Running head: SHORT PAPER TITLE

Discovering Motivations of Tunisian Sahelian Youth

Towards Migration
Jon Gresham
CEMAT, 2014

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Discovering Motivations of Tunisian Sahelian Youth

Towards Migration
Jon Gresham
Centre d'Etudes Maghrebines a Tunis

Thousands of Tunisians left the country in 2011-2012.

Why ?
What would motivate Sahelian youth to emigrate out of Tunisia?
To supplement popular opinions on why youth do or do not emigrate from the Sahel of Tunisia,
we interviewed 850 young adults in 2012-2014.
We asked, As you think of your future, how much would the below reasons cause you to move
outside of Tunisia? (respondents were presented a list of motivations to score)
Among our respondents, the top motives for emigration were job and career (93%), money
(86%), education (75%) and adventure (73%).
Less important factors were freedom, stability, education, religion, politics, family regroupment,
and family pressure.
We conducted both paper-and-pen surveys and internet-based surveys, and collected qualitative
life-stories to supplement the quantitative information. Data processing with SPSS included
cross-tabs and factor analysis.

This paper presents the discoveries of interwoven motivations, aspirations and demographics in
our population sample.
We drew insights from studies on the psychological and social factors involved in migration such
as those of George Groenewold (2006), Taoufik Bourguiba (2004), Hassan Boubakri (1993,
2002), and The International Organization for Migration (2012). These helped our research
relate to the larger study of emigration and to circular migration in the Tunisian economy.
We established a new baseline for studies on migration motivations of Sahelian youth. Ongoing
research contrasts families in circular migration with families having little migration. Also
integrated are patterns of media use as they relate to migrational motivations. Other researchers
would be advised to address levels of education as they influence attitudes towards employment
and emigration. The author welcomes additional ideas and opportunities for collaboration.
The author thanks Dean Moncef Abdeljelil, Hassan Boubakri, Taoufik Bouguiba, Aymen Bikri,

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and Rania Rannoucha, among others, for support in this project.

----------------------Keywords: international migration; emigration; Tunisia; North Africa.
JEL Codes: J61, I31, O15.

=================
Bibliographic Note
Principal Investigator: Jon N. Gresham.
Ph.D. Education, Texas A &M University, 1986.
Dr. Gresham has lived in 6 countries. He learns and writes about technology and culture and how
they interact. Facebook.com/TunisMigration.
Sponsor: Centre d'Etudes Maghrebines a Tunis, Tunisia.

Sample of Publications & Presentations (Abbreviated)

_Civil War or Family Feud: Iraq's Ethnic Groups_, (2007). Gresham, J.N., Farouk Saleh, Shara
Majid. European Research Center On Migration & Ethnic Relations, Utrecht, Netherlands.
"Research Impact via Internet-facilitated Communication: Maximum impact of research via
integration of print, e-zine, and webpage distribution systems. Presented at Second World
Congress for Middle Eastern Studies, Amman, Jordan, 11-16 June 2006.
"Social Capital of Iraqis: Trust & Threat in Basra." Perceptions of trust and threat between
ingroups and outgroups in Basra, Iraq. Jon Gresham, Farouk Saleh, Shara Majid, Presented at
Second World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies, Amman, Jordan, 11-16 June 2006.
"Civil Society Live: 100 readers per day: Academic dissemination of information and citation
impact can be accelerated by combinations of electronic and print media distribution channels."
Presentation at the conference: A World for All? The Ethics of Global Civil Society."
University of Edinburgh, 4-7 September 2005.

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Expressed Motivations of Tunisian Young Adults

Towards Emigration
Jon Gresham
Centre d'Etudes Maghrebines a Tunis
Thousands of Tunisians left the country in 2011. Why?

I just want out, said Maher, a university graduate pumping petrol into our car at a 1pump station in a very remote village. I asked him why he wanted to leave. He said, I finished
university in engineering but there are no jobs of any kind. See my work here? Any uneducated
person could do this job but I am doing it because there is nothing else for me. There is nothing
in this whole country of interest to me and I want out of here.

To find answers that would supplement popular opinions on the subject, we interviewed
503 (mostly) young adults in the Sahel and adjacent towns in Tunisia in 2012-2013. Among our
respondents, the top motives for outward migration were job and career (93%), money (86%),
education (75%) and adventure (73%). Less important factors included freedom, stability,
religion, politics, family reunification, and family pressure.

Tunisia migration background.

Migration, both immigration and emigration, have been a major influence in Tunisia and
northern Africa for thousands of years.

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The intent behind this present study was to establish a baseline for migration research in
this new field of unregulated Tunisian sociological research. We tested several sampling
methods, survey languages, and sociological domains that intersected each other in the concepts
of migration in the Sahel region of Tunisia. As a result, we present here solid numbers on the
relative importance of primary motivational factors attributed to migration abroad. Thus, this
theoretical model (of how migration decison-making motivations compare to each other) to be
applicable to other sites, but I do not assume the empirical findings to be so applicable that is,
for motivations themselves to look similar or to follow the same rules in other locations
throughout or outside of Tunisia.1

We used short, focused surveys that could be easily completed while sitting in the
informal cafe settings or in a short online session jumped into from a Facebook advertisement.
We did collect demographic data as well as some of the relevant motives (factors) that would
influence migration abroad, as well as to collect some concepts as to the importance of social and
print media in the daily lives of those we surveyed to see how all of these aspects correlated to
the principle motivations towards migration. Motives (factors) in this study included both push
factors and pull factors. Push factors are those contributing pressures that can move people
out of a location. Pull factors are those attracting people into another location.
-------------**Survey of literaturemain research question, summarize & synthesize previous
scientific theories and findings, analyze their positions, add my views to the discussion. 5pg.

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IOM conducted a survey of 750 youth in Egypt in 2011 concerning their intentions to
migrate after the political changes that winter. They found that job and income losses that were
the indirect result of contraction of economic activity following January 25 may have acted as a
primary push factor for youth who reported intentions to migrate.Egypt after January 25:
Survey of Youth Migration Intentions Cairo, May 2011, International Organization for
Migration, Geneva, Roberto Pitea, Editor2
This IOM study was extensive as to the range and depth of factors that may have acted
as a primary push factor. Significantly, they found that economy and household income
security were named as reasons to migrate, both by those inclined to migrate and those not
inclined to migrate. What does that mean? It means, in my opinion, that financial reasons were
said to be the most important reasons to migrate, even by those who did not plan to migrate. IOM
did not address pull factors of migration, and did not make available demographic data for
cross-tab comparisons with data collected in this Tunisia study.

Groenewold, de Bruijn and Bilsborrow studied the psychosocial elements involved in

migration decision-making and found that objective benefits (rational decision-making
processes) regarding migration benefits were not as important to the actors as were the
perceived benefits of migration.
Migration of the Health Belief Model (HBM): Effects of Psychosocial and Migrant
Network Characteristics on Emigration Intentions in Five Countries in West Africa and the

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Mediterranean Region. By George Groenewold*, Bart de Bruijn* and Richard Bilsborrow.

Population Association of America 2006 Annual Meeting. March 30-April 1, Los Angeles
Session 86: Migration and Social Networks.3
This was indeed the case with many of the youth we interviewed in Tunisia. Those we
talked to (beyond the boundaries of survey items) wanted a perceived benefit of a better life
but some respondents said only that they wanted a change in life. Similar to studies of voter
decision-making for political elections in the USA,4 It was obvious in this study that in the
quantified and perceived communications with respondents, emotion (passion) was more
important in making important life decisions than was reason (objective analysis).

This points out the complexity of defining exactly why so many youth want, and wanted,
to leave Tunisia. Migration motives, like other important life decisions, are based in perceptions
and emotions, not in objective, rational decision-making.

Explanation of Concepts
Implicit in economic models of migration, is the so-called push-pull model for the
explanation of the causes of migration. In its most limited form, the push-pull model consists of a
number of negative or push factors in the country of origin that cause people to move away, in
combination with a number of positive or pull factors that attract migrants to a receiving
country.5 (EuroStat 2000)
But, there are other frameworks for describing motives of migration.

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Macro theories emphasize factors such as the push and pull of economics legal systems
and employment, or forced migration from violence or environmental calamities. Macro theories
seem to offer an adequate explanation for forced displacement as well as the initial volunteer
migration. 7 (6Faist 2000) 8 (7Bilsborrow, 1994)
Meso theories emphasize social systems and networks. In this perspective their
connections between families, states, and countries can explain long-term patterns of sustained
voluntary migration.
The third form, micro systems, present individual (personal) decisions that can interpret
macro and meso theories into the micro perspective. Micro factors would include the personal
financial, social, and psychological resources, and the costs and benefits of proposed relocation.
These are sometimes treated, rather superficially, with a rational choice model of decisionmaking. (8Boswell, 2002, p. 7-10)

Migration is more likely to occur between countries within a migration system,

comprising relatively close trade, historical, cultural, linguistic or other linksinformation and
ties with countries of destination.Former colonial ties are also significant in forging special
ties, especially where the ex-colonial power has had a fairly open approach to citizenship and
immigration, as in the cases of the UK and France .Once initiated, migration from particular
countries (or areas within them) will often be self-perpetuating. Initial pioneer migrants will be
able to provide resources and support that make the move much less expensive and risky for
future migrants within the same social network. In places of origin, migration of family members
may be generally perceived as the best strategy for increasing incomes or social status, or for

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young people it may represent an opportunity for a more successful life. Hence networks not
only reduce the costs and risks of migration, but can also create a "culture" of migration in
sending areas.199

(Faist, 2000)

Such chain migration may continue despite legislation in receiving

countries designed to restrict immigration. (10Boswell, 2002, p. 7-10)

In Tunisia, there is indeed a long history of both chain & circular migration to Europe,
from long before the political independence of Tunisia from France.11 The first generation was a
temporary arrangement to help with reconstruction after the World Wars. (There were also
many Tunisians who had served in the French army who stayed in France after the First World
War). Of those first migrants, some stayed in Europe and brought clansmen to join with them.
Children of this first generation circled between Tunisia and Europe, being home in Tunisia for
important events or at least sending money for weddings and funerals. Then for two or more
generations, they invested back into their Tunisian networks and into building new residential
neighborhoods in the outskirts of traditional town centers. Not all family members worked
abroad, and not all returned to Tunisia, but the pattern of circular migration continues to
transform the places they call home in Europe and in Tunisia. Europe.12

13

The pattern of circular migration is what we easily observe in towns such as MSaken, a
town of 80,000 to the southwest of Sousse, Tunisia.14 From our own interviews, everyone that
we met in MSaken knew at least five people living outside of Tunisia, and many had frequent

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contact with family members living abroad. Schiller (2004) uses the term transmigrants to
describe those whose daily lives have social connections to more than one nation-state.15

Bourghiba (2007) presents an estimate of the migration to Europe through four

generations of people from MSaken.16

10

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11

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12

La migration tunisienne : tat des lieux, dveloppement et enjeux,

qui sest tenu Gammarth, prs de Tunis, les 28 & 29 mai 2007.

Even before the 2011 revolution, there were strong historical connections in Tunisia
towards outward migration. Consider also the 2010 research by Gallup, that 60% of Tunisians
said that they had people that they could count on in France to help them migrate, 32% said that
they would migrate if they had opportunity, and 14% said that they intended to migrate in the
next 12 months months.17

For Sahelian Tunisian transmigrants, their main reference points in France are le-deFrance, Provence-Alpes-Cte d'Azur, and the Rhne-Alpes,18 with a combined population of
150,000 legal residents of Tunisian origin, out of the 1.25 million Tunisians in Europe.19

Many North Africans wanted to leave their countries before unrest in the region,
according to Gallup surveys in late 2010. Even before the revolutions, twenty-six percent of
North African adults said they would choose to move to another country permanently if they had
the chance. Fourteen percent of these potential migrants said they planned to move in the next
year (2011), and followup resesearch by Gallup said that an estimated 25,000 mostly Tunisian
migrants migrated to Europe between January 2011 and June 2012.

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Gallup poll . http://www.gallup.com/poll/147344/One-Four-North-Africa-DesiredMigrate-Unrest.asp. Viewed 28june2012.

Theoretically, my background in migration quantitative research which led me into this

current Grounded Theory approach. In Grounded Theory, you begin with a theoretical
framework, then you collect and analyze data, and extract from the data a new perspective to test
against the previous construct.

I assumed (in 2011) that the primary motivators for those who would migrate would be
the pull factor of money in Europe and the push factor of having no money and having no work
in Tunisia.

Since the Population of youth in the metropolitan area of Sousse was about 200,000,
only a Sample of those could be reached. So, the first step was to interview at least 200 people
between the ages of 16 and 30.

Before doing any interviews, we needed a temporary research framework with the
essential thing to answer. Then, a list of all the possible questions that would be interesting to
answer. Then we started to look for young people who would help me to meet and interview
others. Our first set of questions was tested on 50 people. Some questions were deleted and
others were added. And then we could begin the real project.

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=============
Collecting Data

Our short surveys were easily completed in a cafe or in a classroom or by telephone or in

a Facebook chat (this was an interesting, spontaneous addition to the research plan to seemed to
be quite effective). In addition to the quantitative-based surveys, we also collected stories on
migration. These were very helpful as we developed the follow-on surveys to compare migrant
and non-migrant families.

How would you interpret the below chart of results?

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Thousands of young Tunisians left the country in 2011, and are still leaving. Why?
To begin finding current answers, we surveyed young adults in the Sahel of Tunisia in
2012-2013 concerning their own motivations towards migrating abroad.

15

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Method
Participants
We surveyed 503 (mostly) young people in the Sahel of Tunisia, in 2012-2013, about
their aspirations and resources concerning migration abroad. While we focused on those in the
age range of 18-30 (we called this age range youth to reflect a useful social construct

20),

we

did some surveys of Sahelians both younger and older than this target range. There were no
drawbacks to having some respondents outside of our preferred age range, and the benefit was
that they introduced us to other respondents who were inside of our priority age range.

Surveys were offered in French, Arabic, and English language versions, and participants
responded in the language of their choice (although the English version of items was dropped in
late 2013 to allow more time and space for questions dealing with media use).

Surveys were were collected through random encounters in parks, coffee shops,
university student friends, in homes of friends, etc., initially. These first contacts then introduced
us to others who were willing to complete surveys. A few instructors at colleges and universities
collected surveys from classroom students, but these were few because of post-revolution
institutional reluctance to give permission.

Surveys were also hosted on the internet and advertised through Facebook, Twitter,
emails and by posts on other websites.

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Appendix A lists the introduction used to describe the research project to potential
participants.

Research Design
There were initially 35 survey items, designed to fit onto two sides of a single sheet of
paper, and presenting each item in English, French and Arabic. Survey items in the first testing
round were adapted from previous migration studies done by the author, and with relevant
concepts from research done by IOM in 2011.

21

Because of the very few English language responses in the early months of the data
collection, English language translation of each question was dropped, and added were a few
more questions to gain more information from each respondent but without the survey
questionnaire itself being any longer. The core questions regarding attitudes and motives towards
migration remained in all versions of the questionnaires, while items that became redundant or
superflous to the project objectives were dropped and new items were added. By this process,
the questionnaire was continuously becoming more focused on the specific research questions
while adding additional new information as the process continued.

Samples were collected mostly through random encounters, with a quantitative approach
in surveying that intended to infer from a sample to the population of Tunisian young adults in
the Sahel region.

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Through convenience (random chance) encounters and then snowball introductions

(chain-sampling) of respondents, people we met would introduce me to others, or would help me
to collect surveys from friends and colleagues.

In addition to the quantitative-based surveys, I also collected life stories and vignettes
about the migrant/non-migrant perspectives on migration. This was very helpful as I developed
the follow-on surveys to compare migrant and non-migrant families with respect to the impact of
migration on communities in Tunisia.

From the beginning, the survey items and data collection forms were designed to
facilitate electronic processing. A survey codebook was created from within SPSS to track the
organization of questions and the range of possible responses to each question, including openended textual answers to provide demographic information. Most survey items had a multiplechoice response, with answers in a Likert-scale format of Strongly Agree, Agree, Neutral,
Do Not Agree, and Strongly Do Not Agree, or similar answers depending on the particular
set of questions asked. See Appendix B for a sample Questionnaire.

Answers were coded into numerical categories, usually 1-5, to give greater accuracy and
stability when running more complicated statistical procedures. See the following section,
Procedures, for details on the analytical steps.

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Measures
Measures were created to estimate the relative importance of several factors that have
been prominent in other studies on attitudes and aspirations and motivations towards migration.
We used Likert-scale or open-ended items where appropriate in order to give a broad range of
possible responses to each survey item, with intent to provoke a significant variance in responses
to questions.

We identified the demographic variables that might lend analytic value when the
statistical procedures of factor analysis and cross-tabulations were run.
My original hypothesis was that certain demographic factors might be strongly correlated
to some of the migration motive items. That is, I wanted to know if some background items such
as education, age, sex, and number of people know outside of Tunisia would give different
patterns of responses to the attitudinal questions.

Procedure

Appendix C gives the approximate overall flow of the research process. There were
frequent opportunities to continually circle back to the original research question to adjust the
hypotheses or the main outcome that was sought after.
This became more important after chance encounters led to collecting data outside of the
Sahel of Tunisia.

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For example, communities in the interior (west of Kairouan) had fewer French speakers
and no English speakers that I came across, and many of the Arabic speakers were not highly
literate. This meant that oral interviews were more important, and vocabulary had to be
simplified considerably as compared to the urban centers of the Sahel.

Textual analysis was run on open-ended responses to create lists of all responses, and
then recoded so that a fewer number of answers could serve as proxies for all answers. For
example, one question was To which country would you most like to migrate to had basically
four different destinations as responses: France, Italy, Other Western Europe, North America. All
the responses given were then recoded and assigned one of these four responses.

There were a large number of non-responses to some items. For these, they were
uniformly assigned the value of 99 to ensure accurate handling during the statistical analysis.
When running complicated procedures, these missing values were treated as (list-wise or casewise) so that the maximum numbers of comparisons could be made for each respondent.

ANALYSIS
To find out what mysteries were hidden in the answers, here is the path of analysis that I
used.

1. Clean the Data. Does it look right? Were there different spellings of the same town or

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newspaper?

2. Sort the Data. Who were the respondents?

What about their age, gender, education, birthplace, how many people do they know living
outside of Tunisia, what are their language skills (many said that they were fluent in English, but
that is not exactly the rating that I would have given them!)

How important were each of the main push-pull factors that I wanted to measure?

Would they accept a job in the interior of Tunisia if offered good money?

3. Compare Answers. (T-Tests, ANOVA and MANOVA tests)

Are there some questions that seem to be totally unimportant and without research merit at this
time? Actually, yes. Birthplace of the mother did not seem to be related consistently to any
other item on the survey, unless it was Msaken!

By dropping some questions, we could make more room for questions about media use and
posting habits on social media.

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4. Now, the most-exciting part of the researchCross-tabs! Cross-tabulations make it

easy to compare groups of respondents.

If they say that they are a Sousse 18-year old male with little formal education, are they more or
less likely to seek to leave Tunisia than others? How often do they use Facebook compared to
highly-educated youth in Sousse?

**Sample cross-tabs to show important questions**

Education, age, birthplace

And,
5. Factor Analysis. Reduce the number of variables to compare without losing (much)
individual data elements.
Are there some questions that could be answered through a proxy question?(For example,
if they are from Msaken, can we just assume that being from there will automatically give the
same answers to some other questions?)
**Show staggered ranks that group items into clusters of questions.

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Results
Results: Demographics

Sex:

53% Male, 44% Female (N=825)

Education:
Average 13 years
Age:

Average
Age at First Migration: 22 years

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Comparing % Motivation by Factors (Combining % Important + Very Important to

compare across motives)

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Factor Analysis of the Dependent Variables.

Structure Matrix
Component
1
2345Motive
-.795

.073

-.016

.076

-.040

-.703

-.092

-.196

.305

-.013

-.659

-.037

.193

-.011

-.159

Family Rejoin
Know People
Abroad
Motive Family
Pressure

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Motive Religious
.084

.773

.081

-.047

.213

.332

.662

.261

-.364

.237

-.226

.564

-.128

.097

-.322

Motive Money

-.078

.065

.705

-.111

.114

Motive Adventure

.289

-.424

.517

.019

.278

.034

-.021

.115

-.793

.144

.336

.224

-.317

-.604

.229

Motive Education

-.311

-.052

-.008

-.130

.703

Motive Job/Career

.322

.192

.443

.138

.600

Liberty
Motive Religious
Stability
FaceBook
Frequency

Motive Political
Stability
Motive Political
Liberty

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.

Rotation Method: Oblimin with Kaiser Normalization.

Component 1, with items of the family pressure towards migration, how many people are
known who live outside, and the opportunity for family reunification, have high similarity
among themselves. Given that respondents often commented that their contacts outside of

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Tunisia were relatives, I suggest that Component 1 could be simplified to be representative of

Family Connection to Motives of Migration.

The second grouping (Component 2) shows that a desire for (Religious liberty +
Religious stability), and Frequency of use of Facebook are highly correlated to each other. This
would be an interesting future study: Why or How is Facebook use related to motives of
Religious Liberty and Religious Stability?

The third group (Component 3) is interesting in that it shows that motivations of Money
and Adventure are very closely related.

The fourth group, Component 4, indicates that (Political Stability and Political Liberty)
are closely linked to each other. That means that they have similar show similar answers to the
other motivations for migration (with 20% of all variance being portrayed in this single
component). That is, these 3 uses of communications media are tied to a motive of adventure
travel, and that the answers to these items show similar patterns in the responses to other
dependent variables in the surveys.

The fifth group (Component 5) shows that motives for Education and Jobs (Career)
parallel each other in responses to other items on the surveys.

KMO @ 0.647 shows a medium measure of sampling adequacy.

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Bartlett Test of Sphericity @ <.05 is ok.

Eigenvalue > 1.0 is ok.
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Discussion
This research project began with a simple assumption that we could ask youth, As you
think of your future, what reasons would cause you to move outside of Tunisia?

We established a new baseline for studies on migration motivations of Sahelian youth.

Ongoing research contrasts families in circular migration with families having little migration.
Also integrated are patterns of media use as they relate to migrational motivations. Other
researchers would be advised to address levels of education as they influence attitudes towards
employment and emigration.

Circular migration is normal in Tunisia. For young people with strong family networks
abroad, they have an easier route to lucrative work outside. For those without strong family
networks outside, they must make choices about legal/non-legal, honest/dishonest, expensive/
cheap, alone/in-group ways to embed themselves in communities where they hope to make
money.

*Mohammed owns a small shop selling coffee (expresso, cafe creme, or direct) along
with snacks and cold drinks. He told me that business was good. I asked him about his history.
He told me that he went to France as a young man, learned to repair military equipment and then
worked 8 years as a service technician for foreign military services. He sent most of his money
home, and first bought a home, then a garage where he opened a carwash and oil change service,

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then he bought a delivery truck, and now has added a small coffee & snack shop. He has 5
employees and said that business is good for him. I asked him why he thought that he was doing
so well when others from his community were not. He replied that he worked hard for 8 years,
giving up family and friends at home to focus on making money for the future of his family.
Those who stayed in the community are still only surviving and have little hope to improve their
quality of life. He does not have much empathy for those who sit to drink coffee all day instead
of taking any work that they can find, and then who complain or riot or make protests because
they do not have a good job.

Mohammeds story is common, and there are many young adults who work hard when
they can in order to have a better life later on.

Small Towns and Cities in Tunisia have transnational communities where generation after
generation of laborers make money outside of their home communities and then return to their
home village or town, bringing equipment or vehicles from abroad, or money adequate to
improve their housing or invest in real estate, in addition to meeting daily or special needs of
their nuclear or extended family.

=======================

From surveys conducted in 2012-2014, a few simple factors were given as the most
important reasons to move abroad. This research phase compared factors for migration as being

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either less important or more important in the personal opinions of respondents. This paper
presented the strong correlation between years of formal education and career/money factors,
with a higher level of education relating to a greater importance given to career advancement and
education to a lesser degree, but a lower level of education relating to work abroad for money or
adventure.

Suggestions for future studies.

1. My conjecture, based on stories told but not in hard data analyzed, is that the young
people who took this survey expressed less commitment to group decision-making factors
(family, religion, politics) than they did to their own personal ambitions (career, money,
education, adventure). See, we can divide this elements into individual and group: career and
jobs and education and adventure seem to fit into individual self-advancement or autonomous
decision-making while politics, religion and family can go into group decision-making systems.

2. The role of emotion in these decision-making elements may more important than logic
in making significant decisions, and that directly affects the responsiveness of youth towards jobcreation initiatives. This is worth a look in future investigations because the emotions of group
versus individual decision-making processes may affect job creation and entrepreneurship as
they are currently emphasized as ways to increase the employment rates across the communities
of Tunisia.

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3. Circular migration in the Sahel was a research emphasis of several other scholars. It
would be useful to update their findings to include comparisons of towns on the basis of the
impact of return migration on the culture and traditions of the communities of origin. Of
particular interest would be to compare the traditions of work and entrepreneurship of migrant
families with non-migrant families after several generations.

4. This study was (mostly) confined to the Sahel region of Tunisia, and yet the Interior of
Tunisia has the most chronic unemployment and underdevelopment, and is the most-frequent
source of political violence and instability. Comparisons of migration motivations, impact of
circular migration, and entrepreneurship tendencies between the Sahel and the interior towns
may yield perspectives on how development in the interior could be enhanced.

5. There were considerable differences in migration history, motives, education levels,

and employment behaviors even within small communities of the Sahel. Future work may find
strong patterns of worldview differences if demographic data includes social network definitions.

The author welcomes additional ideas and opportunities for collaboration.

Untitled

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Descriptives
Descriptive
Statistics
N

Mean

Std. Deviation

Variance

Sex

487

1.45

.498

.248

BirthYear

499

4.25

.750

.563

YearsEducation

491

4.30

1.167

1.362

448

2.00

.917

.841

446

1.56

.784

.615

448

4.49

1.048

1.099

448

4.21

.801

.641

448

3.51

1.097

1.204

FamilyVotes on
Move

Interest
Discussion
Group
Arabic
Read
French
Read
English
Read

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Political
442

3.60

1.553

2.413

442

3.83

1.430

2.044

443

3.55

1.525

2.325

443

3.80

1.461

2.135

329

1.81

1.927

3.715

815

2.71

2.098

4.401

291

3.48

1.859

3.457

447

3.45

.826

.683

441

4.38

.975

.950

440

4.07

1.266

1.603

443

4.62

.788

.621

Stability
Religious
Stability
Political
Liberty
Religious
Liberty
FaceBook
Write
Twitter Write
Newspaper
Read*
Know
Foreign
Motive
Money
Motive Higher
Education
Motive
Job-Career

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Motive Family
437

3.16

1.594

2.542

440

2.00

1.329

1.765

302

4.26

1.116

1.24522

Rejoin
Motive Family
Pressure
Motive
Adventure

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References
References should be typed here, with the first line of each reference flush to the left margin and
subsequent lines indented by half an inch. A good guide to reference formatting can be
found here: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/06/

This year 94.0% of internet users in the Middle East and Africa will go online via mobile phones
at least once per month.
http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Middle-East-Africa-Nearly-All-Web-Users-Mobile/1010507

TN - 10,732,900 population (2012) - Country Area: 163,610 sq km

Capital City: Tunis - population 743,724 (2012)
4,196,564 Internet users on June 30, 2012, 39.1% of the population, per ITU.
3,328,300 Facebook subscribers on Dec 31, 2012, 31.0% penetration rate.
2.93 Mbps Broadband download speed on Nov.28, 2013, per Net Index.
-----------------------------------------Market penetration rates in Tunisias telecoms sector September 2012
Marke
t

Penetration
rate
118% 13million
Mobile
devices
Fixed 10%
44% 1.4 million
subscriptions
Internet
(mincom.tn)
(ati.tn)
https://www.budde.com.au/Research/Tunisia-Telecoms-Mobile-and-Broadband.html

SHORT PAPER TITLE

Qtel, the Qatari groups shares in Tunisiana are 90 percent.

George Groenewold (2006),

Taoufik Bourguiba (2004),
Hassen Boubakri (1993, 2002),

Gallup poll . http://www.gallup.com/poll/147344/One-Four-North-AfricaDesired-Migrate-Unrest.asp. Viewed 28june2012.

Egypt after January 25: Survey of Youth Migration Intentions. Cairo, May 2011. Edited by
Roberto Pitea and Reham Hussain, I OM Cairo.

The International Organization for Migration (2012).

41

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42

Footnotes

1 How

many cases do I need?

On science and the logic of case selection in

field-based research
Mario Luis Small. DOI: 10.1177/1466138108099586. Ethnography, Vol 10(1): 538.
2009, p. 9..

Geertz, C. (1973) The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books.

2 IOM

2011

3 Migration

of the Health Belief Model (HBM): Effects of Psychosocial and Migrant

Network Characteristics on Emigration Intentions in Five Countries in West Africa and the
Mediterranean Region. By George Groenewold*, Bart de Bruijn* and Richard Bilsborrow.
Population Association of America 2006 Annual Meeting. March 30-April 1, Los Angeles
Session 86: Migration and Social Networks.
4 Drew

Westen, the Political Brain: the role of emotion in deciding the fate of the

nation. New York: Public Affairs, p.418.

5 Push

and pull factors of international migration: a comparative report.

Luxembourg: Eurostat. 2000.

6 Faist,

Thomas (2000), The Volume and Dynamics of International Migration and

Transnational Social Spaces (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press).
7 Bilsborrow,

Richard E. and Hania Zlotnik (1994), The Systems Approach and the

SHORT PAPER TITLE

43

Measurement of the Determinants of International Migration, Workshop on the Root Causes of

International Migration, Luxembourg, 14-16 December.
8 NEW

ISSUES IN REFUGEE RESEARCH

Working Paper No. 73

Addressing the causes of migratory
and refugee movements:
the role of the European Union
Christina Boswell
Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy
University of Hamburg,
Germany
E-mail : christina.boswell@public.uni-hamburg-de
December 2002
Evaluation
9 Faist,

Thomas (2000), The Volume and Dynamics of International Migration and

Transnational Social Spaces (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press). , p 159
10 NEW

ISSUES IN REFUGEE RESEARCH

Working Paper No. 73

Addressing the causes of migratory
and refugee movements:
the role of the European Union
Christina Boswell

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44

Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy

University of Hamburg,
Germany
E-mail : christina.boswell@public.uni-hamburg-de
December 2002
Evaluation
11 Bourguiba,

Taoufik. Lieux: de dploiement identitaire et rsaux de parent.

La formation socio-spatiale msaknie entre espace

patrimonial et espace d 'accueil (la cte d'Azur') +
Bourguiba, Taoufik, Congres Mondial des tudes sur le Moyen-Orient et
j'Afrique du Nord (First World Congress For Middle Eastern Srudies, WOCMES)
Universite de
Mayence, Allemagne. 2002.

Bourguiba, Taoufik, Esquisse de l' itineraire migratoire et

professionnel des Msaknis dans la rgion PACA, Programme drecherche organis par
l'IRMC et dirige par Hassan BOUBAKRl (Maghreb et les nouvelles configurations migratoires
in temation aJ~
Mobilit et rseaux ), 32 p.

Boubakri, Hassan. Champs migratoires, caractristiques

socio - professionnelles et pratiques

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45

conomiques des migrs

de la rgion de Msaken. In Bencherifa, Abdellatif, et al, 1993. Migration internationale
et changements sociaux
dans le Maghreb
Actes du colloque international
de Hammamet, Tunisie (21 au 25 Juin 1993),
12 L'origine

gographique des immigrants tunisiens en France,

Khemaes Taamallah ,
Population (French Edition), 31e Anne, No. 6 (Nov. - Dec., 1976), pp. 1312-1314
13 For

Sahelian Tunisian transmigrants, their main reference points in France are le-de-

France, Provence-Alpes-Cte d'Azur, and the Rhne-Alpes,1 with a combined population of

150,000 legal residents of Tunisian origin, out of the 1.25 million Tunisians in Europe.2

1 http://www.insee.fr/fr/themes/tableau.asp?reg_id=99&ref_id=t_0405R
2 http://www.insee.fr/fr/themes/tableau.asp?reg_id=99&ref_id=t_0405R
14 Bourguiba,

Taoufik, Esquisse de l' itineraire migratoire et

professionnel des Msaknis dans la rgion PACA, Programme drecherche organis par
l'IRMC et dirige par Hassan BOUBAKRl (Maghreb et les nouvelles configurations migratoires
in temation aJ~

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46

Mobilit et rseaux ), 32 p.
15 SCHILLER,

NINA GLICK, From Immigrant to Transmigrant: Theorizing

Transnational Migration , Anthropological Quarterly, 68:1 (1995:Jan.) p.48

16 Bourghiba,

Taoufik, Une nouvelle reflexion sur la migraiton irreguliere a travers des

generations migratoires locales: le cas des migrants Msakni globalises. In Regards sur les
migrations tunisiennes 2009, Proceedings of Conference La migration tunisienne etat des
lieux, developpement et enjeux, Gammart, 2007. p. 285.
17 http://www.gallup.com/poll/147344/One-Four-North-Africa-Desired-Migrate-

Unrest.aspx?version=print
18 http://www.insee.fr/fr/themes/tableau.asp?reg_id=99&ref_id=t_0405R
19 http://www.insee.fr/fr/themes/tableau.asp?reg_id=99&ref_id=t_0405R

Principales Donnes Statistiques en matire de Migration , Rpublique

Tunisienne. Ministre des Affaires Sociales, Secrtariat dEtat aux Migrations et aux Tunisiens
lEtranger, 2012.
20 Bourdieu,

Pierre. 1993, Sociology in Question, London: Sage, P. 95. His comments

was that youth and age are not self-evident data but are socially constructed. Choosing this
range of ages gave a priority to data from those with highest migration potentialbefore
marriage.
21 Egypt

after January 25: Survey of Youth Migration Intentions Cairo, May 2011,

International Organization for Migration, Geneva, Roberto Pitea, Editor1

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1 IOM
22 Std

47

2011

Deviation > 1.5, then a significant difference in the answers exists. If >2 then there

is a big difference.
Results are based on face-to-face and Facebook interviews conducted in 2012-2014 of
853 adults aged 16 and older among Tunisians. Question wording and practical difficulties in
conducting surveys can introduce error into the findings. For these current results based on
the total sample (Levenes Test for equality of variances), one can say with 95% confidence that
the interval of the difference is from -.258 to +0.401 with a Std Error of 0.165.

The standard error of a statistic is basically equal to the standard deviation of the data
divided by the square root of n (the sample size).
Typically, you want to be about 95% confident, so the basic rule is to add or subtract
about 2 standard errors (1.96, to be exact) to get the margin of error. This allows you to account
for about 95% of all possible results that may have occurred with repeated sampling.

For Education = 13 or more years, Confidence intervals by modified Wald method

= 0.6009, @ 95% confidence level. (http://graphpad.com/quickcalcs/ConfInterval1.cfm)

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48

Appendix A
Introduction: Tunisia Survey about Migration
Thank you for completing this survey. It is sponsored by Centre d'Etudes Maghrebines a Tunis, a
scientific research organization.
Purpose
This survey will help us understand the employment dynamics in Tunisia.
Contents
This survey asks simple questions about education, work, culture and career opportunity.
Length
This survey should only take 12-15 minutes to complete.
Results
Survey results will be published in a professional academic journal in 2015. If you complete the
survey, you can receive a summary copy of the results--if you give us your Facebook contact.
Your Privacy
None of your personal or contact details will be shared with any 3rd party.
Why You May Want to Complete This Survey
1. Your opinions will help us understand the perceptions about migration.
2. Survey results will show you what others think about migration.
3. If you give us your contact on Facebook, you can be sent information on discussion groups in
English language or discussion groups on finding a better job.
Attention: We need your Facebook contact to send to you information that you request.
NOTE: Only one survey per person will be accepted.
Contact. The lead scientist for this survey project is Dr. Jon Gresham.
Contact "www.Facebook.com/TunisMigration" with questions about the survey or the results.
Thank you very much

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Appendix B
Survey Items
(Surveys were offered in English, French, and Arabic versions, and not all questions were
included in later versions of the survey)
Survey Format: Print or Online
Sex
Year of birth
Governorate (Tunisia) or Country of your birth
Governorate (Tunisia) or Country of your mothers birth
Years of education
What was the highest education degree or certificate that you earned?
What domain did you train for?
What is your current domain of work?
What domain of work in Tunisia would you prefer?
If you were offered a good job with high pay, but in a very remote area of Tunisia, might you
accept it?
How high are your own reading and speaking skills in Arabic?
How high are your own reading and speaking skills in French?
How high are your own reading and speaking skills in English?
What are your most valuable resources of information on jobs and your career?
What are your most valuable sources of information about life or work outside of Tunisia?
What other source of information is valuable to you?

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What are your favorite websites for news about life or work outside of Tunisia? List 3 websites
How often do you write on Facebook?
How often do you write on Twitter?
How often do you read a newspaper?
How many people do you know that live outside of Tunisia?
How high is your current average monthly income in Tunisia ?
How high do you estimate would be your average monthly income if you moved outside of
Tunisia?
If you did move outside of Tunisia, when do you think you would return to Tunisia?

Please rate the following items as to their importance as a motivation to you to move outside
Tunisia as:
1 -- Not important, 2 -- Some important, 3 -- Maybe Important, 4 -- Important, 5 -- Very
important
Money
Higher education
Job
Career Opportunities
Family reunification
Political liberty
Religious liberty
Family need for money
Political freedom
Religious freedom

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Adventure & Travel

What other reason would cause you to move outside of Tunisia?
In which country would you prefer to live or work?

51

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Appendix C
Scientific Process As Used in This Study
1. curious. Surely there is something about what I saw that was interesting. Ask myself, Why is
it this like this?
2. Make a question. What is the one thing that is most interesting or that I dont know or that I
should know.
3. Make a plan. How can I find answers? What with an answer look like?
4. Collect data. How much data? What kind of data? Quantitative and Qualitative? How can I
collect it and store it and protect it? How will I know when I have enough?
How will I check that all data fits into logical or useful categories? What about missing answers
to some questions?
5. Explanation. Why might the data look like this? Is the data making sense? Is all the data
making sense? Is some of it more sensible than others? What shall I do with data that does not
fit? How shall I recode the metadata so that it can be directly compared to all other data? Are
all names & variables sensible? How should all data be transformed to match, such as 1=small/
less/no and 5=big/more/yes?
6. Evaluate. What do I think this data is saying? How does it relate to the rest of scientific
literature and wisdom of the ages? Are there other data sources that might contradict or support
my findings? Will my findings and procedures stand up under scrutiny by experts in this field of
research?
7. Make an educated guess about the meaning. Why why why?
8. Test. Test my answer to see if it makes sense.
9. Conclusion. What is the single most important thing that Ive learned from the data that Ive
collected that relates to the initial question that I was asking?
10. Make a judgment. If my data says that something is true or consistent, what do I do with that
conclusion?
11. Act differently, communicate differently, do something to change the world as result of what
Ive learned.