To Move or Not to Move: Migration and Human Trafficking in the Middle East

The purpose of this study is to provide an analytical account of immigration and emigration trends in the Middle East. While housing nearly 6% of the world’s population, this region has several key points of importance. First, it has more than 30% of the world’s oil reserves. Second, geopolitically speaking, it is literally in the middle of the world, bridging the Far East to the West. Third, since 2010 and the social dominos of civil unrest, the Arab Spring, the region has experienced massive flows of emigration; mostly to Europe. Therefore, by analyzing the data from the UN’s immigration and emigration stock, based on a theoretical analysis of immigration’s nature and immigration policies in Europe, and complementing it with a discussion of human trafficking in the wake of the Syrian refugee crisis, this article provides some insight into the concept of immigration and emigration in the Middle East. According to the findings, most emigrations from the region were due to eruption of violent conflicts, such as Iraq in 2001 and Syria in 2015. Moreover, smugglers and human traffickers while acting against the law, do have their own set of ethics and moral standards.