Samenvatting

In our research project ‘Living on the Other Side’, we aim to understand how (ir)regular migrants from the Middle East and West/Central Africa deal with the legal and formal aspect of their lives in Morocco by focusing on major life events, such as marriage, divorce, birth and death. Life does not simply stand still when residing in a foreign country – people continue to marry, divorce, have children and die. However, there is little empirical knowledge on what migrants actually do when faced with such events. Registering major life events secures a migrant’s legal identity and protects their human rights. Having a legal identity, most likely, influences the daily lives of migrants. A migrant, who does not formally exist in the eyes of the state, might not be able to access basic services, like health care and education. From a legal pluralist perspective, we aim to investigate how migration and family law intersect by conducting online and offline ethnographic fieldwork.