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Al-Ahram Weekly 11 - 17 November 1999 Issue No. 455 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 11 - 17 November 1999 Issue No. 455
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Profile Travel Books Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Securing the safety valve
By Ibrahim Nafie
Recent disturbances in Khitan have spotlighted the complex issue of Egyptian labour abroad. And although the Egyptian and Kuwaiti authorities succeeded in containing tensions before they got out of hand, a warning has been sounded, one it would be foolish to ignore.
When thousands of young Egyptians were discharged from the army following the October 1973 War, the domestic economy was incapable of absorbing the sudden, massive influx of people. The huge increase in oil prices occasioned by the October War, however, allowed the oil exporters of the region to undertake massive development programmes. The benefits offered to foreign workers lured large numbers of Egyptians to the Gulf.
Many Egyptian workers were able to command salaries that were unimaginable at home and remittances from abroad became one of our largest sources of national income. It was a symbiotic relationship -- Egypt benefited by increasing its foreign currency revenues and alleviating stress within the domestic labour market, while the host countries had access to a pool of skilled labour.
It has to be said, however, that this apparent boon was mishandled by many officials and ministries. There was a strong tendency at the time to treat Egyptian migrant labour as just one more export commodity -- no different from cotton in the words of one minister -- that secured a significant hard currency return. It was precisely this attitude, at a time when broad sectors of Egyptian youth were obsessed with the "dream" of travelling abroad, that opened the gates to virtually anyone who wished to work in the Arab oil producing countries. Thus, while other countries in similar circumstances sought to regulate the outflow of labour, the Egyptian authorities were keen to take advantage of this unemployment safety valve. The upshot was an exodus, if only temporary for the most part, of some of our most talented and educated young people.
But over a quarter of a century the tensions and distortions inherent in the system began to manifest themselves. Egyptian workers began to experience problems in several Arab countries, problems that officials on both sides were keen to smooth over. The one lesson we should learn from Khitan, however, is that glossing over the problems is no longer an adequate response.
What is needed now is a more radical approach to solving what have become repeated problems. The economies of Arab oil producing countries, it has become apparent, can no longer support the luxury of large numbers of foreign workers. Decreasing oil prices have forced them to face up to the need to build an indigenous labour base and many countries have instituted ambitious schemes to gradually supplant foreign, with local, labour.
The resulting decline in job opportunities abroad, especially for the semi-skilled, has given rise to an illegal traffic in residence permits based on fictitious work contracts. Thousands of Egyptians have been induced to pay in the neighbourhood of LE10,000 for paperwork that ultimately lands them in a foreign country, jobless and forced to compete with hundreds of similar workers in a declining job market. The Kuwaiti foreign minister, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed, put the issue succinctly before the Kuwaiti parliament when he blamed the Khitan incident on "traders in residence permits who have grown rich over freighting in and exploiting foreign labour." His use of the term "slave trade" aptly describes the conditions of many Egyptian workers lured abroad under false pretenses.
On a more positive note, the economic upswing in Egypt in recent years has begun to generate many more job opportunities at home. In particular the mega projects that are currently taking shape under the economic reform programme offer prospects for hundreds of job opportunities, with salaries similar, if not superior, to those that could be earned abroad.
However, we cannot rely on the forces of systematic growth alone to absorb surplus Egyptian labour. On the basis of a preliminary calculation, if current unemployment stands at 1.4 million, with roughly 400,000 entering the labour market every year, we have to generate some 700,000 jobs annually over the next five years simply in order to eliminate unemployment at home. To this should be added the number of jobs that must be created to accommodate home-coming workers, any estimate for which requires in depth country by country study of the circumstances of Egyptian labour abroad.
Nevertheless, I am certain that the Egyptian economy can gradually absorb this surplus labour, as long as we prioritise the task and co-ordinate the efforts of government and society.
In part we should envision this challenge as the collective responsibility of Dr Atef Ebeid's government. We could, for example, ask each of the 30 ministries to create 20,000 jobs a year, not in the already burgeoning staff rolls of ministerial departments themselves, but through the inception of productive enterprises related to the mandate of each ministry. This would open up some 600,000 job opportunities annually.
In addition the banking sector, which has already done sterling work, could build upon its record of job creation which, ultimately, serves the interests of the nation and its emerging financial sector. Most important, perhaps, at this time of economic deregulation, is the contribution of the venture capital sector which has already made enormous strides with the encouragement and support of the government. The time has now come to create as many new productive enterprises as possible. And in doing so, we will not only alleviate the problem of unemployment, but will enhance Egypt's export trade.
