Managing Distance: Examining Egyptian Emigration and Diaspora Policies

Abstract

How do states manage emigration and the attachment of citizens living abroad to their home countries? This article sheds light on the mechanisms of emigration and diaspora policies in the MENA region by analysing the Egyptian experience. By following the emergence of Egyptian policies from a long-term historical perspective, I argue that emigration and diaspora policies are designed as a reaction to the economic situation of the sending country and the immigration policies of receiving countries.Egypt changed slowly from a country characterised by immigration at the end of the 19th century to a country in which emigration has become an omnipresent social phenomenon. The Egyptian state first opened up to emigration in the 1960s, and then progressively started to organise and manage labour emigration to other Arab countries from the 1970s onwards, which began to be perceived as a development strategy and tool. With ongoing emigration to Western countries from the 1980s, Egypt also began to strengthen its diaspora policies. However, unlike other countries in the MENA region that have high levels of emigration, Egypt only really made a concerted effort to integrate its citizens abroad in political terms after a massive wave of campaigning by Egyptians living abroad in 2011.