A Study on Remittances and Investment Opportunities for Egyptian Migrants
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A Study on Remittances and Investment Opportunities for Egyptian Migrants International Organization for Migration E-mail: [email protected] Internet: http://www.egypt.iom.int The Ministry of Manpower and Migration The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is committed to the principle that humane and orderly migration benefits migrants and society. As an intergovernmental organization, IOM acts with its partners in the international community to: assist in meeting the operational challenges of migration; advance understanding of migration issues; encourage social and economic development through migration; and uphold the human dignity and well-being of migrants. This report has been made possible through the contribution of the Italian Cooperation, under the framework of the project “ Integrated Migration Management System for the Arab Republic of Egypt” (IMIS Plus). The material presented herein may be used for information purposes only. While IOM endeavoured to ensure the accuracy and completeness of the contents of this publication, the views, findings, data, interpretation and conditions expressed in the report are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of IOM and its Member States..The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout the report do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of IOM concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, or of its authorities, or concerning its frontiers or boundaries. Publisher: International Organization for Migration (IOM) Villa 25, Street 5 Maadi Cairo, Egypt Tel.: +20 2 2358 0011 Design and Printing : Road 9 __________________________________________________________________________ © 2010 International Organization for Migration (IOM) __________________________________________________________________________ All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher. A Study on Remittances and Investment Opportunities for Egyptian Migrants Acknowledgements This report has been made possible thanks to the generous contribution of the Italian Cooperation, under the framework of the Integrated Migration Management System for the Arab Republic of Egypt (IMIS Plus). This report was prepared by: Ray Jureidini, Iveta Bartunkova, Ahmed Ghoneim, Nadia Ilahi and Erin Ayjin from the Center for Migration and Refugee Studies (CMRS) at the American University in Cairo, with technical assistance by George Thabet. CMRS is grateful to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) for its technical, editorial, and intellectual support for this project, with particular thanks to Luigi Carta, Priyanka Debnath and Roberto Pitea. CMRS also wishes to thank the interviewers, interviewees and the many individuals who gave their time, their personal details and insights while participating in this project. 2 Table of Contents Acknowledgements 2 Table of Contents 3 List of Tables and Figures 4 List of Acronyms 6 Executive Summary 7 1. Introduction 10 2. Methodology 17 3. Brief Literature Review 18 4. Rules, Regulations and Policies Governing Establishing Businesses in Egypt with Special Focus on SMEs 21 5. Profile of Remitting Migrants 29 6. Characteristics of Remittances Sent 34 7. Characteristics of Remittance-Receiving Households 38 8. Uses of Remittances Received 38 9. Household Investment Decision-Making 45 10. How Migrant Households Invest 47 11. Why Most Migrant Households Do Not Invest 51 12. Conclusions and Recommendations 56 13. References 59 Appendices 64 A Study on Remittances and Investment Opportunities for Egyptian Migrants 3 List of Tables and Figures List of Tables Table 1: Select development indicators in the Cairo, Menofeya, Sharkia and Fayoum governorates.........................16 Table 2: Age of migrant ...............................................................................................................................................29 Table 3: Occupation of migrants in destination country ..............................................................................................32 Table 4: Frequency of receiving remittances ...............................................................................................................34 Table 5: Methods used by migrants to send remittances to Egypt ...............................................................................35 Table 6: Reasons for preferred method of receiving remittances ................................................................................36 Table 7: Currency in which remittances are sent .........................................................................................................36 Table 8: Currency in which remittances were received ...............................................................................................37 Table 9: Amount of remittances received (EGP) .........................................................................................................41 Table 10: Different uses of remittances .......................................................................................................................42 Table 11: Migrant’s advice on spending remittances ...................................................................................................45 Table 12: Reasons for decisions to invest ....................................................................................................................48 Table 13: Advantages of investment choice .................................................................................................................49 Table 14: Disadvantages of investment choice ............................................................................................................50 Table 15: Areas of desired investment .........................................................................................................................51 Table 16: Is your area conducive to profitable business?.............................................................................................52 Table 17: Do government rules and regulations create unfavourable conditions for investment? ..............................53 Table 18: Obstacles to investing ..................................................................................................................................54 Table 19: Suggested areas for social projects ..............................................................................................................55 4 List of Figures Figure 1: Remittance inflows to Egypt from 1999 to 2009 (USD millions) ................................................................10 Figure 2: Yearly growth of remittance inflows to Egypt from 1999 to 2009 (%) ........................................................11 Figure 3: Remittances sent by Egyptian migrants, according to country of destination .............................................12 Figure 4: The General Framework for Establishing Manufacturing Enterprises.........................................................25 Figure 5 : Classification of education of migrants from the study population .............................................................30 Figure 6: Educational level of migrants in the four governorates ...............................................................................30 Figure 7: Current country of residence of migrant (N= 198).......................................................................................31 Figure 8: Marital status of migrants (N=199) ..............................................................................................................33 Figure 9: Relationship to migrant ................................................................................................................................38 Figure 10: Breakdown of average monthly household income by governorate ..........................................................39 Figure 11: Average monthly expenditure items compared to monthly income ...........................................................39 Figure 12: Average savings compared to average income ...........................................................................................40 Figure 13: Remittances as a percentage of total household income ............................................................................41 Figure 14: Median of remittances for all four governorates ........................................................................................42 Figure 15: Investment compared to other household expenditures and total household income (in EGP) ...............46 A Study on Remittances and Investment Opportunities for Egyptian Migrants 5 List of Acronyms CMRS – Center for Migration and Refugee Studies EU – European Union GAFI – General Authority for Investment and Free Zones in Egypt (Egypt) GCC – Gulf Cooperation Council GDP – Gross Domestic Product GOE – Government of Egypt IOM – International Organization for Migration IMC – Industrial Modernization Center KSA – Kingdom of Saudi Arabia EGP – Egyptian Pound EHDR – Egypt Human Development Report MTO – Money Transfer Office NILEX – Egyptian Stock Exchange for SMEs OECD – Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development SMEs – Small and Micro-Sized Enterprises SFD – Social Fund