Strong Return of Moroccan Expatriates: Great Opportunities in Their Home Country

Charlotte Lefort: Strong Return of Moroccan Expatriates, Great Opportunities in Their Home Country.

More and more young French graduates are tempted to leave France to work in Morocco. ReKrute receives 300 to 350 resumes per month. Charlotte Lefort explains the reasons for this enthusiasm.

1. ALM: In your opinion, what explains this enthusiasm for the Kingdom?
Charlotte Lefort: The difficult economic situation in France is certainly partly responsible for the acceleration of this movement. But whatever the case, the attachment to the country is very strong and the desire to return to Morocco is always present. Unfortunately, the obstacle is often due to the financial gap between French and Moroccan packages. But this is increasingly changing. Another thing to note, Morocco presents great opportunities and is booming, and Moroccan expatriates are motivated to bring their expertise and know-how and thus participate in its development.

2. You currently have 30,000 Moroccans residing in France, are these figures increasing compared to previous years?
Indeed, this figure has been increasing for about 2 years, we receive 300 to 350 CVs per month. This trend clearly reflects the strong desire of Moroccans to return to their country and help in its development.

3. What role does ReKrute play in this phenomenon?
ReKrute is very active among the population of Moroccan executives and young graduates, to actively participate in the return of the Moroccan diaspora. Through our affiliation with the Network (Association of leading employment portals worldwide), we have a presence in 133 countries, representing an extraordinary window on Morocco for Moroccans worldwide. On the other hand, we have established partnerships with the largest associations of Moroccans abroad such as AMGE (Association of Moroccans from Grandes Ecoles), AMPA (Association of Moroccans of America), Maroc Entrepreneurs (association bringing together Moroccans wishing to create businesses in Morocco). Thus, we manage to identify the most advanced profiles to work for the economic development of the Kingdom. Finally, we also attract these Moroccan brains through communication campaigns in these countries on the media but also on the web.

4. Can we have an idea of the profiles of the candidates (diplomas, professional experience) and the opportunities offered in Morocco?
If we analyze the profile of these candidates interested in Morocco, we observe two main categories: young people who return quite quickly after their diploma, highly sought after thanks to their quality training and a little experience abroad. They represent a part of the company's potential (18% between 0 and 3 years of experience) on the one hand. On the other hand, and in a larger proportion (82%), these are executives and senior executives, highly qualified (62% have a Bac +4 and above level) who return with know-how that does not exist in Morocco, they have confirmed experience that makes them true experts. They will hold management and managerial positions with a view to deploying this know-how and improving the skills of their teams on expertise that is still rare or new in Morocco and will be able to bring this added value to Moroccan companies.
The preferred positions of these professionals attracted to Morocco are often very different from those sought by people residing in Morocco: we thus see functions such as project management, studies, production-quality-maintenance, purchasing, which are very specific.

Your final word...
As stated in a Price Waterhouse study recently quoted by the minister in charge of Moroccans residing abroad Abdellatif Maâzouz: the scarcity of skills is the 2nd threat cited by business leaders in 2012 (for 58% of them). The combination of skills in Morocco and abroad can only be very beneficial for the Moroccan economy and ReKrute is proud to play an active role in it!

Laila Zerrour

Aujourd'hui le Maroc

Published February 5, 2013

Posted online February 28, 2013