The Politics of Migration in Modern Egypt
Strategies for Regime Survival in Autocracies

Examines how authoritarian regimes employ labour emigration in order to remain in power, both in Egypt and beyond.

Gerasimos Tsourapas (Author)

9781108475549, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 20 December 2018

262 pages, 23 b/w illus.
23.5 x 15.6 x 1.7 cm, 0.55 kg

'The Politics of Migration in Modern Egypt makes a major contribution to the nascent literature on migration states beyond the Global North. Melding analytical insights from immigration and emigration, as well as diasporas and development, Tsourapas provides a framework for thinking about migration policy as a multidimensional set of strategic decisions. His study offers an invaluable benchmark, especially for comparisons to other authoritarian regimes.' Audie Klotz, Syracuse University, New York

In this ground-breaking work, Gerasimos Tsourapas examines how migration and political power are inextricably linked, and enhances our understanding of how authoritarian regimes rely on labour emigration across the Middle East and the Global South. Dr Tsourapas identifies how autocracies develop strategies to tie cross-border mobility to their own survival, highlighting domestic political struggles and the shifting regional and international landscape. In Egypt, the ruling elite has long shaped labour emigration policy in accordance with internal and external tactics aimed at regime survival. Dr Tsourapas draws on a wealth of previously-unavailable archival sources in Arabic and English, as well as extensive original interviews with Egyptian elites and policy-makers in order to produce a novel account of authoritarian politics in the Arab world. The book offers a new insight into the evolution and political rationale behind regime strategies towards migration, from Gamal Abdel Nasser's 1952 Revolution to the 2011 Arab Uprisings.

1. Introduction
2. 'Egyptians don't emigrate' – the domestic politics of migration restriction, 1952–1970
3. Exporting the free officers' revolution – migration and external regime legitimacy under Nasser
4. 'Our most precious asset' – the domestic politics of migration liberalisation, 1970–2011
5. The rich hive invaded by foreign bees' – migration and external regime legitimacy under Sadat and Mubarak
6. Egypt's road to the 'Arab spring'
7. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Political control & freedoms [JPV], Middle Eastern history [HBJF1]