Migration in the MENA Region: (Youth) Perspectives, Policy and Impact​

Foreword: ​

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For our 25th issue, Routed Magazine has worked with MYCP, the Migration Youth and Children’s Platform which constitutes the migration constituency of the UN Major Group on Children and Youth. We called for contributions on the theme of migration in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region, with a focus on youth perspectives. Migration in MENA has presently and historically been a key part of state-making processes. Yet migrants and refugees in the region face a diverse set of reception and hosting policies that are often restrictive, with little option for permanent residency or citizenship trajectories. MENA also features a high rate of emigration, often within the region. This has most recently been depicted in the severity of conditions in Gaza and in particular Israeli weaponization of forced displacement in the process of occupation and state-building.

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This issue explores the far ranging and often under-explored politics, policies, and daily realities linked to migrants and migration in the MENA region, encapsulating the continuum of forced and voluntary migration. Exploring a range of issues on how migrants navigate migration governance, this issue includes articles on unaccompanied Moroccan minors in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, migration and temporality in the Gulf Cooperation Council, and narratives on Palestine and Palestinians. Others explore the impact of broader phenomena on migrants and refugees, including informality in Egypt and ecological degradation in Lebanon. The diversity of these contributions well encapsulates the complexity of migration in MENA and the impact this has on identity and state.

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We would like to thank our contributors for sharing their work and experiences with Routed and MYCP, and for shining a light on the underexplored migration challenges and narratives in the MENA region. Thank you as always to the Routed team for continuing to edit, publish, coordinate and publicise the work of our excellent contributors, located across the globe - with special thanks to MYCP for joining the work to make this issue a reality, generously sharing their expertise and knowledge. Finally, thank you to our readers, new and old, we hope you enjoy this issue.