treatment in a general hospital in the Netherlands. Generic and asthma specific HRQoL were assessed (DUX-25, DISABKIDS, PAQLQ). Significant differences were found on the DUX-25 subscales physical, emotional and home functioning. Children and parents from Dutch descent reported a lower HRQoL. The findings of this study are contrary with previous research. Results can be explained by the individualistic-collectivistic dimension, socially desirability, language and the feeling of miscomprehension. If this explanation makes sense health care workers have to invest in a good relationship with especially immigrant children and their parents, so they will have enough confidence to talk more openly about their physical as well as their psycho-social complaints.