Report: Quarter of Arabs seek migration

Some 24 per cent, nearly quarter, of the Arab region’s citizens seek to emigrate their home countries in an attempt to improve their economic and financial conditions, the 2016 Arab Opinion Index has shown, noting that more than 50 per cent of the Arab citizens are not affiliated to any of the political parties.

The Qatar-based Arab Centre for Research and Policy Studies yesterday announced  the findings of the 2016 Arab Opinion Index, the fifth in a series of yearly public opinion surveys across the Arab world, which was based on a sample of 18,310 individual respondents from 12 separate Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania.

The results of the 2016 Arab Opinion revealed that Arabs lack satisfying financial circumstances. It showed that 49 per cent of the respondents reported that while their household incomes were sufficient to cover their necessary expenses, they could not make any savings; these families are designated as those living “in hardship”. On the other hand, 20 per cent of the respondents claimed to obtain a sufficient income that covers their necessary expenditures and also allows them to make savings.

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According to the index, there are another 29 per cent of citizens in the Arab region live “in need” as their household incomes does not cover their necessary expenditures. Some 53 per cent of them rely on borrowing from others, while 29 per cent of them rely on the financial aids from friends, relatives and charity organisations.

The report also revealed that the Arab citizen priorities focus on the economic, security and political stability, the governmental performance, the stalled democratic transition, deficiencies in public services, and the spread of financial and administrative corruption.

The vast majority, 94 per cent, of the Arab public opinion believes that the financial and administrative corruption has been prevailing in their countries. The assessment provided negative results on the Arab countries’ performance in economic, public foreign policies.

The Arab Opinion Index is the largest public opinion survey covering the Middle East and North Africa.