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Migration aspirations among youth in the Middle East and North Africa region

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Abstract

The Middle East and North Africa region has high unemployment rates for youth, and the number of youth not in education, employment, or training is also among the highest in the world. In this context, migration is one of the more obvious reactions of youth facing unmet aspirations in the labour market. This paper analyses the determinants of the intentions of youth to migrate during their school-to-work transitions in selected countries in the region. With this aim, microdata from School-to-Work Transition Surveys conducted by the International Labour Organization from 2013 to 2015 are used in this research covering Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Tunisia. These surveys target a nationally representative sample of young people between the ages of 15 and 29 and include data on intentions to migrate (internal and international) and factors related to social and educational background. Microeconometric models are used in order to achieve a better understanding of factors influencing youth decisions to migrate.

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Fig. 1

Source: Own elaboration from ILOSTAT data

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Notes

  1. European Commission (2010, p. 33): “Guaranteed employment, without concern for productivity in the public sector, led to the prevalent rent-seeking behaviour among graduates and created strong disincentives for work in the productive sectors. The result has been the poor use or even the waste of educated labour by distorting incentives in labour markets”.

  2. More details regarding SWTS can be found at http://www.ilo.org/employment/areas/youth-employment/work-for-youth/WCMS_191853/lang--en/index.htm [accessed April 17th 2019].

  3. The literature on the determinants of migration decisions among youth also considers flows between developed countries, particularly within the European Union in the context of the Great Recession. See, for instance, Hadler (2006), de Grip et al. (2010), Kahanec and Fabo (2013), Bazillier and Boboc (2016), Van Mol (2016), Ramos and Royuela (2017), and Williams et al. (2018).

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Acknowledgements

The author gratefully acknowledges the ILO WORK4YOUTH (W4Y) team for sharing the microdata from the School-to-Work Transition Surveys (SWTS) and the support received from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the project ECO2016-75805-R.

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  1. AQR-IREA, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Raul Ramos

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Ramos, R. Migration aspirations among youth in the Middle East and North Africa region. J Geogr Syst 21, 487–507 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10109-019-00306-1

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