Labour market performance and migration flows - European ...

Chapter IIThe impact of migration on labour markets in Arab Mediterranean countriesin shaping the impact of migration upon the countries of origin. This also means that the empiricalrelevance of the various potential channels of impact which have been highlighted in the previoussections are likely to differ across the Maghred-Mashreq divide. Still, Fargues (2007c) argues thatthere are a number of exceptions to this “rule”: for example, there are more temporary Egyptianmigrants in Italy, and more permanent migrants in the Arab Peninsula. The main differencebetween the destinations is not in the length of stay, but in the legislation on citizenship issues,which is very restrictive in the Gulf countries. Table 5.4 shows that the majority of regularimmigrants in OECD countries have acquired the citizenship of the host countries. Needless to say,this can have far-reaching consequences upon the labour markets of origin countries, as itinfluences the likelihood of a return, as well as remitting behaviour.Table 5.4. Distribution of migrants to selected OECD countries by citizenship status(percentages)Country of origin National ForeignerAlgeria 65.0 35.0Egypt 66.9 33.1Jordan 63.3 36.7Lebanon 79.5 20.5Morocco 37.9 62.1Palestine 77.2 22.8Syria 67.8 32.2Tunisia 61.0 39.0Note: data refer to: Australia, Canada, Italy, France, Spain, Sweden, United States.Source: Dumont (2006)Migrants from AMCs are predominantly male, although migration flows from Maghreb countrieshave recorded increasing numbers of women and children (Schramm, 2009), as the demand forjobs traditionally performed by women is on the rise in OECD countries, and because of familyreunification provisions. 83Supply side of the labour market6. Labour force - endowments6.1 Actual migration and labour forceActual migration can alleviate the pressure on the labour market provided that the rate of emigration ishigh enough compared to other demographic factors. This occurs in the small countries of theMashreq: Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine, where the number of nationals abroad as a share of the origincountry population is very high, a fact recalled in Section 5.83 Evans and Papps (1999), quoted in Al Ali (2004), argue that about one third of Arab migrants abroad are living with theirfamilies, while this is certainly not the case for the majority of the migrants moving towards the Gulf, where permanentmigration is not allowed, so there are limited provisions for the reunification of migrant families.127