Oujda, flanked by the Algerian border and the Mediterranean Sea, is Morocco’s potential gateway to the East. Geographically cut off from the rest of Morocco, separated by a five-hour train ride from the nearest major city of Fes, Oujda should be developing its trade with Algerian border cities. But since the 1994 border closing, the Eastern region has been forced to deploy other strategies to develop its economy, buoyed largely by public spending to the tune of $40.8 million. Currently, there are plans to develop strategic infrastructure projects that aim to facilitate economic growth and the spread of ideas. With no formal trade with its Algerian neighbors and an only insignificant black market trade, the Eastern region has earned the sobriquet of the Maghreb’s Strasbourg, modeled after the interesting positioning of its Franco-German counterpart. In some ways Oujda remains a small case study on the larger questions of social and
