euro-Mediterranean Migration futures 41
meant a reorientation away from the Soviet Union and towards the United
States, and a move from a centralised-plan economy towards economic
liberalisation and the increasing opening of the Egyptian economy to foreign
investment. Temporary migration came to be seen as a means to alleviate
demographic pressures and stimulate economic growth. In 1971, all legal bar-
riers to migration were lifted; government workers were allowed to emigrate
while maintaining the right to return to their jobs (IOM 2005).^5 The foreign
demand for Egyptian labour peaked in 1983, when 3.3 million Egyptians were
estimated to be working abroad (Zohry & Harrell-Bond 2003: 27-31).
The majority of Arab and Turkish migrants moved to Saudi Arabia,
although all other Arab oil countries received their share of Egyptian
migrants. Both skilled and unskilled workers migrated to the Arab oil
countries, although most skilled migrants preferred the member states of
the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman,
Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Iraq, in particular,
became a popular destination for unskilled Egyptian migrants, because
of its liberal immigration policies towards Arabs, and its need for foreign
labour as a result of the 1980-1988 war with Iran. Libya attracted many
North African and Turkish migrants. Egyptians were the largest nationality
present in Libya; they worked predominantly in agriculture and education
(Hamood 2006: 17). Most migrants to the Arab oil countries were temporary
workers, typically men. The longer-term migration of skilled workers to
the Gulf countries, such as that which occurred from Egypt, remained
relatively modest.
Although the economic boom in the Arab oil countries generated signif i-
cant migration f lows of workers from Morocco and Turkey, in contrast to
Egypt, migration from these countries remained predominantly oriented
towards North-West Europe. The European economic downturn provided
the mirror image of the boom of the Arab oil economies. In Europe, the
1973 Oil Crisis heralded a period of economic stagnation and restructur-
ing, resulting in rising structural unemployment and a lower demand for
unskilled labourers. However, contrary to expectations, after a f irst wave of
return it became clear that large numbers of Turkish, Moroccan and other
Mediterranean immigrants decided not to return, and ended up staying
permanently. Policies by sending and receiving states to encourage the
return of their migrants typically failed, primarily due to economic crises
5 Restrictions on labour migration were already relatively eased after the 1967 Six-Day War
and the subsequent economic downturn, which heralded the start of more long-term emigration,
whereas students abroad tended to stay abroad (Zohry & Harrell-Bond 2003).