International labour office geneva

2. Determinants and characteristics of 

migration outflows in Egypt 

Migration outflows in Egypt (over time/destination/type) 

Egypt is considered one of the top emigrating countries, ranking number 12 in the 

world in terms of the number of emigrants as shown in Table 1.Table 1: Top Emigration 

Countries (2005) 

Country 

Number of Migrants 

(millions) 

Mexico 

 11.5 

Russia 

 11.5 

India 

 10 

China 

 

  7.3 

Ukraine 

 

  6.1 

Bangladesh 

 

  4.9 

Turkey 

 

  4.4 

United Kingdom 

 

  4.2 

Germany 

 

  4.1 

Kazakhstan 

 

  3.7 

Philippines 

 

  3.6 

Italy 

 

  3.5 

Pakistan 

 

  3.4 

Morocco 

 

  2.7 

Egypt 

 

  2.4 

Poland 

 

  2.3 

Serbia & Montenegro 

 

  2.3 

United States 

 

  2.3 

Vietnam 

 

  2.2 

Uzbekistan 

 

  2.2 

Afghanistan 

 

  2 

Colombia 

 

  2 

Portugal 

 

  2 

France 

 

  1.9 

Belarus 

 

  1.8 

Algeria 

 

  1.8 

Indonesia 

 

  1.7 

Korea, Rep. 

 

  1.6 

Bosnia & Herzegovina 

 

  1.5 

Malaysia 

 

  1.5 

Source: Migration and Remittances Fact Book Development Prospects Group (2008), 

 available at 

www.worldbank.org/prospects/migrationandremittances 

 

Labour migration for decent work, economic growth and development in Egypt  

3 

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4 

Labour migration for decent work, economic growth and development in Egypt

 

The number of Egyptian emigrants reached 2,399,251 in 2005, representing around 

3.2 per cent of the Egyptian population (World Bank, 2006).

1

 The main receiving countries 

have been Arab (mainly Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Oman) and 

some of the EU countries (Italy, UK, Germany, Greece, and the Netherlands), besides the 

US, Canada and Australia. There is a high concentration of Egyptian migrants in the EU 

that absorbs around 5 per cent of the total of Egyptians living abroad. Within the EU, 

Egyptian migrants are concentrated in Italy (40 per cent), and the UK (23 per cent), 

followed by Germany (10 per cent) and the Netherlands (10 per cent) (European 

Investment Bank, 2006). 

Regarding the classification of migration into temporary and permanent, emigration 

flows out of Egypt have always been classified as temporary directed towards Arab and 

especially Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, and permanent directed towards EU 

and North American countries. Flows of temporary migrants to neighbouring Arab 

countries have exceeded those of their permanent, circular, and temporary counterparts in 

Europe and North America. Temporary migration takes various forms including official 

secondment through public and governmental authorities, and working in branches of 

Egyptian companies, especially in the construction sector (IOM, 2003), or working in the 

private sector. Egyptian temporary migration flows comprise both highly skilled and 

unskilled labour. Temporary migration to Arab countries is male-dominated, representing 

around 90 per cent of migrant labourers. Temporary migrant labourers exceeded 2 million, 

mainly working in Saudi Arabia, Libya, Jordan, and Kuwait. Migrants to those countries 

comprise more than 85 per cent of the total number of Egyptian migrants (Zohry, 2006a). 

Egypt is the largest country of origin of the migrant workers to Arab countries. In some 

years 10 per cent of the Egyptian labour force migrated to Arab countries (Wahba, 2005). 

There is a high concentration of both temporary and permanent emigrants in a few 

countries with Saudi Arabia topping the list of receiving countries, as shown in Figure 1. 

(IOM, 2003; Wahba, 2007).