Hailey Kurth

900194555

Econ 4051

Dr Mona Said

16 March 2022

Regional Migration

Migration is a critical aspect of the geopolitical economy and has been for the past fifty
years. The MENA region has continued to see some of the highest rights of regional migration in
the world. In an increasingly globalized world this conversation continues to gain importance,
and regional migration has increased the interconnectedness of the economies in the MENA
region. Based on my understanding of the literature, I believe migration can be used as a
legitimate approach to help alleviate some of the region’s dilemmas, such as poverty and the
increasing demand for labor.

In my opinion, the most important positive impact regional migration has had is the
ability it has given poor/unskilled workers to provide their families with better living conditions.
Workers from rural areas in Egypt had the opportunity to “earn thirty times more money working
on at a Saudi construction site,” without the need for skills or higher education (Alan, 1990). The
emigration of poor and unskilled workers created an increase in wages in the agricultural sector
among others and simultaneously reduced unemployment and poverty in rural areas. The
workers who emigrated then sent money back to their families, remittances, which raised their
overall living standard. Many families use the remittances they receive on housing, as one survey
found “more than one-fifth of remittances [in Egypt] were so used […] parallel patterns have
been found in Turkey, Tunisia, and Morocco” (Alan, 1990). These families’ abilities to meet
their basic human needs can be seen as a catalyst to improved health conditions and education,
especially for women.

Remittances are an important aspect of GDP and economic growth in the MENA region.
In 2001, Morocco, Egypt, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, and Yemen were in the top fifteen of
countries that received the highest number of remittances with the lowest being 1.5 billion
dollars. Regarding proportion of GDP, Morocco has the lowest proportion with 10 percent of
GDP which is still “a massive contributor to the national economy” (Edwards, 2005). The
numbers clearly show that remittances are a crucial aspect to the economies, and people, of
countries with high levels of emigration. For example, in Morocco, emigration and remittances
“lifted 1.2 million Moroccans out of poverty in 2002” (Alan, 1990).

The growing population, demand for labor, and consequently unemployment rate in the
MENA region is a continuously growing problem. In 2004, the World Bank estimated by 2020
“the number of jobs required to absorb the new labour market entrants […] is around 100
million” which shows the potential regional migration has to provide jobs to the youth (Edwards,
2005). Labor migration has been proved to be a safety valve for countries in the past where
countries with too large of workforces, like Egypt and Morocco, found work in countries with
too small a labor force (primarily the GCC). This also reduced unemployment among those
workers with college degrees. The evidence presented in the literature of the benefits of regional
migration, I believe, can continue to be used as a guideline for future economic policy relating to
the youth bulge.

I believe there is still work to be done to improve the rights and safety of migrant
workers, but there is far more evidence that regional migration provides benefits to both
countries. The Gulf countries would not have been able to develop as quickly without
immigrants, and poorer countries would not have raised wages and lowered unemployment as
quickly without emigrants. Overall, regional migration has the potential to improve economies in
the MENA region while also reducing poverty.
 Bibliography

Alan, Richard. (1990). Regional Economic Integration and Labor Migration.

A Political Economy of the Middle East.

Edwards, M. B. (2005). Migration in the Middle East and Mediterranean. University

Research Institute for Urban Environment and Human Resources.