Ethnicity, Citizenship, and the Migration-Development Nexus: The Case of Moroccan Migrants in Spain's North African Exclaves

In this paper, I conduct a paired comparative analysis of the Moroccan migrant communities in two Spanish cities, Ceuta and Melilla, to examine how migrants' sub-national ethnic heritage influences their relationships with their host country and country of origin. Conducting an ecological inferential analysis of citizenship rates, I find evidence that ethnic heritage, Arab in Ceuta and Amazigh in Melilla, affects whether Moroccan migrants become Spanish citizens. As a result, I posit that ethnic heritage has the potential to affect migrants' relationships with their host and origin countries, as well as their transnational behaviour and participation in the migration-development nexus.