ABSTRACT

Social mobility reflects the occupational and educational upgrading of the labor force that is necessary for successful industrialization and modernization, and migration from rural areas is needed for an expanding labor force. To the extent that external migration has an impact on internal migration or social mobility, it could facilitate or hinder the development of Egypt. There are two competing hypotheses about the effect of external migration on social mobility in a sending country such as Egypt, One argument is that the job vacancies created in various communities stimulate upward mobility among the stayers. The opposite argument puts forward the hypothesis that rigidities and obstacles do exist, and that, consequently, external migration does not lead to any appreciable social mobility. In order to have some measure of the effects of external migration on the occupational mobility of migrants, a distinction needs to be made between internal migration before and after the late 1960s.