betweenness definition
betweenness. Identification of the self with a bounded entity, whether – depending on the context – it was Morocco, the North (the former Spanish territory) or the town of L´araish, was only one of the rhetorical forms to construct community used by the sha´b. Along with the notion of a geographically located community, there existed another central process to construct collective group identity among the sha´b. What did men like ´Uthman in fact mean when they described migrants' unwillingness to invest their money in Morocco in terms of "lack of trust"? What did they mean by saying "people make the mistake of not settling in Spain"? The young men understood L´araish, on the one hand as the ideal, moral community of the past but at present it did not offer satisfactory social membership. These men understood that migration offered a personal opportunity for the future but it was known to every one that acquiring social membership in Europe was an extremely difficult process. By "narratives of betweenness" these young men sought to make these ambiguities comprehensible. Through this process they simultaneously engaged in constructing the collective "us", the "us" which was not obviously located anywhere. The idea of liminality in young men's discourse was conceptualised with the notion of ghurba. The notion literally means "place of exile" but in sha´bī men's practical usage it also pointed to a state of "alienation" or "being a stranger to one's concrete social surrounding", which was emerging anywhere – in Morocco or in a foreign country. Association between self and ghurba was established through experiences with corrupt bureaucrats in Morocco, interpretations of official negligence towards the social and physical environment in L´araish and stories concerning racism and discrimination towards Moroccans in Europe. Let us return in more detail to the narratives of the ideal community. It should be clear by now that in L´araish as in various other localities in Morocco international migration and political processes aiming at controlling mobility, structured the lives of various categories of people – not only migrants and returning migrants but also the people still residing in the town. As the circumstances of the individuals in this study indicate, mobility which extends national borders and engagement in life far beyond the geographical borders of L´araish was for many in the setting at least a potential course for the future. Rachid is an apt illustration of this:...