Study reveals Egypt losing its brightest young minds
- Image by D’Arcy Vallance via Flickr
According to a recent study by the Earth Centre for Studies almost half a million (460,000) Egyptians have successfully entered Europe illegally in the last decade, and 90,000 live in Italy alone.
Another study into attitudes towards migration by the Arabic Labour Organisation is equally revealing.
It found that 50% of students who take up postgraduate studies in Europe or the United States don’t return to Egypt, meaning the country is losing some of its brightest and most talented pupils.
Two thousand young people took part in the study and when asked whether they would like to live and work abroad, 50% said yes.
According to official figures, about 10% of Egypt population of 70 million is unemployed. But some analysts believe the figure could be much higher, and there have been calls for the government and the private sector to work harder to find jobs for millions of people who are out of work.
Migration, legal or illegal, is seen by most Egyptians as a way of finding work and getting rich – despite the risks and costs. Hundreds of thousands of people have left already and in some areas the effects can be seen and felt.
Some people send home remittances, which can also have some surprising downsides.
A recent report published in an Egyptian daily newspaper found that a village in one of Egypt’s poorest governorates had seen a sharp increase in land prices. Prices had risen because about 13,000 people from the village work in Italy and had sent money to their families to buy land and build Italian-style villas.
Excerpted from an article by Mahmoud al-Sayed and Dina al-Naggar for BBC News
