The Politics of Demography in Tunisia

• Tunisian officials and political figures are framing declining marriage rates and increasing divorce as a "national crisis," directly linking these demographic shifts to fears of population replacement.
• The state is promoting racial purity as synonymous with national sovereignty, targeting black sub-Saharan migrants while pressuring Tunisian women to prioritize childbearing.
• Women's bodily autonomy is being compromised: Tunisian women face coercion to bear children, while black migrant women face calls for forced contraception and systemic denial of medical care.

The Politics of Demographic Anxiety

• Minister of Family, Women, Children and the Elderly, Asma Jabri, blames falling fertility on a lack of "positive communication" in marriages, ignoring underlying economic factors like inflation and unemployment.
• President Kais Saied has promoted the conspiracy theory that black migration is a "criminal arrangement" intended to alter Tunisia's demographic makeup, despite the migrant population remaining under 50,000.

Control Over Reproductive Rights

• Some parliamentarians, such as Fatima el-Masdi, have called for "radical solutions" for migrant women that mirror historical eugenics policies, including forced birth control.
• Reproductive services for Tunisian women, such as abortion and contraception access established in 1973, are under constant political pressure from conservative factions seeking to criminalize these options.
• Migrant women frequently face racial discrimination and deportation fears when accessing healthcare, forcing many to give birth in informal camps without medical support.

Redefining Sovereignty and Resistance

• The revolutionary demand for "dignity" from 2011 has been co-opted by the governing elite to mean the preservation of an ethnically Arab-Muslim, racially pure state.
• Anti-racism activists, exemplified by the "kulna muhajirun" ("we are all migrants") movement on June 20, 2026, argue that the state's restrictive border and body-control policies harm both migrants and Tunisians, serving as a new platform for democratic struggle.