The trend towards emigration, to which an end cannot yet be foreseen,
brings about a number of serious economic and social consequences, such
as the following:
• Egypt is suffering a ‘brain drain’, since often the best and most active
people leave the country.
• The mass migration means a great economic loss for the Egyptian state,
because it has invested enormous sums in every single qualified labour
migrant or emigrant.
• The labour migrants spend part of the money earned abroad on hous-
ing in Egypt, for which the state grants high subsidies. However, usually
the flats remain unoccupied until the owners return home for good. This
undermines all the efforts of the Egyptian government to solve the hous-
ing problem.
• Relying on the remittances of labour migrants as a main source of foreign
currency, the Egyptian government neglects the development of the coun-
try’s industries, which have in fact lost their competitiveness on the world
market (see below).
• The remittances of Egyptian foreign workers abroad sometimes help to
raise the purchasing power of their families and relatives. This leads to
inflation, which negatively affects above all the poor.
• Labour migration to the Arab countries is a factor of instability for the
Egyptian economy. In the past political or economic crises in neighbouring
countries sometimes led to a mass remigration of Egyptian workers, as
happened when they were forced to flee from Iraq, Kuwait, Yemen, Libya
and the Sudan. These events made the unemployment figures in Egypt rise
dramatically.
• Remigrants may experience problems of reintegration. Often they enjoyed
a much higher economic status abroad and find it difficult to adapt when
they are back in their home country. This is particularly so for many
fellaheen who migrated to the oil-producing Arab countries and did not
work in agriculture there. It is hard for them to face the difficulties of
everyday life in Egypt after their return,