Migration flows in the Middle East

Abstract

The Middle East, this vast geographic totality extending from the Western Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf, has been since 1945 at the center of considerable international migration. The migration flows are linked not only to geopolitical factors but also to oil wealth. The creation of the State of Israel (1948), the expulsion of Palestinians from their country, the different Arab-Israeli conflicts, the Lebanese crisis (1975-1990), the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) and more recently the Gulf Crisis (1990-1991) have had important implications for population movements. But it is the wealth created by oil, particularly after the quadrupling of oil prices in 1973, which is at the root of the most important migration flows. The reason is that the countries which possess the most oil reserves (Saudia Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates) are sparsely populated and have an urgent need for labor. The only country which is rich in oil and has a non negligible population is Iraq, yet until the Gulf crisis Iraq was a labor importing country. Foreign workers in the oil producing countries came initially from poor Arab countries (Egypt, Sudan, Yemen, Jordan, Palestine, Syria and Lebanon). But since the 1970s the number of Asian workers has risen continually, so that today they are more numerous than the workers from Arab countries.