The Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS) – UM6P hosted the end-of-residency conference of Dr. Montassir Sakhi, marking the conclusion of a year-long research residency devoted to migration, borders, and decolonial thought.

Entitled Decolonizing Knowledge: Toward a Moroccan Sociology of Emigration and Immigration, the conference was held at Salle Laâyoune, Riad Center (SHBM). In his lecture, Dr. Sakhi critically examined the enduring dominance of Northern paradigms in the social sciences and argued for the production of sociological knowledge from the Global South—knowledge capable of exposing the epistemic power structures that shape how migration is studied and understood.

Drawing on the sociology of emigration, Dr. Sakhi proposed a decolonial approach attentive to lived experience and to the social and symbolic dimensions of departure, ghorba (exile), mourning, and unequal recognition. His work calls for a situated and emancipatory sociology that takes seriously the voices and realities of those most affected by migration policies and border regimes.

The conference also revisited key findings from Dr. Sakhi’s fieldwork conducted in Morocco and Tunisia over the past year. His analyses focused on four major themes: borders as colonial dispositifs producing disappearance and selective mobility of skilled labor; the struggles and commemorative practices of families of the disappeared; imaginaries of the West and the dynamics of so-called “brain drain”; and the persistence of racism in transit countries. Together, these perspectives invite a rethinking of public policy and knowledge production from a Southern standpoint.

This closing conference highlighted the depth and human dimension of Dr. Sakhi’s research and opened new perspectives on migration, decoloniality, and border dynamics. The IAS warmly thanks Dr. Montassir Sakhi for his rigorous and deeply engaged work.

The book resulting from this research will be published in Mar 2026 by UM6P Press, extending this critical reflection on North–South relations and the decolonization of knowledge.