One in four young Egyptian males want to quit country

More than a quarter of Egyptian males between the ages of 15 and 29 want to emigrate, according to a survey carried out last year and published on Tuesday.

Some 25.8 per cent of respondents said that they would like to leave their homeland and seek opportunities elsewhere, compared to just 7.8 per cent of females, revealed the survey, which was jointly compiled by the Egyptian Center for Population and the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS).

Combined, the figures mean that 17.2 per cent of all Egyptians in the 15-29-year-old age bracket want to emigrate; however, 93 per cent of them said their ideal period of time away from the country would be around five years. The number also represented a fall from when the survey was last conducted, in 2009, when 18.3 per cent of respondents spoke of their desire to leave.

In terms of preferred destination, Saudi Arabia came out on top, with 38.7 per cent saying it was their number one option, while 48.8 per cent said another Arab country (non-specific) would suit. Meanwhile, just 12.5 per cent said that a Western country was where they wanted to be.

Among the reasons people between the ages of 18 and 29 wanted to leave the country were lack of job opportunities (48.9 per cent) and low wages (44 per cent), while just 10.1 per cent pointed to poor security.

When taking education into account, 30.3 per cent of university graduates wanted to emigrate, in comparison to 17.2 per cent of youth who didn’t go to university.

And looking at where the respondents came from, 28.3 per cent of those from rural areas wanted to get out, compared to 23.3 per cent from urban areas and 16.2 per cent from slums.