ABSTRACT
The Mediterranean and Middle East is perhaps the most interesting region of the world to migration movements. Countries in the north of the Mediterranean, despite their demographic decline and labour-market shortages, have shown a highly ambivalent attitude to receiving labour migrants from the south, with policy fluctuations and a lack of clear objectives in migration and labour-market management. Tunisia started with the same sort of approach as Morocco in the late 1960s, but by 1974 the state was encouraging the return of its nationals. The Mashreq countries of Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen have a migratory history between them dating back to the end of the First World War and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Israel is a nation of immigrants, committed to the successful absorption of its Jewish immigrants. Emigration is still viewed as a desirable option by most of the Mashreq, although the possibilities seem very limited, and remittances remain important for all of them.
