Labour market performance and migration flows - European ...

Chapter IFinal Reportin the destination countries. Contemporary migrants to Europe are predominantly low-skilled maleswho suffer poverty and unemployment to the extent that one may call this new stream of migration a“migration of the poor” (see Zohry 2008). Examining the educational level of permanent Egyptianemigrants a very interesting pattern of emigration by education emerges, even though these figuresrefer to permanent migrants only. First, 96% of all highly-skilled Egyptian migrant workers reside inArab countries and only 2% reside in European countries. At the same time, the majority of Egyptianworkers in Arab Countries, 71% of all Egyptian workers, have intermediate education or below.The difference is striking too in the case of Lebanon. Thus, 46% of all migrants are in the US,Canada and Australia; 19% in Europe; 9% in other southern countries and 27% in the Gulf countries,and 45% of emigration from Lebanon is highly skilled. Most Lebanese migrants go to the Arab Gulfcountries, where job opportunities for skilled multi-lingual individuals have grown quickly in the pastdecade. The US, Australia and Canada follow as top destinations, capturing respectively 19, 15 and12% of Lebanese migrants. These countries, together with Syria, absorb 80% of Lebanese labourmigration. Migrants to EU countries have a somewhat smaller share, not exceeding 15% of totalLebanese migrants abroad.Overall, only 15% of Jordan-born OECD workers reside in European Union countries. In absoluteterms, this represents 5,523 workers which is a very small number when compared to the number ofEU-based workers born in Morocco (655,716 workers 19 ), Algeria (522,545 workers) or even Egypt(63,683 workers). 20In short, it can be stated that, in general terms, the main destination countries for skilled migrantsfrom the AMC countries are the US, Canada and the Gulf countries, where the skill premium isrelatively high. The wide difference between AMCs and European incomes might be a pull factor forAMC emigration to Europe, yet when compared to average incomes in the Arab Gulf region; Europebecomes less attractive as a destination.Circular and Temporary MigrationAs stated above, in contrast to other AMCs, Egypt provides a unique case where the vast majority ofmigrants tend to be temporary. This is due to a large extent to the Gulf Countries’ policy of notallowing the settlement of labour immigrants. The risk of this pattern is a higher degree ofvulnerability to economic crisis in hosting countries, such as the one that has hit Gulf countries in thelast few months. Indeed, emigration to the Gulf States tends to be affected by oil prices and politicalconditions in the region. The period 1992-1997 witnessed an upward trend in Egyptian emigrationafter a slowdown as a result of the Gulf war in 1991. The period 1998-2000 witnessed anotherdownward trend due to the slowdown in the world economy as a consequence of the collapse of theEast Asian financial markets in 1997. However, by 2005-07 estimates show a bounce back. The 2008global financial crisis is already causing a return flow of migrant workers from Gulf countries, mainlyto Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon (see section 2.7).As Fargues points out (2009, pp. 28-31), many other forms of circular migration are common in andamong AMCs, including Syrian workers in Lebanon, Egyptian farmers in Jordan and in Libya. Indeed,circular and temporary migration tend to play an important role in the framework of legal migrationschemes, in particular to the EU. Both EU countries and AMCs are showing a growing interest in thiskind of arrangements, and a series of bilateral agreements have been signed in the last few years toorganize flows between Spain and Morocco 21 , France and Tunisia 22 and Italy and Egypt (signed back in19 Germany has been excluded from this figure for purposes of comparability, though the number of Morocco-born workers in Germany is available from DIOC.20 OECD Database on Immigrants in OECD Countries.21 Agreement signed in 2006 between the Spanish Cartaya City Council and the Moroccan ANAPEC (Agence Nationale de Promotion de l’Emploi et des Comptences) and implementedwith the support of the Aeneas Programme by which the latter recruits on behalf of the former a yearly number of female workers (13,600 in 2008) for the harvest of strawberries in Huelva,63