Editing Melilla (section)

=== Trans-border relations ===
Melilla forms a sort of trans-border urban conurbation with limited integration together with the neighbouring Moroccan settlements, located at one of the ends of a linear succession of [[urban sprawl]] spanning southward in Morocco along the [[National Route 19 (Morocco)|R19]] road from [[Beni Ensar]] down to [[Nador]] and [[Selouane]].{{Sfn|Ponce Herrero|Martí Ciriquián|2019|p=115}} The urban system features a high degree of hierarchization, specialization and [[division of labour]], with Melilla as chief provider of services, finance and trade; Nador as an eminently industrial city whereas the rest of Moroccan settlements found themselves in a subordinate role, presenting [[agro-town]] features and operating as providers of workforce.{{Sfn|Ponce Herrero|Martí Ciriquián|2019|p=115}}

The asymmetry, as reflected for example in the provision of healthcare, has fostered situations such as the large-scale use of the Melillan health services by Moroccan citizens, with Melilla attending a number of urgencies more than four times the standard for its population in 2018.{{Sfn|Ponce Herrero|Martí Ciriquián|2019|p=116}} In order to satisfy the workforce needs of Melilla (mainly in areas such as [[domestic service]], construction and cross-border bale workers, often under informal contracts), Moroccan inhabitants of the [[province of Nador]] were granted exemptions from visa requirements to enter the autonomous city.{{Sfn|Ponce Herrero|Martí Ciriquián|2019|p=109}} This development in turn induced a strong flux of [[internal migration]] from other Moroccan provinces to Nador, in order to acquire the aforementioned exemption.{{Sfn|Ponce Herrero|Martí Ciriquián|2019|p=109}}

The 'fluid' trans-border relations between Melilla and its surroundings are however not free from conflict, as they are contingent upon the [[Morocco–Spain relations|'tense' trans-national relations between Morocco and Spain]].{{Sfn|Ponce Herrero|Martí Ciriquián|2019|p=118}}