Egyptian Immigrants in the Bilad Al-Sham

Abstract

Our project uncovers histories of Egyptian migrants to the Levant (especially Palestine) during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We follow their journey, arrival, and taking root in Palestine. We discuss the scarcity of documents, the result of a largely unacknowledged reception of these newcomers by Palestine's inhabitants. We argue that oral traditions of immigrants and their descendants and written sources regarding this Egyptian constituency in Palestine suggest that the wave of such migration was considerable.

Our findings show that the influx of migrants happened at periods of demographic and political pressures, which caused deterioration in the rural economy of the Nile basin. During and after "the rule of the (Bedouin) sheikhs" in the southern regions of Palestine, vacant arable lands and demand for agricultural labor also pulled migration. Growing foreign investment in the Levant, particularly in Palestine, increased demand for skilled and cheap workers, and local and foreign (British) rulers further encouraged such migration.