Morocco-Netherlands Migration Skill Corridor: Echoes on the Highway.

This working paper explores the current state of the Moroccan-Dutch migration skill corridor based on 27 interviews conducted with stakeholders in Morocco and the Netherlands as part of the Link4Skills project. It provides an overview of legal, political and institutional relations underlying the corridor, and summarises origins, trends and drivers of migration within the corridor. The corridor can be categorized as the post ‘guest worker’ type. It is a well-established corridor rooted in the labour movements of the 1960s and 1970s, which gave rise to stable communities and enduring relations between both countries. Today, labour migration, including skilled migration, has become marginal, which is why the corridor can hardly be called a migration ‘skill’ corridor. Although an agreement between the two countries is in place, it is dominated by return narratives and the corridor appears politically sensitive. In practice, mobility is largely shaped by migrant networks and community dynamics rather than by structured recruitment initiatives governed by the public or private sector. Current networks do not necessarily facilitate new migration; instead, negative feedback contributes to the corridor’s apparent phasing out, as Moroccans increasingly favour other destinations, and second-generation Moroccans in the Netherlands choose to return. Overall, the corridor represents a missed opportunity: renewed political attention, a more holistic approach, and positive narratives are needed to tap into the corridor’s potential for skilled migration and increase opportunities for skills development and private-sector involvement.