The literature review chapter looked at examples of findings belonging to both Moroccan and western scholars, most of whom situate their inquiry into migration dynamics in economic and historical frameworks, thereby downplaying the symbolic dimensions of migration.  I argued in the literature review chapter that epistemological inadequacies inherent in analyses in migration studies are due to economically deterministic methodological approaches and—especially in the case of Moroccan scholars—to an underestimation of an historical shift in migration history between the pre-dissemination and post-dissemination of western media texts in Morocco.  

Transfer
The transfer process was very useful indeed as it helped me focus my ideas.

Fieldwork
Doing field work in Morocco was very exciting. I spent a good four months in and out of the Atlas Mountains and Casablanca interviewing young Moroccans from different socio-cultural strata.  Part of the fieldwork was doing ethnography in queues outside western embassies in Casablanca. 

In order to understand the relationship between emigration as a social phenomenon in Morocco and Moroccan popular culture, I chose to examine non-institutional public spaces within Moroccan popular culture that are untainted and uninfluenced by the voices of the centre or the ruling culture in Moroccan society.  I thus examined Moroccan popular cultural spaces such as jokes, progressive music and also talk of and about emigration as it unfolded outside western embassies in Casablanca and other public places. Entrée to the queue was open. To use Goffman's terminology, it was a 'front stage' and not a 'backstage' human setting (see Jorgensen, 1989: 43). As such queues outside western embassies in Casablanca were open for me to enter as a 'queuer', my identity as a researcher unknown to the rest of the queuers.

In total I have queued outside four western embassies in Casablanca, which I joined at different times during the day and at night over a period of five weeks.  I did participant observation outside the American Embassy, the French Embassy, the Italian Embassy and The Belgian Embassy.  When I started queuing outside these embassies my main object was to make note of talk about emigration as it unfolded in the queue. 

As I entered the world of the queue as a human setting and after spending long periods queuing outside different western embassies, it became clear to me that talk was only one element of what I now believe to be a complex structure and a very much taken for granted everyday popular cultural space.  As I queued for longer hours, I learnt more about the queue, the queuers and queuing.

I then became interested in the relationship between the queue and the queuers, the queuers and their encounter with the 'other', (the French, the American, the Italian'), the queuers and their intermediaries, and the people who made careers out of the queue such as the information-men.  All these elements later became as important as the talk that unfolded in the queue. 

After spending many days and nights queuing outside western embassies, it became apparent to me that the queue encompassed two structure-systems or two worlds: the world of the queue as a western colonial imposition and the world of the queuers who displayed cultural particularities, which were inherently Moroccan.  The world of the queuers also reflected the stratification of Moroccan society.

Writing
Thank God for the British Library, deadlines and espressos! My director of studies had a very good approach when it came to writing up.  He would ask me to write a chapter, give me feedback and then ask me to move on to the next chapter without having to make changes.  I was able to produce a draft for my whole PhD within six months.  But mind you, the espressos were so strong; my fingers were moving quicker than my thinking!!!!  


Support
Being a PhD student at Westminster was a wonderful and intellectually stimulating experience.  The support from senior members of staff and other PhD students was invaluable.  As a PhD student, I was involved in a number of intellectual activities, including the CAMRI book club and work on the PhD journal.

 I was also able to take part in the CAMRI seminars and present my work regularly in symposia and seminars organised by the school. I was also lucky to teach with a number of prominent scholars from CAMRI including Paddy Scannell and Colin Sparks.  This has helped me gain a lot of experience in teaching.

CAMRI also invited me to present my work in international conferences and has supported me to present my work in different countries, including China, Holland, Spain, Turkey, Estonia, France and others.

As a PhD student I was responsible for applying for the funding and later organizing the CAMRI Arab Media Seminar Series, which was funded by ESRC. The series included six seminars, running over a period of two years (2003-2005). The series aimed to involve scholars, media professionals, governmental and non-governmental agencies in discussing the nature and implications of the new broadcasting framework in the Arab world.  They seek to examine the conditions that allow broadcasters in the Arab world to function and the ways in which they are financed and run. 

Organising the series helped me develop an invaluable network of scholars from around the world who specialise in the topic of Arab media, and acquire a very good and critical understanding of the topic. 

What you would suggest to a new PhD student...
Just do it...and listen to your supervisor. They know best!


Abstract of the Thesis:
Exploring symbolic dimensions of emigration: communication, mental and physical emigrations
The Ph.D. thesis explores symbolic dimensions of emigration by investigating the relationship between young Magrebis' long-term consumption of western media texts, other communicative channels included, and their mental and physical emigrations to the West. 

Using empirical evidence from fieldwork conducted in Morocco between 2000-2002 involving: twelve focus groups, unstructured interviews, participant observation and a social survey that targeted 1000 young Moroccans from different social strata, the thesis contends that young Moroccans are able to emigrate mentally to the West inside Morocco through their long-term consumption of western media texts and thereby expanding the mental geography of the West and its project of modernity.

The thesis argues that the non-fixed problematic nature of the mental trajectory's symbolic points of reference, together with young Moroccans' contradictory structures of 'feeling' about their culture and western modernity, makes the mental migratory trajectory from Islam to western modernity incomplete. It also argues, using ethnographic research, that mental emigration does not take place from Islam to western modernity per se, but from specific characteristics inherent in the 'documentary' of Islam to those inherent in the 'documentary' of western modernity. 

Moreover, without wanting to suggest that the influence of communications alone leads to young Moroccans desire to emigrate physically to the West, research has been used to show nevertheless that it is interplay between push and pull migratory factors and long-term exposure to the media that creates this desire.

To comprehend the dynamics of postcolonial consciousness, the thesis argues, it is imperative that we explore, not only the ways in which imperialism has altered the 'ordinariness' of culture in the periphery (in this case Morocco as a microcosm of the Maghreb), but also the many ways in which it has altered the 'structures of feeling' of the postcolonial subject.


Publications and Papers
(forthcoming) Media and Modernity in the Arab and Islamic World, London: IB Tauris
(2007) ‘In search of the Present Arab Cultural Tense’ in Sakr, N., Arab Media and Political Renewal: Community, Legitimacy and Public Life, pp.154-168, London: IB Tauris
(2005) 'The Day Moroccans gave up Couscous for Satellite: Global TV, Structures of Feeling and Mental Emigration' (forthcoming), in the Journal of Transnational Broadcasting Studies in the Arab and Islamic World, Vol 1(1)
(2005) 'What is Global about Arab Media?' in the Journal of Global Media and Communication, Vol 1, Issue 1 pp: 42-49
(2005) 'Emigration as Popular Culture: The case of Morocco', in the Journal of European Cultural Studies Vol: 8 (1) pp: 5-22.
(2004) 'Young Amazighs, Migration and Pamela Anderson as the Embodiment of Modernity' in Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture, Vol: 1 Issue 1 pp: 38-52
(ed.) 'Media and Migration', Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture, Vol 1 (1)


Current Job
Senior lecturer in Media and Communication, School of Media, Arts and Design, University of Westminster. As a CAMRI member, I am also editor of the newly launched Journal, Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture, which is published by the Communication and Media Research Institute at the University of Westminster. It is a peer-reviewed Journal; the main goal of which is to help develop a de-westernised and trans-cultural sphere that engages young and established scholars from different parts of the world in a critical debate about the relationship between communication, culture and society in the twenty-first century. The first and second issues of WPCC can be found at: http://www.wmin.ac.uk/mad/page-880


Contact details
Communication and Media Research Institute
University of Westminster
Watford Road, Northwick Park
HA1 3TP, Harrow, Middlesex
E-mail:sabryt@wmin.ac.uk