Return migrants’ socio-economic mobility in Egypt

Abstract

An important dimension of welfare that has received inadequate public attention is that of social mobility, both over one’s lifetime and between
generations. Even if one believes the generally low and falling levels of inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient of income, this in itself might be a reflection of movements down the income and social scale rather than up. Inequality of opportunities in Egypt is nontrivial and accumulates over
time (El Enbaby and Galal 2015). If the middle class is in fact converging towards the lower classes in terms of the nature of employment and working
conditions, then this would be a plausible explanation for the disconnect between the perceived and measured inequality.