MENA countries need to change their policies to make the most of their migrants. Niveen Wahish reports on the findings of a recent conference NOW aged 55, Hamdy left his home to work in Saudi Arabia 30 years ago. With elementary school education, he did all sorts of odd jobs until he found work with a Saudi businessman. Hamdy works to support his family back in Aswan. Hamdy is one of around five million Egyptians working abroad, sending more than $8 billion into the country in remittances. People like Hamdy are important assets across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. According to Jackline Wahba, associate professor of the University of Southampton, there are 18.1 million migrants in the region. They constitute 5.3 per cent of the region's population, yet MENA countries are not taking full advantage. Wahba was addressing a conference organised by the Economic Research Forum in Beirut on "Migration in the Arab Region: Impact and Consequences". The conference was intended to disseminate the results of a research project designed to analyse the economic and non-economic consequences of intra and extra- Arab migration. In a study on Egypt, Wahba found that return migration affects the economic prospects of origin countries through savings and human capital accumulation. Her study showed that returning migrants are more likely to become employers or self-employed. She also found out that overseas temporary migration results in a wage premium upon return, although it may be over-estimated if the individual characteristics of each migrant are not taken into account. A similar case holds for Morocco as well where Wahba, together with Bachir Hamdouch, of the University of Mohamed V, conducted another study according to which, "return migration can play a useful role in development through entrepreneurship and mobilising savings of migrants." It showed that 45.5 per cent of returnees became entrepreneurs, compared to 31.9 per cent of non-migrants. The experts also found that the longer migrants stayed abroad, the higher the probability of them becoming entrepreneurs. A similarly positive effect on human capital was shown by Jad Chaaban of the American University in Beirut and Wael Mansour of the World Bank in their study of the impact of remittances on education in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. They showed that remittances sent to migrants' families increase their possibility of attending school and obtaining a university education. More indirect effects of migration were addressed by Michel Beine of the University of Luxembourg and Khalid Sekkat of the University of Brussels. In their paper, they argue that "international emigration has an impact on the quality of institutions in the sending country, but that such an impact may be positive or negative." For example, they explain, "emigration may have a negative impact if individuals that can effectively speak in favour of an improvement in the quality of institutions tend to leave the country. The impact might be positive if the same individuals rely on the liberal climate in a host country to advocate for an improvement in the country of origin." These findings, says Wahba, highlight the importance of migration for countries of origin. That being the case, she recommended that home countries should strengthen their relationship with their diaspora communities. Educated migrants should also be invited to be "more involved in the economic and political life of their home country." She suggested that that could be done through preserving the voting rights for those who have emigrated. On the economic front, Wahba said that "governments should provide the right environment to enable benefits of migration to be maximised." She gave an example showing that it costs Egyptians more to transfer money from Saudi Arabia than it does Indians and Pakistanis. It is even more expensive for a Jordanian. Wahba also discussed the red tape procedures migrants need to go through to establish their own project. She and Hamdouch stressed the need to make life easier for returnees, by encouraging them to invest by providing them with tax holidays and detailed information on investment possibilities. She said that while migrants are agents for development, they need the right economic, social and political institutions to play that role right. MIGRATION has its setbacks, especially when unforeseen events force migrants back home. This was the case of 200,000 Egyptians living in Libya up until this year. In an attempt to analyse the situation of these Egyptians, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) surveyed 1,283 Egyptians on their journey from Tunisia and Misrata, Libya, to Egypt. Maurizio Busatti, IOM chief of mission in France, presented the findings to a conference organised by the Economic Research Forum on "Migration in the Arab Region: Impact and Consequences." According to Busatti, events in Libya have increased the vulnerability of already susceptible segments of the population. In fact, the figures he presented reveal to what ends Egyptians are going just in order to make a living. The salaries of 51 per cent of the surveyed group were under LE1,000 a month. And of those, 380 earned less than LE500, while 336 earned between LE500 and LE1,000. Yet the majority worked to financially support their family, with only 6.3 per cent saying they support only themselves. Meanwhile 44 per cent of the group identified themselves as workers, or as working in an unqualified job. The largest part of the group, 37 per cent, had been working in the construction sector in Libya followed by agriculture and fishing, then industry and trade. They were mostly graduates of secondary or technical education -- 49 per cent -- while 27 per cent said they were capable of reading and writing only without further education, while only nine per cent were university students. Meanwhile, 75 per cent of the group said they would remain in Egypt while 13 per cent wanted to return and 12 per cent said they would look for work elsewhere. However, the majority stated their willingness to remain in Egypt, when offered support to start a business or find a job. That being the case, Busatti said it is important to have reintegration schemes facilitating the accelerated creation of income-generating opportunities such as self-employment, vocational and on-the-job training for these returnees. He also encouraged the enhancement of marketable skills through further education. He also recommended introducing circular and labour migration alternatives for those who intend to migrate.
