Determinants of the Egyptian labour migration

The objective is to summarize the pattern of Egyptian migration to Arab oil-producing countries (AOPC), to review some factors that are important determinants of labor movement based on theory, and to empirically model the migration rate to AOPC and to Saudi Arabia. Factors are differentiated as to their relative importance. Push factors are the low wages, high inflation rate, and high population density in Egypt; pull factors are higher wages. It is predicted that an increase in income from destination countries has a significant positive impact on the migration rate. An increase in population density stimulates migration. An increase in inflation acts to increase out-migration with a 2-year lag, which accommodates departure preparation. Egypt's experience with labor migration is described for the pre-oil boom, and the post-oil boom. Several estimates of labor migration are given. Government policy toward migration is positive. Theory postulates migration to be determined by differences in the availability of labor, labor rewards between destination and origin, and the cost of migration. In the empirical model, push factors are population density, the current inflation rate, and the ratio of income/capita in AOPC to Egypt. The results indicate that the ratio of income/capita had a strong pull impact and population density had a strong push impact. The inflation rate has a positive impact with a lag estimated at 2 years. Prior to the Camp David Accord, there was a significant decrease in the number of Egyptian migrants due to political tension. The findings support the classical theory of factor mobility. The consequences of migration on the Egyptian economy have been adverse. Future models should disaggregate data because chronic shortages exist in some parts of the labor market. Manpower needs assessment would be helpful for policy makers.     

Control centers design for ergonomics and safety

This paper shows the general design conditions about ergonomics and safety for control centers in the petrochemical process industry. Some of the topics include guidelines for the optimized workstation design, control room layout, building layout, and lighting, acoustical and environmental design. Also takes into account the safety parameters in the control rooms and centers design. The conditions and parameters shown in this paper come from the standards and global advances on this topic on the most recent publications. And also the work was supplemented by field visits of our team to the control center operations in a petrochemical company, and technical literature search efforts. This guideline will be useful to increase the productivity and improve the working conditions at the control rooms.     

Integer-valued autoregressive processes with periodic structure

In this paper the periodic integer-valued autoregressive model of order one with period T, driven by a periodic sequence of independent Poisson-distributed random variables, is studied in some detail. Basic probabilistic and statistical properties of this model are discussed. Moreover, parameter estimation is also addressed. Specifically, the methods of estimation under analysis are the method of moments, least squares-type and likelihood-based ones. Their performance is compared through a simulation study.     

Support and Access in Sports and Leisure Provision

This paper will look at different ways of enabling people with learning difficulties to engage in leisure opportunities: the Support Model and the Access Model. These models will be put in their social context and then critiqued.

The support model will be be contextualised in the theory of normalisation, access in disability theory. The support worker role will be shown to be useful in motivating people with learning difficlties into new activities, as well as having a protecting element, and unwittingly, disguise the level of discrimination people with learning difficulties are subject to.

The access worker role will be shown to have strengths in understanding discrimi nation. With this analysis, it has the potential to dismantle disabling practices. However, the needs of people with learning difficulties have ramifications for disability theory. In practice, that means that ideas of self-advocacy need to be taken on board.

Through interviews with sports personnel, social workers and people with learning difficulties, the implications of creating fully comprehensive access will be examined. I will conclude that both effective support and comprehensive access must be in place before people with learning difficulties are able to make a meaningful choice as to how they are enabled to participate in sports. It is only at that point of choice that the two models become complementary rather than competing discourses of provision.     

The role of Islamic and western foundations in education and research in the Arab world

This paper is an exploration of research funding by western, local and Islamic foundations in the Arab world. Arab and Islamic foundations supporting research present a very recent phenomenon, so their numbers are limited and basic institutional traditions are still being developed. At the same time, they do have their own ‘ideologies’ and their own experiences which are not the same as those of the West. The findings in this paper are largely drawn from three case studies of foundations in the Arab world. There are several differences among the cases, although all of them are acting as non-profit organisations funding research work and making grants to individuals and institutions. It is difficult to compare precisely the contribution of the three foundations in all aspects of grant-making, but we can build the comparison on the scope of activities and their final contributions in education and culture. This paper closes with a discussion of potential research agenda on the future role of foundations in this part of the world.     

Revisiting the Structure of Subjective Well-Being in Middle-Aged Adults

Subjective well-being is a broad, multifaceted construct comprising general satisfaction with life, satisfaction with life domains (health, family, people, free time, self, housing, work, and finances), positive affect, and negative affect. Drawing on representative data from middle-aged adults (N = 738), the authors used three different structural models to analyze the interrelationships among these facets of subjective well-being. In a top-down model, a single factor representing global subjective well-being explained the correlations found among the more specific facets of subjective well-being and exerted the strongest influence on general satisfaction with life, satisfaction with health, and satisfaction with finances. In a bottom-up model, satisfaction with the latter two domains had the strongest effect on global subjective well-being. The authors discuss the implications of their findings for research on subjective well-being.     

Résumés

Résumés     

The impact of migrants' remittances on the Egyptian economy

"The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the impact of the large remittances made by Egyptian migrants to their home country on the Egyptian economy. In order to study this impact, we use the implications of the standard Keynesian model. We estimated the structural equations of the model using annual data for the Egyptian economy over the period from 1970 to 1984.... The results suggest that remittances have had a strong positive impact on GNP in Egypt." The authors note that remittances especially affect private consumption spending. Policy implications concerning labor migration are discussed. (SUMMARY IN FRE AND SPA)