La vie devant nous

PëRMBLEDHJE

In the 1960s and 1970s, the French economy was booming, creating a labor shortage, and putting an end to the golden era of coal mines. The former colonial officer Félix Mora was sent to Morocco to recruit and bring back more than 80,000 men to work shutting the French mines down. For Mora, they represented a low-cost workforce, willing to accept meager salaries and dangerous working conditions. For young Moroccan men, this mission held out the promise of a better future. After the mines' closure, most of them settled in France, starting families that grew to represent more than 600,000 French citizens over two generations.