Labour market performance and migration flows - European ...

Chapter IFinal ReportSource: Adams (2006)If we take the extreme case of Morocco, around a third of Moroccan migrants in the EU do nothave any formal qualification, and another third only a primary education certificate. But there areimportant differences across countries of residence. The most critical situation is that of Spain andItaly, countries of recent Moroccan immigration. In Spain, around half the Moroccan immigrants haveno formal qualification; in Italy, this percentage is 43.6%. However, in the case of Morocco there isevidence of inter-generational progress among Maghreb immigrants in Europe (see NationalBackground Paper, Jaidi 2009, pp. 73-75).Reasons for MigrationEvidence from the region confirms the common sense intuition pointing to employment prospects asthe main driver of migration, although wages and living conditions tend to play a greater role thanunemployment as such. A field survey was carried out by the Egyptian Ministry of Manpower andEmigration to determine the push factors in Egypt as identified by current and potential migrants. Theresults of this survey indicate that push factors in Egypt are overwhelmingly economic. Egyptianyouth regard migration – legal or illegal – as a possible way to escape poverty and unemployment.With respect to the reason for migration, the study indicates that the main reasons behind migrationare the low wages and salaries in Egypt compared to Europe, bad living conditions and the lack of jobopportunities in Egypt, especially among new graduates. An important factor that plays a major role instimulating migration streams to Europe is the wealth of successful migrants and return migrants.Remittances of Egyptian migrants who work in European countries are important factors that stimulatea continuous stream of migration. Potential migrants claim that the “savings of one-year work inEurope is more than a lifetime salary in Egypt”. The current stream of Egyptian irregular migration toEurope started on the eve of the 21 st century with massive number of newly-graduated and poorlyeducatedunemployed youth engaged in irregular migration to Europe either across the MediterraneanSea via Libya or by over staying on tourist Schengen visas. Zohry (2008) argues that the main reasonsbehind this new type of migration are not related to the tightened policy adopted by the EuropeanUnion, but instead to: (i) unemployment: the increasing severity of unemployment is one of the mainpush factors that stimulate a strong irregular migration stream to Europe; (ii) associated withunemployment is the difficulty for Egyptian youth to find employment opportunities in the Arab Gulfcountries due to the competition they face there from the cheap South East Asian labour now arrivingin massive numbers; and (iii) geographical proximity and the ease of travelling to Libya where most ofthe migrant boats to Europe set-off.Another survey carried out in Morocco shows that reasons stated for migration are predominantly(between 2/3 and 3/4) related to work and wages (National Background Paper, Jaidi 2009, pp. 79-81).In any case, the National Background Papers show that the main push factor for migration is notunemployment as such, but rather the large (and in most cases growing, see Section 2.3) wage andincome differentials. So wage differentials, not unemployment as such, are the main drivers ofmigration. This seems to be confirmed by the fact that, in Lebanon, a significant majority of those whodeparted were people aged between 25 and 29 who were in employment when they made the decisionto leave the country.In Algeria, the survey carried out by Hammouda (2008) does not relate directly to this issue, butnonetheless gives us an insight into how young people represent migration and how they project theirfuture through it. It demonstrates that unemployment and the lack of employment prospects are not themain reason given by young people. The results suggest that the propensity to migrate depends, in thefirst place, on belonging to a migration basin (agglomeration effect), sex (men are more inclined tomigrate than women), instruction level (the more educated a person, the more he or she wishes tomigrate) and living conditions. For Hammouda, the high cost of migration explains why it attractsmainly graduate workers, and why the unemployed are excluded. However, the most original result of61