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  • Title: [Inter-Arab migration and development].
    Author: Fergany N.
    Journal: Tiers Monde (1960); 1985; 26(103):583-96. PubMed ID: 12280377.
    Abstract:
    This paper argues that interArab migration has weakened the potential for development in the region due to the specific characteristics of the migration and its extremely high level in the past decade. Data on migratory streams is inadequate concerning the volume of migrants, their characteristics, and their impact on socioeconomic structures in the Arab region. In the 1970s, the Arab region was increasingly polarized into oil exporting countries experiencing a massive increase in revenues and nonexporters which have become increasingly impoverished. A World Bank team estimated that, assuming rapid growth, the number of migrant workers in the principal oil-exporting countries would double between 1975-85 from 1.6 to 3.5 million, while the proportion Arab would decline from 65 to 55%. The total foreign population was expected to increase from 3 million in 1975 to 10 million in 1985, representing an increase from 25 to 40% of the total population of those receiving countries. The impact of emigration on the countries of origin was greater than the mere numbers of migrants would suggest, because most migrants tended to be working age men from the most dynamic population sectors, because of the large volume of nonmigrants dependent on the migrants' incomes, because of the large number of persons directly and indirectly involved in migration over time as a consequence of the constant turnover, and because of the macroeconomic effects of massive migration on the local economies. Mechanisms of selection in the countries of employment coupled with the rigidity of educational systems in the countries of origin result in shortages of qualified and sometimes even of unskilled labor in the countries of origin, leading to reduced productivity. Remissions are often viewed as beneficial for the country of origin, but in fact they encourage consumption of imported goods while entire sectors of the domestic economy stagnate or deteriorate. Remissions depend on economic activity of other countries and are not a secure source of income. They are rarely used to improve productive capacity in the country of origin, and are often a cause of inflation. Emigration disturbs the age and sex structures of the population and polarizes it into migrants and nonmigrants. It may also modify the class distribution of income to the detriment of the poorest sectors. In the Gulf oil-exporting states, the effects of immigration on the socioeconomic structures are inseparable from the effect of other factors, especially the utilization of oil revenues. Immigration has not increased the potential for development because it has fragmented their social structures, it has retarded development of local human resources and led to a deterioration of the work ethic, and it has deepened dependence on the outside world. Migration has hindered regional Arab development by contributing to increased economic disparities between sending and receiving countries, weakening leadership in individual states, and encouraging resentment among many migrants.
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