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🇦🇹 Austria /Economy & Trade

Morocco is booming, yet more than a third of its young people want to move to Europe

From Die Presse · () German

Translated from German and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources Context piece
  • TangerMed has become a leading port in Africa and the Mediterranean, supporting Morocco’s industrial expansion.
  • Morocco’s economy reached $182.5 billion in 2025, while growth stood at 4.9 percent and is forecast to reach 5.2 percent in 2026.
  • Despite the country’s economic gains, the article links young Moroccans’ continued interest in Europe to limited jobs and concerns about public services, while noting that the latter reflects a European viewpoint.

Morocco’s economic transformation is visible from the coastal road outside Tangier. After about 40 kilometers of Mediterranean scenery, tall metal fences and container cranes mark the entrance to TangerMed, the port complex that has become a leader in Africa and the Mediterranean region.

The port handled 10.9 million containers last year, along with around seven million passengers, 700,000 trucks and 600,000 new cars from Renault and Stellantis factories in Morocco. King Mohammed VI inaugurated TangerMed in 2007, and the port now connects through new railways and highways to free-trade zones and a growing network of domestic and foreign industrial companies.

basic pillars of the national production structure

— Mohammed VIThe Moroccan king identified automotive, aerospace and renewable energy as central to the country’s industrial strategy.

That infrastructure forms part of Morocco’s economic shift over the past two decades. Gross domestic product rose year after year to reach $182.5 billion in 2025. Growth stood at 4.9 percent last year and is projected to reach 5.2 percent in 2026. The kingdom remains Africa’s fifth-largest economy, but it has moved ahead of South Africa to rank first on the African Development Bank’s industrialization index.

That is, of course, the European viewpoint.

— Miguel SabioThe Alvaplast Maroc director challenged the portrayal of Morocco as a country defined mainly by hardship.

The government wants Morocco to become a modern industrial nation, with automotive manufacturing, aerospace and renewable energy serving as “basic pillars of the national production structure,” King Mohammed VI said during his 27th throne anniversary in July. Yet the country’s progress sits alongside a strong desire among young Moroccans to leave for Europe. Images of tens of thousands trying to storm Ceuta on Throne Day turned the Spanish enclave, only about half an hour from TangerMed, into a symbol of that wish.

The article presents a tension between Morocco’s economic achievements and the frustrations associated with youth unemployment, poverty and weak health and education systems. Miguel Sabio, director of Spanish company Alvaplast Maroc Sarl in Tangier, called that interpretation “the European viewpoint.” He said people in Senegal and Niger see Morocco as a model and would readily like to live there.

Speak to people in Senegal or Niger, for whom Morocco is a model, and they would immediately like to live there.

— Miguel SabioHe contrasted European perceptions with views he attributed to people in other African countries.
About this summary

Originally published by Die Presse in German. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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