Cairo University

Faculty of Economics and Political Science

Political Science Department
Fourth Year

Public Opinion and Political Communication Course

Term Paper tackling:

The Issue of Youth Migration In Egypt

Why do Egyptian Youth want migration? An Introduction:

“If you don’t like the Egyptian conditions, then leave Egypt!” a sentence said to the Egyptian
youth by many famous media figures and a lot of supporters to the current system. Many blame
the youth for complaining about the problems they face in Egypt and their persistent desire to
migrate from the country. They say these youth aren’t loyal to Egypt and that they shouldn’t
belong to it. However, did they ask themselves what did Egypt offered for these youth in return?1

The Egyptian youth had a lot of great aspirations when they revolted in the 25th of January to live
in a state that provides them with bread, freedom, social justice and dignity. They found out after
6 years of the revolution that the conditions in Egypt haven’t changed, so they started to lose
hope, and migration out of Egypt became their one and only hope.2

A large percentage of youth want to migrate from Egypt, official statistics made by the Central
Agency of Public mobilization and statistics claim that 61.4% of the youth want to migrate out of
Egypt and one of the basic reasons is to find a decent job.

According to a UN issue brief about youth and migration, it’s been discussed that the key drivers
of youth migration are mainly seeking higher education, finding and starting a decent job,
marriage, also escaping from the crises the country suffer from like poverty, violence, conflicts,
wars, and climate change.3

Based the study of Asmaa Elbadawy; Egyptian migrants represent 1.5% of the whole world
migrants most of this percentage is considered to be from the youth, and these Egyptian youth
aims at migrating to Europe and the Gulf region, they want to migrate for several goals and
reasons, so the main aim of this research is to examine the reasons why the youth want to
migrate out of Egypt.4

In this research, we have some assumptions or the key drivers for the increasing desire of youth
to migrate:

1. Economic conditions (unemployment, low incomes, low living standards, absence of basic
needs of the youth).

‫مش عاجبك حال البلد هاجر وسيبها وغور‬, Youtube: N.p., 2016. Video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL1Sqot1-Hw
1

2
2014 ,‫ البديل‬,"‫ البديل‬- ‫ مصر‬- ‫ هذا حال شباب الثوار‬..»‫ "من «الثورة مستمرة» إلى «الخروج اآلمن واللهم هجرة‬,‫شيماء حمدى‬,
http://elbadil.com/2014/12/15/‫و‬-‫اآلمن‬-‫الخروج‬-‫إلى‬-‫مستمرة‬-‫الثورة‬-‫من‬/
3
The United Nations,. Youth Migration. The UN, 2016. Web. 20 Nov. 2016. P:1-2.
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/documents/youth/fact-sheets/youth-migration.pdf

4
Asmaa Elbadawy, "Migration aspirations among young people in Egypt: Who desires to migrate and why,"
In Economic Research Forum. 2010.
2. Political conditions ( persecution, repression, the crisis of identity, the decline in security
measures, the existence of dictator systems, the violation of human rights, the absence of
democracy and expressing the opinions.)

3. Social aspects (how the media depicts migration as a good thing, the development in
technology, the morals of the European societies the decline in loyalty to certain country, social
isolation and alienation.)5

However, some people often resort to illegal immigration because of the difficulty of legal
procedures for Migration. But in this research we will not be dealing only with illegal
immigration but with immigration in a broader sense which is known as “population movement
where the individual or the group moving from one place in the world to another for the purpose
of taking up permanent or semi-permanent residence, usually across a political boundary” or in
other words we’ll be dealing with the reasons why the youth (want) to migrate out of Egypt
sense whether this migration is legal or illegal.6

Conducting such a research about migration determinants is an important issue, because when
we speak of youth migration, we’re speaking about the most important demographic group in
any country,7 this brain drain of the youth out Egypt searching for better opportunities and
conditions should be a concern for the state due to its major impacts economically and
politically.8

5
Sahar, Hafez. "The Illegal Migration( The Concept, The Size And Legislation)". Horms 2.2 (2013): 51,52. Print.

6
September 26, 2016. "،‫ "أحد الناجين من غرق مركب رشيد يروي مأساته و هللا ههاجر تاني‬،‫مجدي أبو العينين‬
Accessed November 7, 2016. http://www.almasryalyoum.com/news/details/1014766.

"IMMIGRATION AND ITS REASONS". Englishtopics.Net. Accessed 7 November 2016.

https://www.englishtopics.net/topicsmenu/4-topicshigh/107-immigration-and-its-reasons.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/09/g68/migrationguidestudent.pdf

"Top Seven Reasons Why People Immigrate | Global Immigration,"Global Immigration, 2009.
http://www.immigration.net.in/2009/07/09/top-seven-reasons-why-people-immigrate/.
Nuñez, Christina. "Why People Migrate: 11 Surprising Reasons". Global Citizen, 2014.
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/why-people-migrate-11-surprising-reasons/.

7
Asmaa Elbadawy, "Migration aspirations among young people in Egypt: Who desires to migrate and why," In
Economic Research Forum. 2010.
8
Sunita Dodani, and Ronald E. LaPorte, "Brain drain from developing countries: how can brain drain be converted
into wisdom gain?," Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 98, no. 11 (2005): 487-491.
The Literature Review: Reasons behind Migration: World Wide and in the Middle East and
in Egypt:

Migration has been always a topic everyone from politicians to shopkeepers has an opinion on.
People are interested in this topic because they are affected with it either directly or indirectly, as
migration affects all areas of lives social, economic, and political, which makes any analysis on
migration extremely relevant to everyone but at the same time it’s a really complicated
phenomenon when we try to study.

Migration is as old as humanity itself. However theories about migration are recent. At first
migration theories depended on a physical concept as they explained it as a function related to
the origin size, destination population and migration flows with respect to distance. Then in
1950s migration theory became more sophisticated, in which migration occurs due to differences
in urban and rural wages and employment.

Further research focused more on microeconomic models which analyses the individual
motivation of migration, also considers structural factors like poverty.
More modern approaches use a mixture of micro and macro levels and also include non-
economic concepts like social capital.

The most obvious reason for migration is simply because people want to be better off; though
reasons of migration can vary it is about being better off in the end. For instance a large fraction
of labour migrate to be able to send remittances for their families home, some people would
migrate for reasons like personal freedom and persecution.9

So reasons of migration can vary from political, to economic and social reasons, and according
to the UN Issue brief 2016; there have been 28.2 million migrants internationally aged from 15-
24 years, this proportion of youth migrants is much higher in developing countries.10

It was emphasized that there is a negative relationship between migration and age; because it was
found that youth were the most demographic group that migrates and that whenever the age is
younger, the possibility of migration increases.
This was proven true when applied on Arab migration as 75% of these migrants are less than 35
years old, and 50% of them are 25 years old.11

According to the UN issue brief the main drives of youth migration are to obtain a higher
education, employment, escaping poverty, violence, conflicts, effects of wars, climate change…

9
Jessica Hagen-Zanker, "Modest expectations: Causes and effects of migration on migrant households in
source countries," (2010). P:17-20.
10
The United Nations,. Youth Migration. The UN, 2016. Web. 20 Nov. 2016. P:1-2.
11
.6-5:‫ص‬.2012 ،‫ نزيف الطاقة‬،‫فارس توفيق محمد البيل‬
It also mentioned the impacts of youth migration which can be positive on these youth by
opening new opportunities for them like better education, employment, gaining professional
experience, and personal development. However migration can have negative impacts like
discrimination based on migration status, gender, religion, and ethnicity, also migration can
result in bad working conditions, low incomes, and poor access to basic social services, as well
as social protection. Thus, migration can end up being either an opportunity or a risk for the
youth.
Therefore, we need effective policy development on migration to ensure the opportunities of
migration and reduce these risks. And based on that the member states in the UN agreed in the
Agenda 2030 to ensure safe and orderly regulated migration with respect to human rights of the
migrants regardless of migration status.12

The phenomenon of migration thus became a very important issue of discussion by all states
either developed or developing, as many youth aspire for migration and that most of the
countries they migrate to are developed countries due to high standards of living and high
incomes, and freedoms. Although on the other hand migration has negative impacts on the
developing countries especially the Middle East due to brain drain and loss of experiences.
So we need to understand the reasons of youth migration by analyzing the reality they live
inside.13

First: Socio-economic reasons:

World Wide and in the Middle East:

Unemployment pushes millions of youth towards migration with a purpose of searching for
alternatives to find jobs or improve job prospects. Many of them can migrate within the country
or seek new opportunities in other countries.

International or internal migration can create opportunities, particularly in employment and

training, but young workers can still face some challenges and vulnerabilities during the
migration process.
Some of these benefits of migration are decent work, better linkage to the world of employment,
better social protection, training for employment and education, entrepreneurship development.
But the policies and measurements of states can sometimes lead to risks like discrimination
based on ethnicities or gender and low wages.

The majority of young people migrate looking for a decent employment to be able of supporting
themselves as their own families, some of the youth search for potential economic gains of
working in developed countries. They are also attracted to opportunities of better education, and
personal development.

12
The United Nations,. Youth Migration. The UN, 2016. Web. 20 Nov. 2016. P:1-2.
.6-9:‫ ص‬.2012 ،‫ نزيف الطاقة‬،‫فارس توفيق محمد البيل‬
13
There are other reasons related to extreme poverty, poor economic conditions of the country,
which lead the youth to try to search for better opportunities outside.

It was found out that socio-economic status plays a role in determining the purpose of migration,
as youth who belong to a lower economic stratum are very likely to migrate for earning a
livelihood to support their families financially, on the other side those who belong to middle-to-
upper socioeconomic strata are likely to pursue better education opportunities and personal
development.14

According to the UNDP, unemployment in the Arabs world is 15% which is 17 million of its
population, 40% of them were youth from age 15-24, which might explain the increasing number
of youth migration either legally or illegally looking for a decent job to sustain themselves and
their families.

Also, the declining wages and standard of livings in the Arabic world were one of the main
reasons of migration to the developed countries of the west, as some studies have declared that
80% of the Arabs suffer from destitution.

The increase of population and especially the youth was also a reason of looking for better
opportunities outside.

Lastly, the rapid economic prosperity in the families which one of its individuals migrated was
also a reason for fascination of the youth with the developed countries which increases the
enthusiasm to migrate to these countries.15

Migration in Egypt:

In Egypt, migration becomes main issue as we have about ten million people abroad; it is more
than 10% of the whole population.
In fact, the socioeconomic factors play a very important role in the intentions for migration, as
Egypt suffers from the decline in the economic activities, the low economic growth especially
after the 25th revolution, the social and economic inequality between the people, high level of
poverty and the social exclusion, and the low living standard. 16

The second reason is the high rate of unemployment especially among the graduates in Egypt
which exceeded 12%. So the main aim from migration is to find suitable job with satisfactory
income, but they also want to migrate even if they will not find a suitable job as in Egypt those
who have jobs, get unsatisfactory incomes.17

14
The International Labor Organization,. YOUTH AND LABOUR MIGRATION. 2016. Web. 20 Nov. 2016. P:1-5.
15
.17-9:‫ ص‬.2012 ،‫ نزيف الطاقة‬،‫فارس توفيق محمد البيل‬
16
Christophe, Schramm. Migration From Egypt, Morocco, And Tunisia Synthesis Of Three Case Studies. World Bank,
2005, pp.(2-25).
17
Ibid.
Second: Political reasons for migration:

World Wide and the Middle East:

Political reasons for youth migration are mainly political instability, escaping violence, conflicts,
and effects of wars, also humanitarian reasons like migrating as refugees, and asylum seekers.18

Youth migrate also due to repressive political systems, increasing military and political conflicts
especially in Arab countries, also the policy of the governments to ignore the youth needs and
aspirations.19

Migration in Egypt:

In Egypt the political reasons are the political instability which led to the economic and social
instability, the repression that some parts of the society are exposed to, also the lack in security.20

Hend Hafez considered the rise of political Islamism in Egypt and the fundamentalist movements
after the 25th revolution and their hegemony over every sector is the main reason for the
migration especially among the parts that oppose political Islamists like Christians, businessmen
and moderate youth, the other reason is the absence of freedom, for instance the freedom and
justice party asserted that “ the absence of freedoms, decline in economic growth and the low
standard of life, are the main reasons for migration”. 21

Conceptual Framework:

Migration has taken place throughout history, starting from the first human group which
migrated from their origins in East Africa to many locations in the world. In this part, we are
going to provide a clear definition for migration and then we’ll have a glimpse on the different
types of migration and subsequent causes for each different type which mainly serves our study
aim: which is to have an answer for our research question "why does migration take place?"

Let us begin with the potential reasons or possible answers of why people migrate. Throughout
time, scholars developed many models trying to provide an answer to this question. Amongst the
most well-known models is Lee's push and pull factors model, developed in 1940s. This model
sums up all the possible answers to the migration question in two factors only, first are push
factors which determine why people leave a particular area and second pull factors which on the

18
The International Labor Organization,. YOUTH AND LABOUR MIGRATION. 2016. Web. 20 Nov. 2016.
The United Nations,. Youth Migration. The UN, 2016. Web. 20 Nov. 2016.
19
.2012 ،‫ نزيف الطاقة‬،‫فارس توفيق محمد البيل‬
20
Khaled, Alsayed. "Future Of Egyptian Labor Migration After The Arab Uprising". The Seminar On International
Migration In The Middle East And North Africa. Cairo, Egypt: N.p., 2013.pp.(4-24).
21
Hend, Hafez. "The Arab Spring And Migration In Egypt, One Year On: Impacts, Perceptions And Attitudes".
American University in Cairo, 2012, pp.(28-37)
other hand determine why they move to a particular area. For example, unemployment as a push
factor has an equivalent pull factor which is the potential for employment.22

Earlier attempts to interpret the migration phenomenon were those observations made by
Ravenstein who had defined a set of laws in this regard. First, he stated that most migrants move
only a short distance. Second law was in which he talked about two processes one is the process
of absorption and its inverse, dispersion. Third law is concerned about the residence place and
states that migrants from rural areas are migratory than those from urban areas .Fourth law is that
females are more migratory than males. Fifth law is "Economic factors are the main cause of
migration". Finally, technology improvements lead to an increase in migration. These laws were
based on statistical analysis to the human migration phenomenon. 23

Another attempt to explain the migration phenomenon is the Gravity model which is a modified
version of Newton's law that predicates the attractive force between two bodies is directly related
to their size and inversely related to the distance between them. This model assumes that larger
places attract people ideas and commodities more than smaller places and places closer to each
other have greater attraction for one another. This model uses population of origin and
destination as measures of diversity and refers to distance as a major obstacle, that is why it is
considered a simplistic model that depends on only two variables which are population and
distance as illustrated in the coming equation that measures migration:
Migration = (Population 1) * (population 2) * (distance²)
Its simplicity and lack of logic appears in ignoring other factors rather than the model's assumed
two factors and because this model sums up all migration obstacles in distance, then why cost for
instance cannot be considered as an obstacle. Therefore, we cannot say that distance is the only
migration obstacle with regard to costs, borders….etc.

There are many other models other than Lee's model of push and pull factors and Gravity model,
each interpreting why migration takes place in a different way , such as intervening opportunity
model, chain migration, counter stream migration, spatial job-search model, human capital
model,…..etc.24

Moving to our basic definition: migration is the movement of people from one place to another
in order to reside temporarily or permanently regularly across political borders. Besides fertility
and morality, migration is the third component in the equation of population change.

Migration has different types: it can be internal migration, external migration, chain migration,
step migration, impelled migration, emigration, immigration, return migration, seasonal
migration and population transfer.

22
"Lesson Five Push-Pull Factors," San Joaquin Valley Council for the Social Studies, Web. 28 Nov. 2016.
23
E.G. Ravenstien, "The Laws Of Migration," Journal of the statistical society of London 48.2 (2016): 198,199. Print.
24
Michael j. Greenwood, "Modeling Migration," University of Colorado, n. page.726-730 (2016): Print.
Different and various types of migrants emerge as a result of having different types of migration,
for instance, there are emigrants, immigrants, refugees, migration streams and IDPs (Internally
Displaced Persons). What we are going to do next is to explain these types separately and in
details.

Types of migration:

Internal migration: means moving from one place to another within a state, country, or
continent, whereas external migration means moving to a different state, country or continent.
Immigration refers to moving into a new country. Population transfer, also known as forced or
involuntary migration, is when a large group of people of a certain ethnicity or religion is forced
out of the region by the government.
With reference to chain migration, it is migration which begins with a family member or a
person from a certain group who migrates to another place inaugurating a series of migrations
within this family or group to the same location resulting in migration fields, which are clusters
of people who migrated from a certain region and the family or group members who followed
them and settled in the same area. For return migration or circular migration as some people
may call it, it is return of immigrants back to their original location voluntarily. Concerning step
migration: it is that type of migration that takes the form of series of migrations or leaving your
original location to reach you final destination indirectly, passing by some substations, for
instance, to move from a village to a town to a city as a final destination .Seasonal migration
often comes as a response to climate conditions or labor conditions such as peasants or farmers
after harvests. Impelled/imposed or reluctant migration takes place when individuals leave
their country because of unfavorable conditions such as warfare, taking into consideration that
they are not forced to leave their country.25

Finally, we’ll be trying to briefly differentiate between the types of migrants. Emigrants are
those who leave one country to reside in another, on the other hand, immigrants are those who
enter a new country to reside in another to take up new residence .Refugees are persons who
reside outside their original location due to unfavorable conditions, such as, being persecuted for
their political opinion, for instance, or because of being a member of a particular social group or
race. IDPs or Internally Displaced Persons are those who do not cross any political boundaries
but leave their home region to another place inside the country due to unfavorable
environmental, political and social conditions.

We can add a different category to migrant’s types, this category is popular in the UK,
particularly and we may say also exclusively. This category is divided into eight main sections:
refugees, asylum seeker, refused asylum seeker, trafficked person, undocumented migrant,
migrant worker, family migrant and international student.

25
"Human Migration Guide". National Geographic. Web. 28 Nov. 2016.
Finally, here are some possible answers to human migration implementing Lee's Push and pull
model:

The person who migrated due to unemployment (push factor) is expecting potential for
employment (pull factor) in his new residence place and this is the reason of their migration.
Those who migrated due to lack of services (push factor) were expecting better services (pull
factor) in the new residence place. Those who migrated because of high crime rates (push
factor), are expecting to find low crime rates (pull factor) in the new place of residence and that
is why they migrated. Those who migrated because of poor safety and security (push factor)
migrated because they expected to find a safer atmosphere (pull factor) in the new residence
place. Those who migrated because of flooding (push factor) for instance, expected that by
migrating to the new residence place there will be less risk of natural hazards (pull factors). And
finally those who migrated because of war (push factor) expected a more attractive quality of life
(pull factor) after migrating to a new residence place.26

Theoretical Framework: The approach:

In this paper, we will concentrate on the political economy and the social approaches as there are
many reasons for migration, but those are the approaches that are appropriate to the literature we
previously reviewed.

The political economy: when studying the impact of immigration on host countries, it is
familiarly to consider labor-market, and fiscal effects. We will concentrate on labor market
effects, emphasizing the channels through which migration may affect host-countries citizens.27
Many kinds of models try to explain the impact of migration on native’s labor market conditions,
also there are models that focus on factor-endowment commonly understood as the amount of
land, labor, capital, and entrepreneurship that a country possesses and can exploit for
manufacturing,28 and are probably the most suitable to study the political economy of
immigration in the host countries, but here we will concentrate on the political economy of the
exporting countries for Migration, also the political, economic reasons and circumstances that
push people in these countries to migrate, we also wish to emphasize the role of economic
factors in the determination of migration policies in host countries while discussing the political
economy of skill requirements, e.g. under what conditions low-skill legal immigrants are likely

26
"Migration Types And Reasons". Vitauto didziojo universities. N.p., 2013. Web. 28 Nov. 2016.:

27
Florence Miguet, "Essays on the political economy of migration," PhD diss., University of Geneva, 2006.

Giovanni Facchini, and Anna Maria Mayda, "The political economy of immigration policy," (2009).

28
Stanley NGERMAN, and Kenneth SOKOLOFF, "Institutions, factor endowments, and paths of development in the
new world," Journal of Economics Perpectives 14, no. 3 (2000).
http://www.econ.nyu.edu/user/debraj/Courses/Readings/SokoloffEngerman.pdf
 to be accepted and also the money those countries pay for international student who want to
study abroad ?

The social and psychological approach: Immigration is considered an important social

phenomenon influential to the social structure of the countries, the ethics and the capabilities of
the society and this is an important approach to also study the psychological side of the people
who migrate. Also on this approach, there is a moral value in expanding the range of people’s
choices. The capabilities approach shows why one cannot simply assume that migration policies
are merely a matter of what is “best for us.”

The approach studies the psychologyy of the migrant and the citizen of the original state, the
morals and values conveyed by the migrants they migrate to, it also shed a light on the standard
of living and educational level that is given to the migrant from the host country.29

Chapter one: A Historical Backgound of migration in Egypt:

Immigration has become a phenomenon that occupies a large portion of the interests of the
governments and the people of the exporting countries of migrants, which raises several
problematic issues; one of them is the deep contradiction between the low standard of living and
the rising unemployment in the North African countries ( Egypt is the main concern of our
research) and natural resources enjoyed by these countries, in addition to the problematic issue of
the success of the political systems of those countries – the senders of migrants- in solving the
crises of the country and working on eliminating the causes of migration which vary between
)political – economic - social – cultural ( reasons.

- Economic reasons: such as deterioration of the standard of living, worsening of unemployment

among young people, the desire for a decent life and to improve the standard of living ... etc.

- Political reasons: such as oppression and political repression, instability and insecurity and the
escalation of terrorist operations, also the desire of young people to achieve democracy and
enjoy freedom and security, also the revolution of 25th of January when the youth failed to
achieve their aspirations, they got frustrated so the young people seize any opportunity to
migrate and even those who find difficulties in the procedures of legal migration they resort
illegal immigration, risking their lives and all what they have, only because they want to escape
the bad conditions in their homeland.

- Social, and Cultural reasons: as the desire of getting real education like in the advanced
countries, also because that sending states do not accommodate minds and if they stayed at the
country all their dreams will be destroyed, some people also want to migrate because they want

29
Giovanni Facchini, and Anna Maria Mayda, "The political economy of immigration policy," (2009).
to gain new experience, know many cultures.

In the coming few lines we will differentiate between migration by the will of the person, and
forced migration (Altgraybha - Compulsory migration) and will mention the trends of migration
from the beginning of the 21st century (2000) under Mubarak’s Regime till now, then after the
25th Jan revolution, and after 30-6 as the two dates are turning points in Egypt historical events,
we want to know if immigration is also affected, the youth reasons to migrate even after the
revolution and the rule of the political parties and government in facing the illigal migration.

Three Compulsory Alienations (Nasser – Sadat – After the Revolution):

It happend as a result of the adoption of practices of the state such as closing the public domain
and the confiscation of political practices.
The report before us monitors multiple models for Egyptian citizens who exercised their duty to
claim their rights as Egyptians, and instead of gaining their efforts they were forced to leave their
homeland and refuge of the state into exile voluntary, the report calls the "Altgraybh."
This report is serious and important as it monitors the conditions of Egyptians abroad and the
factors that led them to flee from their homeland, and the problems they faced, in addition to
handling these problems and barriers that hindered their return back to their country.
This report sheds light on the dark side our beloved homeland is suffering from.

3rd Egyptians Alienation, were not only after the coming of System of 3 July 2013, but it had
begun during the rule of the military junta after the revolution of 25 January 2011 and 2012, but
it escalated after the July regime and its severity increased to shape the contours of 3rd Egyptians
alienation.
It's not the only “ Altgraybh” it is one of three major “ Compulsory alienation “ in Egypt after
July 1952 system, as there is a first “ Altgraybh ” of the Muslim Brotherhood and their
supporters in the mid-fifties during the former military President Gamal Abdel Nasser rule with
the escalation of hostility between nationalists and Islamists, and the second “ Altgraybh “ from
the leftists and nationalists in the mid-seventies during the rule of former President Anwar Sadat
with the start of the normalization of relations with Zionist entity and Sadat convergence with the
Islamists on the account of nationalists and leftists .
The third “Altgraybh” influence resulting from the nature of the people who were forced, in
terms of the small expatriate age, or of the multiplicity and diversity of the countries Arab ,
European and the United States . This report mentioned major reasons led to compulsory
alienation which is summarized in the fear of repression because of political positions and
opinions that is opposite to the political regime. The witnesses in this report are from people who
are compressed from the situation in Egypt and feel an unknown risk because of the nature of
their work, and people who are exposed to direct and explicit threats, and who sentenced awaits
them in case of homecoming.30

2016 "،‫ عن هجرة ورحيل المصريين غير الطوعية للخارج‬..‫ "التغريبة الثالثة‬،‫معتز حجاج‬
30

http://anhri.net/?p=178354
People who are forced to migrate and leave the country are combinations between the most
affiliations political and national backgrounds, "Muslim Brotherhoods, leftists, and liberals, and
nationalists too, as well as academics and professionals who have been deported because of their
adherence to their professional values, as well as many of them are either young or middle-aged,
the common feature between most of them is the hostility of the regime because of their political
views.

The trends of Egyptians migration in 21st century: Under Mubarak’s Regime

Egyptians have lots of tales and adventures with migration, whether legitimate, illegitimate and
mandatory, the reasons why the Egyptians and especially Egyptian youth are interested in
migration and it is often because of the political system and its inability to achieve the
renaissance or a tangible difference in the economic and social Egyptians life or because of the
desire of individuals to leave their country for personal reasons whatever the reason , there is a
phenomenon and an issue we face and it needs to be studied well an know its roots in our
country .
Under Mubarak rule before 25th Jan revolution young people were suffering from unemployment
as there were not jobs that are appropriate with the qualifications of the youth, the economic
situation and low income and the increase of the portion of poverty in the society and the
corruption of the government and the ruling elite, also the big gap between rich and poor, the bad
education and the bad conditions of education; all those factors in addition to the ill-treatment of
citizens by the police, and the emergency law… were the main motives for young people to
migrate.
But the government especially the president saw that “young people are not actually willing to
work in Egypt so instead they travel abroad to work in washing dishes”,31 so the government
here was claiming that it was doing its part well for the sake of its citizens, however the state was
ignoring the fact that its unjust policy is one of the reasons young people migrate for and they
became a trapped victim of illegal immigration.32
Also, Mubarak and his government policies especially the Ministry of Interior and the arrest of
any citizen because of its appearance and the killing of young people and bogus charges and
killing Syed Bilal and Khalid Saeed was the straw that broke the back of Mubarak and his
regime and ignited the 25th Jan revolution.

31
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKFGu5EFDi0
‫أسف_ياريس‬#
‫ الشباب عندنا في مصر يرفض يشتغل في مصنع وال أوتيل بس يقبل إنه يسافر‬,‫ الرئيس مبارك تعليقا علي هجرة الشباب للخارج‬:‫||يعرض ألول مرة‬
!!‫ أهم حاجه إن محدش تاني شايفه علشان بيتكسف‬,‫بره معاه بكالريوس ويشتغل في المطبخ يغسل اطباق وميفتحش بقه‬
32
"2016 ,‫ بوابة فيتو‬."»‫مبارك‬ ‫رقبة‬ ‫في‬ ‫الشرعية‬ ‫غير‬ ‫الهجرة‬ ‫ضحايا‬ ‫«ذنب‬ :‫فرغلى‬ ‫البدرى‬ ..‫بالفيديو‬.
http://www.vetogate.com/2422273.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=23&v=thrrM0eRv18
" ‫ “ذنب ضحايا الهجرة غير الشرعية في رقبة مبارك‬:‫ البدري فرغلى‬.‫بالفيديو‬
2016-11-28 :‫ الوصول‬..‫ محمد الدمرداش‬..02:07 - 2016/‫أكتوبر‬/23 ‫األحد‬
Migration after the revolution:

After what happend in egypt in 2011 many Egyptians in Europe and Gulf states returned home
by their will as they believed Egypt became different and they can live safely and be partners in
building their country and achieve their dreams , and there are people who were forced because
the situation in the country they live and work in is dangerous like Egyptians who were in Libya
about 2 million person, Yemen, Syria after what is called Arab spring revolutions and its effects
of migration and refuges. 33

Gulf States are still the most potential destination for temporary migration, while United States
and West Europe are the most preferred destinations for permanent migration.34

But has the migration stopped after the 2011 revolution? Unfortunately the attempts are still
ongoing and the reasons are still getting worse.
After 6 years from the beginning of the revolution there is no change it is still an extention of
mubark regime but it is worst and many people also want to migrate as after 2013 the regime
begun a new stage in the war on llikely terrorism as they claim and people should support the
governmental policies to achieve security and progress 35 at the same time they float the pound,
and Egyptians face bad economic, political, and social situations and the Justifications from the
government as it was before 25 Jan under Mubarak power. 36
One of the recent attempts for illegal migration and people died in.
is Rashid boat event, and there are many attempts that were foıled but government officials bear
responsibility for the young people. 37

After 30-6: The role of the government and the Egyptian political parties to organize
migration and fight illegal one:

Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, held a meeting on 24-9-2016, with a thumbnail of the security committee in
the presence of the Prime Minister, Interior Minister and head of the General Intelligence, the
head of management control, to discuss a number of topics, especially reviewing the situation for
the accident sinking boat of illegal immigration as 164 Egyptians drowned while attempting to

33
Hafez, Hend, and Ayman Ghaly. "The Arab Spring and Migration in Egypt: One year on: impacts,
perceptions and attitudes." (2012).
34
Hassan, Khaled Elsayed. "Future of Egyptian Labor Migration after the Arab Uprising." Future 22
(2013): 23.
35
“Egypt after two years of Sisi's rule...racing against time!!”
http://www.sis.gov.eg/section/29/5182?lang
36
http://www.elwatannews.com/news/details/1488971
"‫ ال يوجد بطالة في مصر "الناس مش عايزه تشتغل‬:"‫"اتحاد الصناعات‬
2016-11-28 ‫ الوصول‬.. ‫ >> محمود البدوي‬2016-10-11 ‫الثالثاء‬
37
http://www.elyomnew.com/news/inside/2016/09/23/59266
".‫ حوادث تؤكد استمرار مسلسل ضحايا «الهجرة غير الشرعية‬8 ..»‫"آخرها «مركب رشيد‬
illegally immigrate.

During the meeting Sisi expressed his regret for the occurrence of such incidents that caused
losses of life.
He said that we should face those who violated the Egyptian laws and international norms, and
used illegal means to displace this number of Egyptian citizens and foreigners, taking advantage
of the lack of awareness in light of regional and international conditions imposed Egypt to be one
of illegal immigration crossings at this stage. He also stressed the immediate formation of a
working committee under the direct supervision of the Prime Minister to review the situation to
prevent infiltration into Egyptian territory.

He also assisted on the role of the government in organizing campaigns to raise awareness of the
dangers of illegal immigration, especially in light of the difficult circumstances that surround the
region, as well as coordination with the House of Representatives to end the proceedings relating
to the adoption of anti-illegal immigration law.

He ordered to intensify marketing microfinance initiative and micro Youth procedures, which
have been allocated $ 200 billion to be implemented , especially in geographical areas that are
known by illegal immigration operations, so as to contribute to the elimination of unemployment
as one of the causes of illegal immigration, where a group of outlaws exploits young people need
to look for fake jobs and peer large sums of money that would have to be the nucleus of a legal
job opportunities within the state. 38
the parties in its turn, put several proposals can be followed, to address this crisis in the future,
some of them include changing the culture of young people for work , while others stressed
the need to pay attention to tighten controls on the coast, boats and licenses, as well as awareness
of the seriousness of this type of migration campaigns.

The MP said Alaa Abid, head of the parliamentary bloc of the Egyptians for the Liberal Party,
said the party has several proposals on resolving the illegal immigration crisis in Egypt,
following: "I wonder from a state its youth people migrate abroad illegally, at a time where there
are refugees living in it and working. " He also said that some Egyptian youth are only waiting
for governmental set, and do not care about entrepreneurs, explaining that Egyptian youth are not
looking for government jobs.
The party had proposals to stop illegal immigration; it was mainly to tighten controls on the
coasts, in addition to taking all actions against the vessels used in illegal immigration, and the
work of control over licensed and unlicensed boats, the dates of their work, and the source of its

38
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkdvaMqkOek
‫ إجراءات عاجلة من السيسي لمواجهة الهجرة غير الشرعية بعد غرق مركب رشيد‬5 ‫بالفيديو‬
http://www.masrawy.com/News/News_Egypt/details/2016/9/24/943335/5-
"،‫”الحكومة تبدأ إجراءات الحد من الهجرة غير الشرعية‬
‫تكثيف الرقابة على مراسي المراكب والشواطئ‬.‫ وتغليظ العقوبات على سماسرة التهريب‬.
19:38 2016-09-24 ‫كتب |السبت‬: ‫| محمد عبد العاطي‬
http://www.almasryalyoum.com/news/details/1013936
license and the source industry. He stressed that ,we need to have a speech for young people to
make them aware that the self-work is not shameful, and that each of the Ministry of Manpower
in cooperation with some ministries such as industry, trade and investment, to provide jobs for
young people in non-traditional careers , also there is a need to the role of media in spotlight on
young people who migrate illegal immigration, and the way they work in European countries,
stressing that a large number of them work in insulting occupations.

In the same context adviser Bahaa Eddin Abu shoka, head of the parliamentary bloc of the Wafd
Party, he said that there is a law which exists currently for illegal immigration, and it will be an
important and urgent solution to this chronic crisis, and includes penalties for all people who get
involved in facilitating such flights. He added that the perpetrator of such operations carried on
illegal immigration the groups that facilitate these trips, not the person who migrates illegal
immigration.

Engineer Hazem Omar, Chairman of the Republican People's Party, confirmed that the
government does not bear the illegal immigration crisis and Rashid sinking boat, but the lack of
awareness among some categories of the Egyptian people is what has caused the current
crisis, the steps to resolve this crisis requires two actions 1- the speed of the arrest of gangs
involved in illegal immigration, punish them and apply the crucial law on them.
2- The need to increase awareness of the Egyptian people of the seriousness of illegal
immigration, and the conditions of the citizens who have this kind of migration, pointing out that
this falls within the responsibility of the parties and the media, to raise awareness of the
seriousness of this matter.

Maj. Gen. Mohammed Elghobashy, vice president of Home protector National Party, the party
spokesman, said that the solution to illegal immigration crisis require changing the work
culture among young people, as the youth culture of the work is to search for a job and not
self-employed, which makes illegal immigration crisis is worsen and to confront this
phenomenon require the creation of a successful small projects where a group of Egyptians
involved in , the money was spent on illegal immigration amounted to 40 thousand pounds and it
had to be exploited in the creation of small projects , there is a need to educate young people to
care about the seriousness of illegal immigration, following: "This is an important state and
citizens". 39

So, we noticed that not only the government officials to bear the young people the
responsibility for illegal immigration, but much of the political parties as well. they said
that the Egyptian young people culture of work is one if the main problems that youth want

39
http://www.youm7.com/story/2016/9/25/%D8%AA%D8%BA%D9%8A%D9%8A%D8%B1-
.‫ القانون لن يجعلهم الجناة‬:‫ أبو شقة‬.‫ حلول لألزمة‬5 ‫ عالء عابد يقترح‬.‫تغيير ثقافة الشباب عن العمل أفضل طرق عالج الهجرة غير الشرعية‬
‫ يجب استغاللهم فى مشروعات‬:‫ وحماة الوطن‬..‫ الحكومة ليست السبب‬:‫الشعب الجمهورى‬
2016-11-28 ‫ الوصول‬.‫ ص‬04:55 2016 ‫ سبتمبر‬25 ،‫األحد‬
http://www.masrawy.com/News/News_Egypt/details/2016/9/22/942578/%D8%A3%D8%AD%D8%
‫أحزاب ترفع شعار ''توفير فرص العمل'' ردًا على حوادث الهجرة غير الشرعية‬
the jobs from governments and do not to work, as they claim, they see the problem is not in the
government or its policy but is in the youngest and their culture. Is that rational?

They also always compare between Syrian and Egyptian youth.

and a prominent example that appeared on the arena recently was the person who called Yusuf
“Fresca seller “40 who over past days ( January 2016 ) was the material of all Egyptian media,
and programs "talk shows", and won the attention of all communication platforms, with support
from the pro websites to the current political regime , he was market for all Egyptians as a young
fighter and ambitious person who abandoned Pride learner university, and overcome the
difficulties of life, and wore fashionable clothes, carrying Al-Fresca old fund, launched in the
Egyptian streets selling candy. Which at the end of the story young People discovered the trap
and the significance of the message of the regime that drives the young people to give up his
ambition and do any work with no importance to university testimony
“ become another Fresca seller , stand on a vehicle on the street to sell any product or become a
driver of a tuk-tuk as a government official told “

40
http://www.elshaab.org/news/210130/%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%81%D9%8A%D8%AF
‫ بائع الفريسكا سابقًا‬..‫ مفاجأة وراء "بائع الوهم" والنظام‬.‫بالفيديو والتفاصيل‬
‫ يوم‬336 ..‫كتبه حامد عبد الجواد‬
http://www.elfagr.org/1986403 ‫ م‬07:21 - 2016/‫يناير‬/06 ‫األربعاء‬
‫ القصة الكاملة لـ"بائع الفريسكا" الذي فضحه نشطاء "الفيس بوك‬.. ‫ بعد اعترافه بالكذب وهروبه‬.. ‫ بالصور‬:‫بوابة الفجر‬
"
Chapter two: The Data Analysis of the Questionnaire:

The sample: How was data obtained?

The main focus of this research is to understand the main reasons behind the phenomenon of
youth migration and whether the youth really want to immigrate if the road is open. To find out
this, we’ve planned to take a random sample from 6 faculties in Cairo University representing 3
literary faculties (Archaeology – Economics and political science – Dar Al Ullom) and 3
practical faculties (Medicine – Engineering – Science), we also made sure that our sample
contains both males and females.

In our survey, we chose from every faculty 15 students, so our sample consists in all of 90
students from Cairo University. We also made sure that our questionnaire was presented in
Arabic so as to be easier for the students to fill.

Hardships we met during the research:

The students were actually helpful to us and it was rarely that anyone refused to fill out the
questionnaire, but this doesn’t negate the fact that some students especially in the faculty of
Engineering refused to fill it and have reported to the security that we were conducting a survey,
but fortunately the security were very understandable and no further trouble happened. Still in
general most of the students were actually helpful and friendly when they filled out the
questionnaire.

To obtain the data of the research, we used as we mentioned above the survey, we also resorted
to a content analysis of the Social media (Facebook – YouTube – Twitter) in order to analyze
how the youth regard the issue of migration.

In this part, we’ll analyze the data of the questionnaire:

First of all, our questionnaire focused on three main assumptions that we believed that they are
influencing the phenomenon of migration:

1- The Economic assumption:

As we believed according to what was in the literature that issues like (unemployment, low
incomes, low living standards, absence of basic needs of the youth) can be reasons for the
increasing desire of migration.
So to analyze how these issues are responsible for youth migration in Egypt, we were keen to ask
the students of Cairo University some questions related to the economic assumption of
migration, these questions were:

- About the income of the family because we assumed that it might affect migration, because
when the income is lower, the youth would seek to increase it by migration and finding better
opportunities in foreign countries.
- We asked also whether the youth would migrate if they have the chance, the reason why they
would migrate.

- We also asked whether the youth assumed that it would be easy to find a job after graduation
and whether the incomes in Egypt are enough to have a decent life or not.

2-Political assumptions:

Secondly, we assumed that political reasons like (persecution, repression, the decline in security
measures, the existence of dictator systems, the violation of human rights, the absence of
democracy and expressing the opinions) can increase youth’s desire of migration.

We all know that the youth had great aspirations after the 25th of Jan revolution to live in a state
that provides them with bread, freedom, social justice and dignity. So we assumed that the lag in
achieving the goals of the revolution can be a reason of migration as the youth would feel
disappointed with the revolution so they will migrate. That was one thing we wanted to ask about
in the questionnaire.

We needed to know whether the problem of the youth is with the political system or with the
country as a whole, as this would help us figure out whether the youth are still loyal to their
country Egypt or that they only blame the political systems. We also asked whether the youth felt
more attached to the world or to their state.
In order to understand this, we asked the youth if a crisis happened in the Egypt who would they
blame the state or the political systems or just individuals.

Lastly, we were keen on knowing if the youth are still interested in what’s happening in their
country and if they are following the news, so we asked them about the source they use to get
news and the number of hours they spend in watching the news. We assumed this would help us
knowing whether the youth are still interested in the politics and affairs of the state, or they are
disappointed and not interested.

3- Social assumption:

Thirdly, in this assumption, we wanted to know whether gender affects the probability of
migration or not, also we wanted to know if the different fields of education would make some
youth prefer to migrate more than other that’s why our sample contained 6 faculties with
different fields of study, so as to understand what fields have more advantage in Egypt or more
wanted by the society, and what fields are less better off in the country so they are more likely to
migrate.

We also wanted to know the opinion of the youth about how the media blames the youth on their
persistent desire to migrate.
The results of the questionnaire:

As we mentioned above the questionnaire consists mainly of the three assumptions (political –
Economic – Social). In this part we’ll analyze the data we got from the 6 faculties of Cairo
University using the SPSS software as our tool that helps us analyze data of the questionnaire.

First: The Economic Assumption and migration:

The economic assumption focuses on issues like (incomes, standards of living, absence of basic
needs of the youth) as reasons for the increasing desire of migration.

1- The family income and migration:

In the questionnaire, we identified 3 approximate clusters of incomes based in each class in the
Egyptian society.
First, the middle class which earns from (1000 – 3000) Egyptian pounds, and second the upper
middle class earning (4000 – 6000) pounds, lastly the upper class which earns more than 7000
Pounds.41

The question is whether there is a correlation between family income and migration.
As it appears in the table below, the Pearson correlation between (family income) and (the desire
of migration) is (- 0.160) which is negative and weak correlation.

So it means that whenever the family income is low, the youth will be more willing to migrate
abroad to find better opportunities and increase this income, and the opposite as when the income
is higher, the youth will be more reluctant to migrate.

Correlations

Income migration

Income Pearson Correlation 1 -.160

Sig. (2-tailed) .132

N 90 90

Will you migrate if you've the Pearson Correlation -.160 1

chance? Sig. (2-tailed) .132

N 90 90

41
.‫ دار الهالل‬- ‫" العدد الجديد من مجلة المصور‬.‫ مليونا غاضب‬50 ‫أبناء الطبقة الوسطى‬: ‫للواء أبوبكر الجندى رئيس جهاز التعبئة واإلحصاء‬
2012. Accessed November 24, 2016.http://www.daralhilal.com.eg/print.php?id=1032
One of the interesting instances we met during data collection, some of the youth had comments
like: “if their family income was higher (more than 7000), why would they even consider
migrating?!”
However, even if there was a negative relation between migration and family income as proven
by this data, it is still noticed that the correlation is weak or statistically insignificant, which
means that the youth even when they have a decent standard of living and a high family income,
they are still looking forward to migrate for different reasons like getting better education.
The graphs below represent the frequencies of the youth who want to migrate with respect to
their family income.

As we notice here that the upper class earning more than 7000 pounds monthly, more than 60%
of its youth want to migrate.
For the upper middle class, 80% of the youth seek migration.

And lastly, 80% also of the youth in the middle class wants to migrate.
All of this suggests that whether the youth belonged to the upper or upper middle class or the
middle class, they would still consider migrating.

2- Incomes in Egypt and whether they are enough to have a decent standard of living:

In one of the questions, we asked whether the youth (believe) that levels of incomes in Egypt can
allow them to have a decent standard of living.

The table below shows the frequencies and percentages of youth in this regard.

Are incomes in Egypt enough to have a decent life?

Cumulative
Frequency Percent Valid Percent Percent

Valid neutral 4 4.4 4.4 4.4

agree 3 3.3 3.3 7.8

disagree 83 92.2 92.2 100.0

Total 90 100.0 100.0

As noticed in the table: 92% of the youth don’t agree that the incomes in Egypt are enough to
have a decent life, and only 3% agree, while 4% of them chose to be neutral.

However, does the low level of incomes in Egypt suggest whether the youth are going to migrate
or not?

In one of the questions, we asked the youth about the main (reason) they would migrate for.

As shown in this graph, 41% of the youth who believed that incomes in Egypt are not enough
said that the main reason for them to migrate is employment and having decent incomes, also
12% of them choose all the reasons including employment and decent incomes.
As a matter of fact, the minimum wage in Egypt was set at 1200 Egyptian pounds for working
for 42 hours weekly which is 8 hours daily.42 Adding that the Egyptian pound’s value was
decreased after the decision of the Central Bank to float the exchange rate, which resulted in
devaluating the pound by 61% of its past value, and logically this decrease, will affect the
minimum wages in Egypt with the same percentage. It will cause also inflation as the prices will
increase while the wages are decreasing in value.43
The decrease in the value of the Egyptian incomes can be an incentive to migrate and find a
decent job and income in another country. So we asked the youth which country in specific they
would like to migrate to.

We found that 53% of those disagreed that income in Egypt can achieve a decent life wanted to
migrate to Europe, and 17% wanted to migrate to the Gulf States, while 10% wanted to migrate
to the US.

42
"‫الحد األدنى لألجور في مصر‬." Rawateb.org/Egypt. Accessed November 24, 2016.
http://www.rawateb.org/home/Salaries/minimum-wages.
43
http://www.aljazeera.net/news/ebusiness/2016/11/3/‫الجنيه‬-‫تعويم‬-‫بعد‬-‫مصر‬-‫ينتظر‬-‫الذي‬-‫ما‬
If we’re going to dig up into the minimum wages in each country the youth wanted to migrate to,
we’ll find the average wage earned monthly in European countries is 961 US dollars44, and in the
US it is approximately 5000 US dollars45, while in Saudi Arabia it is 666 US dollars.46

Our data however was not sufficient to understand why would the youth who want a decent job
and income would prefer to migrate to Europe more than the US. But we assume it is because the
prerequisites and procedures of migration to Europe are easier than the US.47

3- Youth who are seeking a job and a decent income will they come back to Egypt?

We asked the youth whether they will consider coming back to Egypt if they migrate, the data
were really convergent; as 31% said that they will only come back in vacations, while 25% said
they are not coming back, 11% chose to be neutral, but on the other hand 33% of the youth
considered coming back to Egypt.

44
@Reinis_Fischer. "What Is Minimum Wage In European Union 2015." Reinis Fischer. October 03, 2016. Accessed
November 24, 2016. https://www.reinisfischer.com/what-minimum-wage-european-union-2015.
45
"United States Average Hourly Wages | 1964-2016 | Data | Chart | Calendar." Trading economics. Accessed
November 24, 2016. http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/wages.
46
"Saudi Arabia Sets Minimum Wage for Expats at SR2,500." English.alarabiya.net. November 12, 2014. Accessed
November 24, 2016. http://english.alarabiya.net/en/business/economy/2014/11/12/Saudi-Arabia-sets-minimum-
wage-for-expats-at-SR2-500-.html.
47
"‫ الهجرة و االقامة فى اوروبا‬- ‫" الهجرة الى اوروبا‬.‫الهجرة الى اوروبا‬. Accessed November 28, 2016. http://www.immigration-
residency-europe.com/.
"‫ المؤهلين للتقديم‬.. ‫ كيفية تقديم طلب هجرة الى امريكا‬," Accessed November 28, 2016. https://www.immig-us.com/-‫تقديم‬-‫كيفية‬
‫امريكا‬-‫الى‬-‫هجرة‬-‫طلب‬/.
When we asked these youth who said that they will return to Egypt, when they would come
back, most of the answers revolved around the idea of “securing my future” or “when the life in
Egypt becomes more decent and we earn enough wages”, two young ladies said that they will
return to Egypt when they have enough money to establish their own businesses. But most of the
answers were related to earning enough wages and securing the future.

Conclusion of the Economic Assumption:

The economic assumption revolves around incomes, low living standards, and unemployment.
We tried to measure the impacts of these factors on migration, and we reached 3 main
conclusions:

1- There is a negative but weak correlation between migration and family income: which means
that when the family income increases the probability of youth migration would increase, but
since it is a weak correlation and statistically insignificant, this means that youth from upper
classes would still consider migration for other reasons like education for instance.

2- 92% of the youth don’t agree that the incomes in Egypt are enough to have a decent life, 41%
of them wants to migrate specifically for finding a job and decent income, while 12% of them
include this reason with others. Almost half of the youth wanted to migrate to a European
country, and 10% of them wanted to migrate to the US. Although the average income in the US
is much higher than Europe, we couldn’t understand why the youth would prefer to migrate to
Europe more than the US.

3- Considering returning back to Egypt after migration, we found that the results have been
convergent, as those who would migrate for a decent job and income: 25% said they are not
coming back, some even said they will take their families with them, while 31% of them said
that they will only come back in short vacations, and 33% said they will come back only when
they secure their future in Egypt and be sure that when they come back they will have a decent
job and income.

Second: The Political Assumption and migration:

In this section, we’ll measure the political reasons behind youth migration are persecution,
repression, the decline in security measures, the existence of dictator systems, the violation of
human rights, the absence of democracy and expressing the opinions, and we’ll add also a reason
related specifically to the Egyptian case which is the lagging of achieving the goals of the 25th of
January revolution.

We’ll also measure whether the youth are loyal to their country, and also whether they are still
interested in what’s happening in the country or disappointed so they are not interested.

1- Reasons behind youth migration:

We asked the youth about the main reason they would migrate for: only 2.2% said that they were
frustrated due to not achieving 25th of January goals, while 25% said that the absence of
democracy, human rights, and repression is the reason, while 11% of the sample included these
two reasons with the other reasons (employment – income – education).
The table below shows these details.
 main reasons of migration

Cumulative
Frequency Percent Valid Percent Percent

Valid other 2 2.2 2.2 2.2

employment and decent 36 40.0 40.0 42.2

income

education in foreign 15 16.7 16.7 58.9

universities

frustration due to not 2 2.2 2.2 61.1

achieving 25th of Jan goals

absence of democracy, 25 27.8 27.8 88.9

human rights and
repression

all of the reasons 10 11.1 11.1 100.0

Total 90 100.0 100.0

That group of the youth who wanted to migrate to find democracy, human rights and escape
repression which represents 25% of the sample: we notice that 28% of them want to migrate to a
European country, and 12% to the US, so all in all 40% of these youth want to migrate to
established democracies and free countries.
This is understandable as the youth are escaping dictatorship and repression in Egypt, but what
was not understandable by us is that 20% of these youth wants to migrate to Gulf States which
are not democratic countries.
Also we wanted to know will these youth - aiming for freedom and democracy will consider
coming back to the Egypt, 8% only said that they are not coming back, and other 8% said that
they are neutral, also 36% said that they will only come in short vacations, while the greater
percentage 48% said that they will come back.
The table and chart below shows these percentages in details.

We were keen to understand when these youth will come back to Egypt, and most of the answers
revolved around two main ideas: “end of repression and injustice”, “living in a free state”. Some
of the youth said that they didn’t feelthey live decently in Egypt. And one of the students said
that he has friends in the prison for political reasons so he wants to migrate and he won’t come
back unless his friends get out of prison which reflects his fear of the repressive system.

2- Failure to achieve the goals of the revolution and increasing migration:

The Egyptian youth had great aspirations during the 25th of January to live in a state that
provides them with bread, freedom, social justice and dignity.
Although, we have included the failure to achieve goals of the 25th of Jan revolution before in
another question among the other reasons, we included a specific question about if there was a
relation between the revolution and migration, we noticed that the percentage of the youth who
choose it as their main reason of migration was (2.2%) only. However we found in the second
question a larger percentage (63%) of youth believing that there is a relationship between the
stagnating goals of the revolution and migration.

We assume that it’s because the youth while they believe that there could be a relation between
both factors, still when it comes to them the failure of the goals of the revolution wasn’t their
main motive of migration.

Apart from the results of our research, according to the National survey project for international
migration: the immigration rate in Egypt after the events of January 25 revolution in 2011, was
fixed at a rate of 3% since 2000, but rose to more than 22% in 2012, this increase is a reference
to the large shift in Egypt during this period.

So in fact the migration rates increased after the revolution which shows how much the
revolution wasn’t successful perhaps or maybe lagging in achieving its goals, this also shows
how much disappointed the youth became with their failure to change so they decided to give up
and simply migrate.48

Is there a relation between the rev. and migration?

Cumulative
Frequency Percent Valid Percent Percent

Valid neutral 10 11.1 11.1 11.1

agree 57 63.3 63.3 74.4

disagree 23 25.6 25.6 100.0

Total 90 100.0 100.0

This table shows the results we got regarding the relationship between the increasing rates of
migration and the goals of the 25th of Jan revolution.

While most of the youth chose this pessimistic approach to give up and not trying again to
change their reality by simply migrating, we found a young lady who disagreed with this view,
her name is Jasmine and she studies at Dar Al- Ullom faculty: She believes with her group that
most of the youth chose the easier way by migrating out of the country and not trying to change
it for the better, and when we told her that maybe these youth are simply disappointed because
they didn’t achieve their aspirations, she responded that we can still change our reality if we are

‫ "تعددت األسباب والهجرة واحدة‬.‫ هدي‬,‫"!المصري‬. ‫مصرس‬, 2016.

48

http://www.masress.com/rosaweekly/138138.
really willing, she also mentioned some occurrences from her daily life that supports her claim
by being able to confront bad situations in the country and actually change them, she also
believed that if everyone started by himself and if everyone wouldn’t be silent towards injustice,
we’ll be able to change for the better.

We shouldn’t disregard the point of Jasmine who disagrees with the trend of youth
disappointment with the revolution and their increasing aim of migration, because according to
the sample we have 25.6% of the youth disagree that there is a relation between the revolution
and migration.

Yet, these youth still aim to migrate for other reasons as 39% of them want employment and
decent incomes, 21% want education in foreign universities, and 26% are escaping absence of
human rights and repression, 9% chose all of the reason, and 4% said other choices.

But the only difference between them and Jasmine is that they would still seek migration out of
the country for different reasons while she chose to stay and try to change the situation in Egypt.

This figure shows the main reasons of migration according to the youth who disagreed that there
is a relation between migration and the revolution.
3- Are the youth still interested in following the news of Egypt?

We wanted to know if the youth are following the news, so we asked them about the source they
use to get news and the number of hours they spend in following them. We assume this would
help us knowing whether the youth are still interested in the politics and affairs of the state, or
they are disappointed and not interested.

First the source of news and hours spent following the news: our data showed that almost 65% of
the youth uses the social media and mainly Facebook to get news.
Most of them mentioned pages like Rassd News, Al- Youm Al-Sabee’, AL-Wattan, Veto, Al-
Masry Al-Youm, CNN, BBC, France 24, and other news pages

Some other youth mentioned sarcastic pages like Fasel mesh E’anli, and Febrair al-aswed.

While 19% of these youth watch TV programs, they mentioned a lot of programs with different
affiliations some supporting the political systems like (Kol youm presented by Amr Adib), (Al-
Hayah Al-youm), (10 Masaa’n presented by Wael Al-Ebrashi), (Alqahira wal nas presented by
Ibrahim Eissa), other programs with affiliations against the political system like (Masr Alnaharda
by Mohamed Nasser), and (Maa’ Moutaz by Moutaz Mattar).

Only 5% read newspaper and magazines like Al-Ahram, Al-masry Al-youm, Al-youm Al-
Sabaa’, Al-Masaa’, and Al-Akhbar

10% of the youth were not interested, and 1% said that they use all these sources.

This figure shows the sources of news the youth uses to get news.
The results show that Egyptian youth are interested in the politics of their country as most of
them still follow the news by different means.
However, we should consider how many hours they dedicated to follow the news.
We notice that 60% of the youth follow news from 1-2 hours which is actually the minimum,
21% were not interested in news.

Therefore we conclude that Egyptian youth are to some extent interested minimally with
following the news of their country, so they still feel committed to their country and in following
its news and politics even if this commitment is minimal.

The graph below shows the data explicitly.

As we notice in the graph most youth follow the news for 1-2 hours

4- Loyalty to the state:

In this section we’ll measure the degree of youth loyalty to the state, in order to understand this,
we asked the youth if a crisis happened in the Egypt who they would blame the state or the
political systems or just individuals. To measure the degree of loyalty to the state we also asked
the youth whether they feel more loyal to the state or the world.

When we asked the youth who would they blame if a crisis happened, they were confused
between the concept of the political system and the state as a whole, so we had to clear this
confusion.
Most of the youth actually blamed the political system for any crisis (58%), some youth
commented that they blame all the political systems that came after the revolution for any crisis
in Egypt.
We have 19% of the youth blame the state as a whole for any crisis, and we assume that this is
the percentage of youth who are suffering from the problem of loyalty to the state.
While 22% chose to blame the individuals and the system or the state, we consider these youth to
some extent neutral.

This figure shows that most the youth blame the political system for any crisis.

So we notice that to some extent half of the youth have a problem with the political systems that
ruled after the 25th of January revolution and not the state itself.

We also asked whether the youth consider belonging to Egypt or to the whole world as they
disregard nationality.

The result was that 53% of the youth disagreed with this view so they adhere to the Egyptian
nationality. This percentage is very close to the percentage of the youth who chose not to blame
the state as a whole but only the political system, which confirms the results.

Same applies on those who agreed that they belong more to the world more than Egypt as their
percentage was 18% which was also close to the percentage of those who blamed the state.
These youth feels that they don’t belong to Egypt and they are suffering from disloyalty to their
country.
We notice how close the percentages between of those who agreed to belong to the world (18%)
and those who blamed the state (19%), these are the youth suffering from a crisis in loyalty.

Conclusion of the political assumption:

In this section we measured political reasons related to migration like absence of democracy,
human rights, and repression, the stagnation of achieving the goals of the 25th of January, the
interest of youth in following the news of the country, and lastly to what extent the youth feel
loyal to the state.
Regarding the political assumption, we reached four main conclusions:

1- Quarter of our sample said that the main reason for them to migrate is the absence of
democracy, human rights and repression. Some of these youth wanted to migrate to established
democracies and free countries, while others wanted to migrate to Gulf States and this tendency
wasn’t really understandable by us.
We found also that half of these youth will come back to Egypt but when injustice and repression
end.

2- As for the stagnation in achieving the goals of the revolution, we found that only 2.2% of the
youth would migrate because they are disappointed of the revolution, but when we asked the
youth if there is a relation between the revolution goals and increasing migration a lot of youth
believed in this (63%).
3- We found that Egyptian youth are interested minimally with following the news of their
country, so they still feel committed to their country and in following its news and politics even
if this commitment is minimal. Most of them use the social media and they dedicate from 1-2
hours following the news.

4- As for loyalty for the state, we found that from 18-19% of the youth are not loyal to their
country, which we believe is a very alerting percentage.

Third: The Social Assumption and migration:

In this assumption we’ll consider the relation between migration and gender, also whether there
are fields of study more required than others in the society or most of students want to migrate
because they have no chance here. Lastly we’ll see how the youth perceive the blame of the
media to them because they want to migrate.

First gender and migration:

Before we conducted this research we assumed that there might be large discrepancies between
the percentages of males and females who would want to migrate due to the traditions and
customs of the society towards females.

But we found that there are no big differences between the males and females, who want to
migrate. As we notice in the two following pie charts the males who want to migrate are 85%,
while the females are 77%.

So the difference is not that big which might reflect to what extent the Egyptian society has
changed its view towards female migration as in the past it was considered that the females
shouldn’t travel alone without males with them. We concluded this actually because the females
said that they would migrate without any second considerations related to their family and
traditions.
 We notice how these two pie charts look to some extent close to each other.

Secondly, we found that the Pearson correlation is (0.052) which positive and weak, this
suggests that gender plays a weak role when it comes to the will of migration.

But still would this be the case in reality or would it be simple for females to migrate without any
obstacles from the society? We can’t tell for sure.

Correlations

Gender Migration

Gender Pearson Correlation 1 .052

Sig. (2-tailed) .629

N 90 90

migration Pearson Correlation .052 1

Sig. (2-tailed) .629

N 90 90

2- Who are more willing to migrate?

Our sample contained 90 students from Cairo University; we asked them if they will migrate if
they have the chance.
In fact we got a really alarming percentage as 80% of the students will migrate whenever the
door is open, because in fact these students are the labour force of the country and if most of
them want to migrate it will definitely affect the society. However, we shouldn’t adopt a
pessimistic view because these youth didn’t actually migrate and who knows maybe the situation
gets better in the near future and the youth change their minds.

But what about each faculty, do we have faculty students who would rather stay rather than
migrate, in this point we’ll analyze two points: the first is how each faculty perceives the salaries
they would take as decent or not because salaries reflect how much each field is required in the
society and secondly will each faculty students want to migrate.
We took a sample consists of 15 students from each faculty, and as the graph shows, almost all
of the students regardless the faculty agree that the incomes are not enough.

This reflects to what extent there is no favored field of study over the other, this will definitely
have its implications on the increasing desire of migration as seen in the table below:

will you migrate if you've the chance?

Cumulative
College Frequency Percent Valid Percent Percent

FEPS Valid neutral 3 20.0 20.0 20.0

agree 10 66.7 66.7 86.7

disagree 2 13.3 13.3 100.0

Total 15 100.0 100.0

Science Valid agree 15 100.0 100.0 100.0

Engineering Valid neutral 1 6.7 6.7 6.7

agree 13 86.7 86.7 93.3

disagree 1 6.7 6.7 100.0

Total 15 100.0 100.0

Archaeology Valid neutral 2 13.3 13.3 13.3

agree 13 86.7 86.7 100.0

Total 15 100.0 100.0

Dar Al Uloom Valid neutral 1 6.7 6.7 6.7

agree 11 73.3 73.3 80.0

disagree 3 20.0 20.0 100.0

Total 15 100.0 100.0

Medicine Valid neutral 2 13.3 13.3 13.3

agree 10 66.7 66.7 80.0

disagree 3 20.0 20.0 100.0

Total 15 100.0 100.0

Practical faculties:

We notice that all the students in Science faculty want to migrate, while it’s 87% in engineering
faculty, and 67% in Medicine. We notice that the students in Medicine faculty were the least to
seek migration in the practical faculties as they have a better chance to have a job after
graduation, while all students in Science faculty want migration and this could be because
Science is not very welcomed field in the society and the state doesn’t actually adopt scientists

Literary faculties:

As for literary faculties, 87% of Archaeology students want to migrate maybe because they have
less chance in having a job since tourism sector in Egypt is stagnating, as for Dar Al-Ullom 73%
of it wants to migrate, since it is hard for them to find a job related to their field of study. The
least percentage was for the faculty of Economics and political science 67% perhaps because the
faculty provides a lot of fields of study so better opportunities in the society.

Yet, even if some faculties have less percentage relative to others, in general these percentages
are very high and they are really alerting.

3- The media blame on the youth who wants to migrate:

We asked the youth if they agree on the statement of (if you don’t like the conditions in Egypt,
then migrate) said by the media and supporters of the political system.
The results were 67% disagreed on the statement, while 30% agreed on it, interestingly those of
agreed said that they agree to migrate because they don’t like the conditions but they think that
the state is not actually giving them the choice to migrate so they are staying here as they can’t
migrate.
Conclusion of the Social Assumption:

In the social assumption we measured three main points first the relation between migration and
gender, also whether there are fields of study more required than others in the society or most of
students want to migrate because they have no chance here.
Lastly we’ll see how the youth perceive the blame of the media to them because they want to
migrate.

We concluded four main conclusions:

1- There is a weak relation between gender and migration, as the females believed that they
could migrate freely without any hindrances imposed on them by the society. Yet still we cannot
tell whether they are going to do this in reality or not.

2- All faculties believed that the salaries in Egypt are really not enough to have a decent life, so
there is no favored field of study in the society.

3- We found that there was no difference when it comes to migration between literary and
practical faculties as most of them wants to migrate.

4- 67% of the youth disagreed with the media blaming them because they want to migrate, while
those who agreed said that the state is not actually giving them the choice to migrate so they are
only staying as they can’t migrate.
Chapter three:

social media and the public reaction to the migration issue:

In this chapter, we will focus on the public opinion concerning the migration on the social media
( You Tube, Twitter, and Face book), we will use the content analysis of some videos on
YouTube, some tweets on Twitter and some profiles and pictures on Face book.

We focus on the social media as it is a new type of media and it is also not traditional media,
those social media sites are forms of the public sphere as they create a sphere for the public to
communicate with each other and they enable people to share their ideas and opinions
concerning public matters through pictures, videos comments, so those sites have influential
effects on the public opinion and politics, as they enable people to criticize the policies of the
governments, and they increase the awareness of people and their political participation. 49

First: YouTube:

There are a lot of videos on You Tube made by the Egyptian youth concerning the migration,
those videos highlight the reasons that drive the youth to migrate and there are other videos in
which people present their experiences of migration.

The first video titled “the legal ways to migrate from Egypt to any country”: ( on
September , 2015). 50

This video is made by a young man, he claims this video is produced to illustrate the different
ways to migrate not to encourage the youth to migrate, as they themselves want the migration in
order to search for another homeland.

According to the guy, the youth should migrate firstly as scholars who seek to get their education
from any foreign country to get the temporal residence, then they should search for any job
especially in multinational corporations in order to secure their accommodation abroad, another
method is the marriage from the foreigners but actually he did not prefer this method, then he
asserted on the importance of gaining experience in specific field to get any job easily.

This video is viewed by 2,937 people, 38 people like it and 4 dislike it, and this video contains 8
comments, few comments were like advertisement for jobs abroad, one comment stated “he
migrated to United States as student then he married to secure his accommodation in USA and to
escape from the hell of Egypt, the unemployment, and the bad economic and political

49
Christian Fuchs,” Social Media and the Public Sphere,” University of Westminster, London, UK, vol.12, no.1
(2014):60-78.
50
Ahmed, Elfadly. Video On You Tube Concerning The Several Ways To Migrate From Egypt. 2015. Web. 23 Nov.
2016.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEyNmbLopDo
conditions”, another comment by a girl stated that “ there is no hope in people that one of their
priorities is marriage, staying in Egypt means I will lose my preferred career and staying with
sick and uncivilized community”.

So from this video, we can get that the youth become creative in their ways to migrate, and their
main reasons are the bad economic, political and social conditions.

The second video titled “How to migrate from Egypt in legal way” (on September, 2015). 51

According to the guy in this video, the bad economic conditions, the drawback in each single
sector especially the educational sector, and the economic sector, the rising in the prices of
electricity, natural gas and the decline in the social services are all reasons for the people to lose
their faith in the country and to seek the migration, he thinks that there are two ways to migrate;
the first the illegal migration, secondly the expulsion from the country through pretending to be
homosexual, as the country dismisses the homosexual people, that to leave this country for
another one that respect the human rights and freedom, to a country that will provide you with a
job and salary.

This video is viewed by 658 people, 14 like it and 6 dislike, this video gets 5 comments, one
refused this way as it is immoral, others asserted that some people do so but the authorities
discovered that they are not homosexual.

This video proves that the youth lose their hope in the country and they are ready to do anything
to leave even the immoral things.

The third video titled “ Rassd, watch the opinions of youth concerning migration” ( on
August 2015). 52

The video contains interviews with some young people asking them why they want to migrate,
the response of the first guy is that “he cannot find any job or fulfill his dreams and he thinks that
even if he found a job what he can achieve here in years will be achieved abroad in no time, so
he cannot do anything in country that run through nepotism” , another guy “ sure, I will migrate,
as he cannot satisfy his basic needs in the country and if I found a job here, why I will migrate”,
the third one is Tuk tuk driver, and he stated that although he got his education in the
Agricultural Cooperation Institute, he does not find any job so he wants to migrate for better life.

This video is viewed by 1,556 people, with 11 likes and only one dislike, and without any
comments.

51
Ahmed, Hook. Video On How To Migrate From Egypt. 2015. Web. 24 Nov. 2016.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bgecde_yhBU

52
RASSD,. Watch The Opinions Of Youth Concerning Migration. 2015. Web. 24 Nov. 2016.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_R2cXLTSm0
The forth video titled “the economic conditions lead to youth migration” , ( on November
2014). 53

This video also contains some interviews with guys asking them about the reasons for migration,
the first guy thinks the unemployment, the instability are the main reasons, although he
graduated from faculty of engineering, he is ready to work anything abroad, a girl considered
that the repression of freedoms, narrow thinking, nepotism and the unemployment as the main
reasons for the migration and although she is a doctor, she will work anything abroad, another
girl wants to migrate, but she thinks it is hard for a girl to migrate, another guy thinks that the
political and economic instability, the dominance of elders over everything are the main reasons
for migration, so the political elites should be replaced with youth as all the young people suffer
from the sterile thinking, another guy thinks that the bad economic conditions especially after the
25th revolution and unemployment are the main reasons, an old woman thinks that the president
should provide the youth with jobs and does his best to improve the economy to avoid the loss of
the youth.

This video is viewed by 1,340, with 5 likes and without any dislikes and with one comment that
asserts that guys are ready to work with ISIS.

The fifth video titled “message from Elsisi president to the youth, why you want to leave
your country”. (On September 2016). 54

This video is a part of Elsisi speech after the accident of Rashid boat, the president in this video
urges the youth not to leave their country as there will be economic improvement and the state
always tries to improve their lives, he reminds them with some programs like dignity and
solidarity.

This video is viewed by 7,686, with 9 likes, 32 dislikes and 3 comments, one of them asserts that
they leave as they do not have any job and he blames the presidents for the people that died in
this accident, another comment makes fun of this speech and states “ yes there are so many jobs
and they sacrifice their lives as they are mad.

Second: twitter

In this section, we will depend on some hash tags about the migration, the hash tag is a word
following the hash sign (#), used on twitter or face book to identify message on certain issues.

1. Hash tag “ I want to migrate because”: 55

53
Masr Alarbyia,. “ The Economic Conditions Lead To Youth Migration. 2014. Web. 24 Nov. 2016.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRE_dM7H-W4
54
ON ENT,. From Sisi To Youth " Why You Want To Leave Your Country?".. 2016. Web. 24 Nov. 2016.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3XBCPVQUeE
After few hours of inaugurating this hash tag on March 2016, it became the fourth most popular
hash tag on twitter; the youth used it to express their opinions concerning the migration through
photos, videos and it also contains some political and sarcastic comments or tweets, a guy tweets
“I want to migrate because I can’t stand the life in Egypt”, another guy “ I want to migrate
because the goodness of this country is always for the others”, another tweet “ I want to leave as
if I stay here, I will die” , “ I want to migrate as I found the life here full of injustice, repression
and misery so I want to migrate to try another country”, “ I want to migrate as I do not want to
build my country, I want a real state to live in” , another sarcastic tweet “ I want to migrate
because we are a developed country and I want to try the burdens of the other less developed
countries”, actually the majority of the tweets reflect the burdens of the Egyptian youth, the bad
economic, political conditions, the repression of freedoms, the social injustice and inequality, it
also reflects the dreams and hopes of those youth, but we also found some tweets that asserted
that they do not want to migrate as they love this country and they will do their best to improve
it.

2. Hash tag “ I want to migrate”: 56

55
https://twitter.com/search?q=%D8%B9%D8%A7%D9%8A%D8%B2%20%D8%A7%D9%87%D8%A7%D8%AC%D8%
B1%20%D8%B9%D8%B4%D8%A7%D9%86%20&src=typd
56
https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&vertical=default&q=%23%D8%B9%D8%A7%D9%8A%D8%B2_%D8%A7%D9
%87%D8%A7%D8%AC%D8%B1%20&src=typd&lang=en
This hash tag was created in 2015, and also received thousands of tweets, a guy tweeted “ if I
were not Egyptian , I want to migrate to another country that respect the man, another one “ if
Egypt open the door for migration, no one can close this door”, “ the real happiness will be found
if you leave this country”, “ the Egyptian community is immoral, I want to leave”, “ if you make
a referendum to see how many people will waive their citizenship, I am sure the result will be
90% and the 10% will be from the elders”, from those comments we can get another factor of the
migration which is the social factor as youth lose their faith in the dogmatic Egyptian society
which characterized by the dominance of elders.

Third:Facebook

In this section we will analyse mainly posts and hashtags on Facebook complaining about living
in Egypt .Common characteristic in all these posts is that although they all criticized differnt
aspects of living in Egypt, for example : some complained about educationl system , some other
posts complained about healthcare, but they all agreed upon migration as a final solution to all
these problems. Most posts represented the tremd that people consider that there is no hope for
Egypt's problems to be solved or the reaity to become better , so they resort to migration as a
kind of escapism to a new reality.
Hashtag : I want to quit: 57

This post shows how some youth are moving towards owing less allegiance to Egypt and to be
more disloyal or not feeling a duty towards their coutry home to continue living in Egypt's
deteriorating conditions as a result of being deprived from their essential needs. The young man
says that nothing attracts him to homeland ,but the gravitation. Most comments on this post
agreed that migration is the only solution to their problems .One of the friends referred to the
head of political system, president Abdelfattah Elsisi sarcastically as being the sponsor to
Egyptians' migration , this proves how dissatisfaction with political regime performance is a
main reason in youth migration.58

57
URL:https://m.facebook.com/search/top/?q=%23%D8%B9%D8%A7%D9%8A%D8%B2_%D8D9%87%D8%AC&r
ef=content_filter&tsid=0.6040195084642619&source=typeahe
58
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=691539327598401&id=100002270214114&ref=conten
t_filter
This is a sarcastic post that considers residence in Egypt as hell on Earth or it is a punishment ,
the young man who wrote the post said that if we could exit Egypt alive ,it is grace of God ,and
if we could exit Egypt rickety , it is justice, and if we couldn't migrate from Egypt , it would be a
mess . In a comment , a frriend asked the publisher of the post to let them migrate together. The
publisher of the post replied that he will migrate first and maybe he will be helping his friends to
in migration procedures , producin a series of migrations (chain migration).This post denotes
how young men are impressed by the idea of migration and how they see migration as their
collective dream.59

59
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1827835024167148&id=100008220041538&ref=conte
nt_filter
This posted photo shows a man setting on the ground in a street begging his living in front of a
placard or a wall in which slogans of 25th revolution , bread ,freedom and social justice, were
written at the background , as a sign of failure of achieving demands of revolution and
continutity of suffering from poor economy and having no bread and no social jusice and
subsequently no freedom will be achieved . A criticism for society's hypocrisy was displayed in
a comment , referring to the contradiction between the reality, and the slogans of the revolution
or the poor man who doesn't probably have the money to buy bread n front of January's
revolution demands on the placard at the background.60

60
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1030881013597833&id=100000278320809
This post is using a common Egyptian way to make fun of anything , by using a scene of a well-
known comedy movie and change the scenario , but taking into consideration that dialogue will
be going in the same way with only a slight a change in wording to suit the idea of the message
that we want to send..Here the publisher wanted to make fun of the deteriorating , bad economic
and political conditions in Egypt sarcastically when he made the character in the movie the
mouthpiece to Egyptian youth who cannot find any job opportuniities providing high salaries and
those young men who are being suppressed and their political oponions are being silenced.61

61
https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1177250315702388&id=100002522930711&set=a.6321792
46876167.1073741825.100002522930711&source=48&ref=content_filter.
This post is sarcastic. It makes fun of the idea of the opposition to the previous political leader,
president Mohamed Morsi , based on the idea that their opposition logic was based on the claim
that Egypt does not need a president who comes from a religious or Islamic background ,but
Egypt is in need of a leader who can provide them with their basic needs. The sarcasm here
depends upon the fact that the new leadership did not either provide them with food or drink. It is
clear that the publisher wants to migrate from Egypt based on his political affiliation. 62

62
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=586912161504124&id=100005560356786&ref=conten
t_filter
Hashtag : Oh Allah ,Grant us migration:63

This post is a sarcastic one , it uses words that are similar to an extent with the wording of a
well-known and popular song that was made for the propaganda of heart disease hospital .The
original song words are optimistic and gives hope to the patients , but the words of this parallel
song are , on the contrary , pessimistic .It implies that there are no hope in Egypt to improve. It
induces people to migrate by referring to the ease of migration procedures , and requiring only
your passport to be sealed to be capable of migration.64

63
URL:https://m.facebook.com/search/top/?q=%23%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%84%D9%87%D9%85_%D9%
87%D8%AC%D8%B1%D8%A9&ref=content_filter&tsid=0.5191614702343941&source=typeahead
64
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1781499505435900&id=100007276021785&ref=conte
nt_filter
This post shows a different trend , which opposes the calls for migration in addition to hostility
feeling towards those who want to migrate. There is also an attempt to link between lack of
national feeling and desire to migrate.The publisher of the post implictly accused those who want
to migrate from Egypt of being unpatriotic .She called for their departure from Egypt and
claimed that this will make Egypt cleaner.65

The reasons for youth migration:

After analyzing the social media sites, we can conclude that youth tend to migrate for three main
reasons:

1. The economic reasons:

From the view point of the youth, the drawback in the economy of Egypt, the
unemployment, the drawback of social services ( health care, education), the injustice in
distributing the resources, are the main reasons for youth to migrate, if they migrate, they
will find suitable jobs with fair income that will secure their lives.
2. The political reasons:
The repression of freedoms, the restrictions on expressing opinions, the disrespect of the
human rights and the injustice and inequality between the classes of the state are also the
main reasons for migration, so if youth migrate, they will live in advanced state that
respect the human rights, the freedom of people so they will be free in expressing their
opinions.
3. The social reasons :
The youth feel that they are marginalized in the Egyptian society, as elder people
dominate everything and those elders always practice their paternalistic authority on the
youth, so they want to migrate to another society with different culture where they will be
represented as their life in Egypt becomes like a hell.

65
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1182560235163534&id=100002287069388&ref=conte
nt_filter.
The Conclusion:

This research was about the main reasons of youth migration. We summarized these reasons into
economic, political, and social reasons as mentioned in many sections of the research.

We have conducted first a historical study of the background of migration in Egypt since Nasser,
Sadat, and Mubarak Eras. Then we studied the same phenomenon after the 25th of January
revolution, and we mentioned also the efforts of the current system to limit migration especially
the illegal type. That was in the first chapter.

As for the Second and Third chapters, both were the results of our field study regarding the issue
of migration.

The second chapter was the analysis of the questionnaire we have conducted in Cairo University
on 90 students, and we reached some major conclusions regarding the social, political, and
economic assumptions.

The third and final chapter was about a content analysis to the Social Media mainly Facebook,
Twitter, and YouTube.

The main conclusion we got from this research is that a huge percentage of the youth are aspiring
for migration out the country for many reasons but mainly they are finding a decent job or
escaping repression, we also found that the youth are feeling less attached to the state as they
became less interested in following the news and also they feel that they shouldn’t be Egyptians,
all of these conclusions should be taken in consideration as they are really alarming for the state
wellbeing.
Bibliography:

.2016 .‫" مصرس‬،‫ "تعددت األسباب و الهجرة واحدة‬.‫ هدي‬,‫المصري‬

http://www.masress.com/rosaweekly/138138.

@Reinis_Fischer. "What Is Minimum Wage In European Union 2015." Reinis Fischer. October 03, 2016. Accessed
November 24, 2016. https://www.reinisfischer.com/what-minimum-wage-european-union-2015.

"United States Average Hourly Wages | 1964-2016 | Data | Chart | Calendar." Trading economics. Accessed
November 24, 2016. http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/wages.

"Saudi Arabia Sets Minimum Wage for Expats at SR2,500." English.alarabiya.net. November 12, 2014. Accessed
November 24, 2016. http://english.alarabiya.net/en/business/economy/2014/11/12/Saudi-Arabia-sets-minimum-
wage-for-expats-at-SR2-500-.html.

"‫ الهجرة و االقامة فى اوروبا‬- ‫" الهجرة الى اوروبا‬.‫الهجرة الى اوروبا‬. Accessed November 28, 2016. http://www.immigration-
residency-europe.com/.

"‫ المؤهلين للتقديم‬.. ‫ كيفية تقديم طلب هجرة الى امريكا‬,"

Accessed November 28, 2016. https://www.immig-us.com/‫امريكا‬-‫الى‬-‫هجرة‬-‫طلب‬-‫تقديم‬-‫كيفية‬/.

"‫الحد األدنى لألجور في مصر‬." Rawateb.org/Egypt. Accessed November 24, 2016.

http://www.rawateb.org/home/Salaries/minimum-wages.

http://www.aljazeera.net/news/ebusiness/2016/11/3/‫الجنيه‬-‫تعويم‬-‫بعد‬-‫مصر‬-‫ينتظر‬-‫الذي‬-‫ما‬
‫ دار‬- ‫" العدد الجديد من مجلة المصور‬.‫ مليونا غاضب‬50 ‫أبناء الطبقة الوسطى‬: ‫للواء أبوبكر الجندى رئيس جهاز التعبئة واإلحصاء‬
2012 .‫الهالل‬. Accessed November 24, 2016.http://www.daralhilal.com.eg/print.php?id=1032

http://www.elshaab.org/news/210130/%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%81%D9%8A%D8%AF

http://www.elfagr.org/1986403 ‫ م‬07:21 - 2016/‫يناير‬/06 ‫األربعاء‬

‫ القصة الكاملة لـ"بائع الفريسكا" الذي فضحه نشطاء "الفيس بوك‬.. ‫ بعد اعترافه بالكذب وهروبه‬.. ‫ بالصور‬:‫بوابة الفجر‬
"
http://www.youm7.com/story/2016/9/25/%D8%AA%D8%BA%D9%8A%D9%8A%D8%B1-
.‫ القانون لن يجعلهم الجناة‬:‫ أبو شقة‬.‫ حلول لألزمة‬5 ‫ عالء عابد يقترح‬.‫تغيير ثقافة الشباب عن العمل أفضل طرق عالج الهجرة غير الشرعية‬
‫ يجب استغاللهم فى مشروعات‬:‫ وحماة الوطن‬..‫ الحكومة ليست السبب‬:‫الشعب الجمهورى‬
2016-11-28 ‫ الوصول‬.‫ ص‬04:55 2016 ‫ سبتمبر‬25 ،‫األحد‬
http://www.masrawy.com/News/News_Egypt/details/2016/9/22/942578/%D8%A3%D8%AD%D8%
‫أحزاب ترفع شعار ''توفير فرص العمل'' ردًا على حوادث الهجرة غير الشرعية‬
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkdvaMqkOek
‫ إجراءات عاجلة من السيسي لمواجهة الهجرة غير الشرعية بعد غرق مركب رشيد‬5 ‫بالفيديو‬
http://www.masrawy.com/News/News_Egypt/details/2016/9/24/943335/5-
"،‫”الحكومة تبدأ إجراءات الحد من الهجرة غير الشرعية‬
‫تكثيف الرقابة على مراسي المراكب والشواطئ‬.‫ وتغليظ العقوبات على سماسرة التهريب‬.
19:38 2016-09-24 ‫كتب |السبت‬: ‫| محمد عبد العاطي‬
http://www.almasryalyoum.com/news/details/1013936
Hafez, Hend, and Ayman Ghaly. "The Arab Spring and Migration in Egypt: One year on: impacts,
perceptions and attitudes." (2012).
Hassan, Khaled Elsayed. "Future of Egyptian Labor Migration after the Arab Uprising." Future 22 (2013):
23.
“Egypt after two years of Sisi's rule...racing against time!!”
http://www.sis.gov.eg/section/29/5182?lang
http://www.elwatannews.com/news/details/1488971
"‫ ال يوجد بطالة في مصر "الناس مش عايزه تشتغل‬:"‫"اتحاد الصناعات‬
2016-11-28 ‫ الوصول‬.. ‫ >> محمود البدوي‬2016-10-11 ‫الثالثاء‬
http://www.elyomnew.com/news/inside/2016/09/23/59266
".‫ حوادث تؤكد استمرار مسلسل ضحايا «الهجرة غير الشرعية‬8 ..»‫"آخرها «مركب رشيد‬
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKFGu5EFDi0
‫أسف_ياريس‬#
‫ الشباب عندنا في مصر يرفض يشتغل في مصنع وال أوتيل بس يقبل إنه يسافر‬,‫ الرئيس مبارك تعليقا علي هجرة الشباب للخارج‬:‫||يعرض ألول مرة‬
!!‫ أهم حاجه إن محدش تاني شايفه علشان بيتكسف‬,‫بره معاه بكالريوس ويشتغل في المطبخ يغسل اطباق وميفتحش بقه‬
"2016 ,‫ بوابة فيتو‬."»‫رقبة مبارك‬ ‫في‬ ‫الشرعية‬ ‫غير‬ ‫الهجرة‬ ‫ضحايا‬ ‫«ذنب‬ :‫فرغلى‬ ‫البدرى‬ ..‫بالفيديو‬.
http://www.vetogate.com/2422273.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=23&v=thrrM0eRv18
" ‫ “ذنب ضحايا الهجرة غير الشرعية في رقبة مبارك‬:‫ البدري فرغلى‬.‫بالفيديو‬
2016-11-28 :‫ الوصول‬..‫ محمد الدمرداش‬..02:07 - 2016/‫أكتوبر‬/23 ‫األحد‬
2016 "،‫ عن هجرة ورحيل المصريين غير الطوعية للخارج‬..‫ "التغريبة الثالثة‬،‫معتز حجاج‬
http://anhri.net/?p=178354
Giovanni Facchini, and Anna Maria Mayda, "The political economy of immigration policy," (2009).
"Migration Types And Reasons". Vitauto didziojo universities. N.p., 2013. Web. 28 Nov. 2016.:

Florence Miguet, "Essays on the political economy of migration," PhD diss., University of Geneva, 2006.

Giovanni Facchini, and Anna Maria Mayda, "The political economy of immigration policy," (2009).

Stanley NGERMAN, and Kenneth SOKOLOFF, "Institutions, factor endowments, and paths of development in the
new world," Journal of Economics Perpectives 14, no. 3 (2000).
http://www.econ.nyu.edu/user/debraj/Courses/Readings/SokoloffEngerman.pdf
"Human Migration Guide". National Geographic. Web. 28 Nov. 2016.

"Lesson Five Push-Pull Factors," San Joaquin Valley Council for the Social Studies, Web. 28 Nov. 2016.
E.G. Ravenstien, "The Laws Of Migration," Journal of the statistical society of London 48.2 (2016): 198,199. Print.
Michael j. Greenwood, "Modeling Migration," University of Colorado, n. page.726-730 (2016): Print.
The International Labor Organization,. YOUTH AND LABOUR MIGRATION. 2016. Web. 20 Nov. 2016.
The United Nations,. Youth Migration. The UN, 2016. Web. 20 Nov. 2016.
.2012 ،‫ نزيف الطاقة‬،‫فارس توفيق محمد البيل‬
Khaled, Alsayed. "Future Of Egyptian Labor Migration After The Arab Uprising". The Seminar On International
Migration In The Middle East And North Africa. Cairo, Egypt: N.p., 2013.pp.(4-24).
Hend, Hafez. "The Arab Spring And Migration In Egypt, One Year On: Impacts, Perceptions And Attitudes".
American University in Cairo, 2012, pp.(28-37)
The International Labor Organization,. YOUTH AND LABOUR MIGRATION. 2016. Web. 20 Nov. 2016. P:1-5.
.17-9:‫ ص‬.2012 ،‫ نزيف الطاقة‬،‫فارس توفيق محمد البيل‬
Christophe, Schramm. Migration From Egypt, Morocco, And Tunisia Synthesis Of Three Case Studies. World Bank,
2005, pp.(2-25).
Ibid.
The United Nations,. Youth Migration. The UN, 2016. Web. 20 Nov. 2016. P:1-2.
.6-9:‫ ص‬.2012 ،‫ نزيف الطاقة‬،‫فارس توفيق محمد البيل‬
Jessica Hagen-Zanker, "Modest expectations: Causes and effects of migration on migrant households in
source countries," (2010). P:17-20.
The United Nations,. Youth Migration. The UN, 2016. Web. 20 Nov. 2016. P:1-2.
.6-5:‫ص‬.2012 ،‫ نزيف الطاقة‬،‫فارس توفيق محمد البيل‬
Asmaa Elbadawy, "Migration aspirations among young people in Egypt: Who desires to migrate and why," In
Economic Research Forum. 2010.
Sunita Dodani, and Ronald E. LaPorte, "Brain drain from developing countries: how can brain drain be converted
into wisdom gain?," Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 98, no. 11 (2005): 487-491.
Asmaa Elbadawy, "Migration aspirations among young people in Egypt: Who desires to migrate and why,"
In Economic Research Forum. 2010.
Sahar, Hafez. "The Illegal Migration( The Concept, The Size And Legislation)". Horms 2.2 (2013): 51,52. Print.

September 26, 2016. "،‫ "أحد الناجين من غرق مركب رشيد يروي مأساته و هللا ههاجر تاني‬،‫مجدي أبو العينين‬
Accessed November 7, 2016. http://www.almasryalyoum.com/news/details/1014766.

"IMMIGRATION AND ITS REASONS". Englishtopics.Net. Accessed 7 November 2016.

https://www.englishtopics.net/topicsmenu/4-topicshigh/107-immigration-and-its-reasons.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/09/g68/migrationguidestudent.pdf

"Top Seven Reasons Why People Immigrate | Global Immigration,"Global Immigration, 2009.
http://www.immigration.net.in/2009/07/09/top-seven-reasons-why-people-immigrate/.
Nuñez, Christina. "Why People Migrate: 11 Surprising Reasons". Global Citizen, 2014.
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/why-people-migrate-11-surprising-reasons/.

‫مش عاجبك حال البلد هاجر وسيبها وغور‬, Youtube: N.p., 2016. Video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL1Sqot1-Hw

2014 ,‫ البديل‬,"‫ البديل‬- ‫ مصر‬- ‫ هذا حال شباب الثوار‬..»‫ "من «الثورة مستمرة» إلى «الخروج اآلمن واللهم هجرة‬,‫شيماء حمدى‬,
http://elbadil.com/2014/12/15/‫و‬-‫اآلمن‬-‫الخروج‬-‫إلى‬-‫مستمرة‬-‫الثورة‬-‫من‬/
The United Nations,. Youth Migration. The UN, 2016. Web. 20 Nov. 2016. P:1-2.
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/documents/youth/fact-sheets/youth-migration.pdf