in the Nile Valley and Nile Delta to go around for the growing
population. Neither is there sufficient nonfarming jobs in the
countryside. The result is that people flee the countryside to
seek jobs in the cities. Social scientists call them “nonselective
migrants,” people who have been “pushed” off the land because
the land cannot support them. Also leaving the villages and
going to the cities are the “selective migrants,” the most edu-
cated and ambitious villagers, who are “pulled” to the city by
the near certainty that they will find productive employment
there. In this way, they represent what is called a “brain drain,”
meaning the rural areas will probably stay underdeveloped in
part because the people best able to do something about the
poverty are leaving these places. Regardless of the push-and-
pull factors that influence their decision to move, in the end
they represent more people in the cities. This helps to explain
why Egypt has such crowded urban areas.