Career paths of Moroccan immigrants in Spain with experience in the export industry in origin. Methodological issues of research

Abstract

In recent decades a process of export-oriented industrialisation has been implemented in Morocco. Many foreign companies are starting to relocate their production to Moroccan territory, benefiting (as have other agents) from the tax advantages offered by the government. The lack of labour rights in these companies gives workers an impulse to quit and emigrate abroad. About fifty thousand Moroccan immigrants with labour experience in the industry in Morocco live in Spain. This paper summarises the methodological decisions taken in a doctoral thesis which aimed to study the working and migratory careers of the Moroccan population in Spain who previously worked in the export industry of their country. Throughout the article, questions are answered about research design, data collection techniques, the field work that was carried out or the analytical and synthetic processing of information. For example, the commitment to methodological complementation as a model for gathering data, the conducting of fifty eight in-depth interviews (both in Spain and in Morocco), the preparation and use of the microdata of the National Immigrant Survey in 2007 or the use of grounded theory as a model of analysis.