ABSTRACT
This chapter briefly outlines the evolution of Jordanian participation in the international labour market and assesses the formulation of, and constraints on, the Jordanian government's response towards emigration. Moreover, the failure of the labour-receiving states to distinguish between Jordanian and Palestinian sub-populations in their official statistics, and the confusion between de jure and de facto Jordanian citizenship, frustrates attempts to establish the scale of East Bank emigration on the basis of external data sources. While Jordan was experiencing high rates of labour emigration, domestic manpower demand was also increasing dramatically. The combination of the country's internal political structure, together with its economic and ultimately political dependence on neighbouring oil-rich states, effectively precludes alternative strategies. As a result of this labour inflow the total labour supply is increased and employers may choose between alternative supplies. Once established, such 'secondary' labour flows appear to bear little relationship to primary Jordanian emigration.
