Migration profile : Egypt

Abstract

Egypt is the most populous Arab country with, as of December 2015, 90.2 million inhabitants. Not surprisingly, it is the largest migrant sending country in the region to date. After a phase of legal restrictions on emigration under Nasser's regime, Egyptian emigration took off after 1971. The economy and national borders were opened to the circulation of goods and persons (infitah) under President Sadat. The right to migrate is enshrined in the 1971 Constitution. The 1973 War and the ensuing hike in oil prices having stimulated strong work force needs in oil-producing countries, large numbers of emigrants left Egypt for Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states, to Iraq as well as to Libya.