Contenu du sommaire : Méditerranée

The countries of Southern Europe - from Portugal to Turkey - present a migratory schema much more complex than that of the outset of the 1970's, at which time their principal function was to irrigate the job markets of Northwestern Europe. Important transformations are presently taking place, as the overall reduction of departure « flows » fails, notwithstanding the continuation of the « crisis » and the « pro-return » policies observed in the North since 1973-74, to lead to massive « reflowing » in the direction of the South. So much said, departure potential remains sizable in certain areas of Portugal, Spain, Southern Italy, and most particularly, of Turkey and Yugoslovia. Transoceanic migrations have by no means ceased, as new flows of skilled labor have, since 1974, gone towards Arab states endowed with petrol (oil) revenues. Andyet, the paramount fact is most surely the emergence and the proliferation in Greece, Spain, and (especially) in Italy, of basically clandestine (illegal) immigration. This movement is due to the convergence of several factors : economie and demographie disparities between the northern and southern shores of the Mediterranean Sea, the sealing-off of boders in North western Europe and the « carry-over » effect upon nations of« transit », theextent of the flow of refugees, and - most particularly - the appeal provided by the development, in these new employer countries, of an underground economy accompanied by the extension into industry of the pratice of« undeclared » work. And notwithstanding the series of rules lastly drawn up in Spain and in Greece, suchforms of clandestine (unauthorized) migration appear highly likely - to say the least - to persist.

Since the closure of West European labour markets to new labour inflows from 1973, Turkey has pursued a policy of migrant worker re-direction based on the successful penetration of the Middle East construction market by Turkish contractors. The growth, organization and characteristics of these two phases in Turkish migration history are compared and contrasted. Particular emphasis is paid to the patterns of migrant worker origin and rates of emigration in the two periods. During the period 1961-73 the pattern of migration was dominated by the metropolitan and developed areas of Western Turkey. The re-direction of migration to Saudi Arabia, Libya and Iraq has been accompanied by a contraction and eastward shift in the main areas of migrant origins. Developments in the pattern of migrant worker origins are related to changes in the skill composition of the migrants and the mechanisms of the migration process. Opportunities for the employment of Turkish workers in the Arab world appear to have peaked and, although it has produced some short-term financial advantages, it has had little effect on Turkey's employment problems.

The starting of a considerable emigration originating from Turkey, following over upon the drift from the land of the 50s, led the Turkish authorities in touch with the German and the Dutch governments to elaborate a complicated reintegration policy leaning on the emigres' savings. Due to this policy, several hundred industrial concerns and a few thousand productive cooperative societies started up a large movement of rural industrialization. Despite the means of administration and research used, the goals have been only partially attained for multiple reasons : the relative speed ofthe accumulation of capital can't with a stroke of magic wand turn a worker of rural origin into a company manager. Moreover, Turkey in being shaken by a vast economic and ideological debate about the means of development. The best-equipped firms only are up to withstanding the transformations under way. When in fact, structurally speaking, firms stemming from emigration are certainly not the most capable of doing so. The study of successes and failures recorded in Turkey keeps all its acuteness face to the experiments being carried out in Tunisia and Morocco.

Only about 60 % of the migrants coming from Turkish villages return to their villages. About 20 % go to small towns and another 20 % go to the large towns. Apart from regional mobility there is evidence of a strong sectoral mobility of returnees, with the result that the proportion of those now employed in the tertiary sector has risen from 14 percent before emigration to 31 percent after their return, and the proportion of those living from capital invested from 0 to 10 percent. The returnees really try to utilize the different economic possibilities of the regions they go to. Many small towns profit from the investments of the returnees, whereas the villages profit but little from it. A follow-up of the capital invested of returnees showed that the effect of the flow of capital into villages is only short-lived. At the first re-deployment a large part of the capital invested by the returnees moves into the large towns.

The Middle East became the second most important foreign destination for British emigration during the 1970s. Most emigrants were highly skilled persons, working either on lucrative short term contracts for Arab companies or governments or moving as career migrants within international organizations. The study explores the reasons for and consequences of this migration stream. Changes in Arab labour markets have precipitated considerable return migration of these skilled workers, many of whom have difficulty in reintegrating in the British economy. Consequently many of these skilled workers are once again seeking overseas employment, earning themselves the title of « new nomads ». The article explores several alternative explanatory frameworks within which this movement can be studied.

Gulf societies are societies in transition, traversed by rapid évolution trends. If the increasement of oil rent during the least years has been the start point of an unexpected movment of labor, for a large part, this movment has been induced by foreign investments oriented in the same way. During this period, particularly in Saudi Arabia, the kafalas is appeared as the main tool for the regulation of both capital and labor, at the hinge of State strategies and « civil society ». The new trends of international oil market emphasize the social and political stakes which have been attached the kafala.

During the past ten years thousands of the Rashaayda Bedouin have left their homes in the Republic of Sudan to seek paid employment in Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich Arab states. The consequences of labour migration for this small, pastoralist society have been significant. Relations of mutual support among neighbors and patrilineal kin, which traditionally were activated to facilitate nomadic pastoralism, are now used to make it easier for pastoralist households to export surplus male labour. Hierarchical relations between rich and poor have changed, since the rich have had few advantages over the poor when seeking jobs abroad. In many cases wealthy Rashaayda sought assistance from poorer relatives in obtaining labour contracts. Migrants who wished to invest their earnings in small commercial enterprises after returning to Sudan found that their allies from within the Rashaayda tribe lacked the necessary experience and resources and so established business partnerships with non- Rashaayda. Others who sought to increase their social rank and security used their money to contract marriages with distantly-related kin or even with non-Rashaayda. Thus the problems and opportunities that Rashiidy labour migrants faced prompted them to create new relationships of exchange and support and so, ultimately, alter the patterns of alliance and tribal solidarity that used to characterise their social life.

This study, which is to be situated within a larger-scale research program dealing with « unskilled immigrant automobile industry workers » (CNRS-RNUR contract), focuses upon the role of regional roots and community solidarity in the relations of Maghrebin workers with their countries of origin. Belonging and attachment to the long-existing rural communities of southern Morocco and the Rif, of « Grande-Kabylie » and southern Tunisia explain the characteristics and the highly typed behavior of this labor force. The solidity of the system of relations with the area of origin also enters into account. Direct surveys undertaken in the two principal departure regions of Morocco and Algeria confirm the large quantity of remittances towards southern Morocco, but this is accompanied by a transfer of investments from rural to urban regions, as well as the concentration of Algerian returnees in « Grande-Kabylie », where the readaptation drive led by the Régie Renault is hampered by both the lack of training of the interested parties, and the limited capacities of local economies.

The transfers of wages earned abroad have significant effects on local economies. In M'saken, a town located in the Tunisian Sahel, these effects have rapidly increased in the course of the past ten years. But while the money transfers still play a dominant role, the transfers made in the form of goods bought in the country of employment are becoming increasingly important. These transfers have largely contributed to the development of local economic activities such as the building industry or the used cars business and the sale of automobile spare parts. Moreover these transfers have allowed for the financing of many firms - businesses, industries and craft industries - set up by former emigrate workers themselves ; today these firms represent many jobs.