A Comparative Study on the International Migration of Workers in Tunisia and Egypt

Abstract

The North African region has served as a destination, transit point, and departure point for migration for a long time. And the overseas migration of nationals and foreigners continues steadily from this region. Within the region, Tunisia and Egypt are the places where mass protests broke out due to the economic crisis and political issues in early 2011. However, there has been no significant change in emigration flow since then. Accordingly, this study presents the migration flows in Tunisia and Egypt. Then it conducts a comparative analysis to examine the characteristics of the migration flows of the two countries. The two countries show differences in various aspects, such as destination countries, patterns of migration, features of migrant populations, and current national migration policies. However, at the same time, there are similarities in implementing government policies to encourage the overseas migration of its people and the variety of migration destinations, especially of highly skilled and highly educated workers heading to North America among the younger generation. In addition to the economic causes considered in this study, it can be inferred that migration patterns may appear differently depending on colonial, cultural, and social characteristics in that migration patterns are different between Tunisia, which belongs to the Maghreb region, and Egypt, which does not belong to the Maghreb region.