International labour office geneva

General impact of migration on economic and social 

developments in Egypt 

Whether migration has contributed positively to economic development in Egypt is a 

difficult question to answer. Limited research and information are available. Existing 

studies (e.g. McCormick and Wahba (2002); and Wahba (2004) cited in Wahba (2005)) 

suggest that returned migrants have had a positive impact on Egypt through the probability 

of them becoming entrepreneurs. Overseas savings play a crucial role in access to 

entrepreneurship. Also, time spent overseas has positive and highly significant effects on 

becoming an entrepreneur on return. Almost 53 per cent of the educated returnees have 

found the skills they acquired abroad to be beneficial to their current job, compared to 33 

per cent of the less educated and 22 per cent of illiterates. Also, evidence from Egypt 

suggests that return migrants benefit from their overseas work experience as seen in Table 

8, where the proportion of migrants moving into high skilled occupations upon return is 

greater than that before migration. Wahba (2003) emphasizes that the empirical evidence 

suggests that return migration has a positive significant influence on the value of capital 

invested. In addition, return migrants are more likely than non-migrants to create good jobs 

by establishing formal businesses. However, McCormick and Wahba (2002) pointed out 

that there seems to be a bias among returned migrants to invest in non-farm activities and 

to concentrate their activities in the capital and large cities. Consequently, the positive 

impact of migration and remittances on development in Egypt needs to be reconsidered in 

the light of these findings.