Migration from the Middle East and North Africa to Europe Past Developments, Current Status, and Future Potentials (Amsterdam..

euro-Mediterranean Migration futures 49

1.4 Recent migration trends

1.4.1 Migrant population data

Figure 1.2 reveals that Morocco and Turkey are dominant source countries

for migrants from the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean to the EU. The

data reveal that France has been the dominant destination for Moroccan

migrants over past decades, while Germany occupies a similar position for

Turkish migrants. What these data also show, however, is that the degree of

diversif ication of migration to Europe is much higher for Moroccans than for

Turks. As we will see, this partly ref lects the new ‘primary’ labour migration

that occurred from Morocco to Spain and Italy, while Turkish emigration

has slowed down and predominantly consists of family migration to Ger-

many and a few other traditional destinations. Egypt shows a very different

picture, with the lion’s share of its unskilled and skilled workers migrating

to the Gulf and Libya, and most elite migrants and students going to North

America and Australia. At least until recently, migration from Egypt to

Europe has remained very limited.

Figure 1.2 Emigrant stocks according to destination

0

500,000

1,00 0,000

1,50 0,000

2,00 0,000

2,50 0,000

3,00 0,000

3,50 0,000

4,00 0,000

Morocco

(2004)

Algeria

(2003)

Tunisia

(2003)

Egypt

(2000)

Turkey

(2002)

Number of emigrants

Americas and other

Arab

Other Europe

Germany

France

Sources: Various sending-countr y sources cited in Fargues (2005)

Although the estimated number of Moroccan citizens living abroad (3.1

million) is almost equal to that of Turkey (3.6 million), Table 1.1 shows that

they represent a much higher share of the total population (10.1 per cent)

than is the case for Turkey (4.9 per cent) and Egypt (3.6 per cent). While

8.6 per cent of all Moroccan citizens and 4.2 per cent of all Turkish citizens

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