Why Do States Develop Multi-tier Emigrant Policies? Evidence from Egypt

Abstract

Why do states vary their policies towards their citizens abroad, and why are some emigrant groups treated preferentially to others? The literature on the politics of international migration has yet to explore this as a separate field of inquiry, assuming that states adopt a single policy that encourages, sustains or prevents emigration abroad. Yet, in the case of Egypt, the state developed a multi-tiered policy that distinctly favoured specific communities abroad over others. I hypothesise that policy differentiation is based upon the perceived utility of the emigrant group remaining abroad versus the utility of its return. This utility is determined by two factors: the sending state’s domestic political economy priorities and its foreign policy objectives.

Keywords:

• Emigration
• Diaspora Policy
• Egyptian Migrants
• Middle East
• Sending State

Acknowledgements

I am indebted to Tara Buss, Philippe Fargues, Katherine Tennis and Fergus Reoch for their generous comments on the manuscript. I also wish to thank Bilgin Ayata, Ahmed Azzam, Laleh Khalili and Lachezara Stoeva for important insights. Earlier versions of the manuscript were presented at the 2014 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, at the 5th Gulf Research Meeting and at the Migration Working Group of the European University Institute.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

[1] This article examines policy during the 1970–2011 period, before the 2011 uprisings brought an end to the military rule that had continued uninterrupted since the 1952 Revolution. As a legal framework regarding emigration did not emerge until 1970–1971, this article is not concerned with the 1952–1970 period.

[2] The hypothesis that the nature of the host state’s regime constitutes a causal factor (i.e. Arab authoritarian regimes versus Western democracies) is problematic. Lebanon, for instance, has traditionally been democratic, but Egyptians there receive a treatment similar to those working in the Gulf, while, during the cold war, Egyptians in Eastern Europe received equal attention as those in the USA.