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Egypt Emigration
The 1986 census estimated that 2.25 million Egyptian
nationals were working outside the country. Only small numbers of
Egyptians, primarily professionals, had left the country in
search of employment before 1974. Then, in that year, the
government lifted all restrictions on labor migration. The move
came at a time when oil-rich Arab states of the Persian Gulf and
neighboring Libya were implementing major development programs
with funds generated by the quadrupling of oil revenues in 1973.
By 1975 an estimated 500,000 Egyptians, mostly single, unskilled
men, were working on construction sites in Libya, Saudi Arabia,
Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates. At least 50,000 others were
employed elsewhere in the Middle East. By 1980 more than 1
million Egyptians were working abroad. That number doubled by
1982. The emergence of foreign job opportunities alleviated some
of the pressure on domestic employment. Many of these workers
sent a significant portion of their earnings to their families in
Egypt. As early as 1979, these remittances amounted to US$2
billion, a sum equivalent to the country's combined earnings from
cotton exports, Suez Canal transit fees, and tourism
(see Remittances
, ch. 3).
The foreign demand for Egyptian labor peaked in 1983, at
which time an estimated 3.28 million Egyptians workers were
employed abroad. After that year, political and economic
developments in the Arab oil-producing countries caused a
retrenchment in employment opportunities. The Iran-Iraq War
decline in oil prices forced the Persian Gulf oil industry into a
recession, which caused many Egyptians to lose their jobs. Up to
1 million workers returned home. Most of the expatriate workforce
remained abroad but new labor migration from Egypt slowed
considerably. In late 1989, the number of Egyptian workers abroad
still exceeded 2.2 million.
The majority of Egyptian labor migrants expected to return
home eventually, but thousands left their country each year with
the intention of permanently resettling in various Arab
countries, Europe, or North America. These emigrants tended to be
highly educated professionals, mostly doctors, engineers, and
teachers. Their departure caused a serious "brain drain" for
Egypt. Iraq and, to a lesser extent, Kuwait were the Arab
countries most likely to accept skilled Egyptians as permanent
residents. Iraq, which sought agriculturists trained in
irrigation techniques, encouraged Egyptian farmers to move to the
sparsely populated but fertile lands in the south. Outside of the
Arab countries, the United States was a preferred destination.
Between 1970 and 1985, about 45,000 Egyptians immigrated to the
United States.
In 1989 there were several thousand Americans, Europeans, and
other non-Arabs in Egypt working on projects sponsored by foreign
governments, international agencies, and private charitable
groups. The United States stationed more than 2,000 diplomatic
personnel in the country. The majority of these personnel worked
for the United States Agency for International Development (AID),
which managed the largest of the many economic aid programs in
Egypt. Projects financed by AID during the 1980s included
irrigation networks, rural sanitation systems, pest control,
family planning, and communications development.
Since 1948 Egypt has been a haven for Arab refugees and
political dissidents. The number of exiles has fluctuated in
response to political developments in other Arab countries and to
Egypt's relations with the different regimes. In 1989 Egypt was
host to several thousand Palestinian refugees and hundreds of
exiles from Libya, Sudan, and various countries of the Arabian
Peninsula, especially the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) and
the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen). Egyptian
accusations that Libya had sponsored terrorist acts against
Libyan exiles in Egypt fueled tension between the two countries
in the late 1970s and 1980s.
Data as of December 1990
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