fugees from Spain settled in the coast-towns. According to the European Journal of Human Genetics, Moroccans from North-Western Africa were genetically closer to Iberians than to Black Sub-Saharan Africans and Middle Easterners.[not in citation given]
The largest concentration of Moroccan migrants outside Morocco is in France, which has reportedly over one million Moroccans of up to the third generation. The Netherlands hosts about 360,000 Moroccans and Belgium hosts about 300,000 Moroccans. There are also large Moroccan communities in Spain (about 700,000 Moroccans), the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Israel and the United States. Moroccan (Berber) Jews are thought to constitute the second biggest Jewish ethnic subgroup in Israel.
Most people live west of the Atlas Mountains and north of the Rif Mountains, two mountain ranges that insulate the country from the Sahara Desert. Casablanca is the major center of commerce and industry and the leading port. Rabat is the seat of government; Tangier is the gateway to Morocco from Spain and also a major port. Fes is the cultural and religious center of Arab-Muslim culture in Morocco. Agadir, Nador, and Al Hoceima are the major Berber cultural centers, in addition to their economic importance. Marrakesh is the top touristic city of the country and an international celebrity magnet.
There is a European professional expatriate and retiree population of about 60,000 especially in Casablanca and Marrakesh. They are mainly of French or Spanish descent. Many of them are teachers, technicians, international managers, in addition to the retirees.
In Morocco, there are an estimated 15 to 18 million Berber speakers, making up about 50% to 65% of the population. The dubious 2004 population census, conducted by the government, says that only 28.07% of the total population actually speak Berber.
Berber intellectuals and activists who dispute this figure cite various counter-arguments such as the lack of linguistic training of the census officers, lack of accurate linguistic census planning, absence of interest by the government in mother-tongue census and its focus on counting how many people speak French, and the difficulty or inability of census officers to distinguish between people who happen to master Moroccan Arabic as a second language and those who actually speak it as a mother tongue.
On the other hand, it is generally accepted that the numbers of Berber speakers in Morocco was, and possibly still is, on a sharp decline due to the anti-Berber government's policies in education and media the deprived Berber from development and flourishing in urban areas. These anti-Berber policies came to an end in 2011 after the February 20th popular protests that lead to, among many other things, the recognition of Berber as an official language of the country. Moreover, in the 20th century, mass migrations of Berber speakers occurred from the countryside to the cities where French and Arabic dominate and where Berber is not integrated in the economic and governmental institutions, forcing those migrants to learn another language and teach it to their children, who in turn would grow up in a city that doesn't speak Berber or doesn't encourage it.
Morocco's official languages are Arabic and the Berber. The country's distinctive group of Moroccan Arabic dialects is referred to as Darija. Approximately 89.84% of the whole population can communicate to some degree in Moroccan Arabic. The Berber language is spoken in three dialects (Tarifit, Tashelhit and Central Atlas Tamazight).
As it is in Algeria and Tunisia, the French language is widely used in governmental institutions, media, mid-size and large companies, international commerce with French speaking countries, and often in international diplomacy. French is taught as an obligatory language at all schools. It is the medium of education and the curriculum language of all science and economics programs at all universities except in the programs of Arabic language, law or theology. Al Akhawayn University is the only one that offers all programs in Engl