MER Article Local Elections Set Turkey's Political Configuration The local elections held last March 25 decided the political future of Turkey -- barring any further military intervention -- until 1988, when the next general election is scheduled. This is why these elections were more important than the general election of November 6, 1983. This time all the poli Feroz Ahmad • 3 min read
MER Article Women and Labor Migration Women are now the heads of between 25 and 35 percent of all households in developing countries. [1] In the Middle East and North Africa, women head about 16 percent of all households. [2] One main reason for the increasing number of households headed by women is male migration to seek work outside t Fatma Khafagy • 13 min read
MER Article Yemeni Workers Abroad In Yemen one often hears the hypothesis that as men migrate abroad in search of work, women move into male economic and political roles, at least within the household. The assumption is that women take over production tasks and decisionmaking which have always been the responsibility of men. While t Cynthia Myntti • 16 min read
MER Article Egyptian Migration and Peasant Wives In the 1960s, Egypt supplied the labor markets of the Middle East with professionals and administrators seconded by the government. Carefully regulated and controlled, the export of labor was consistent both with Egypt’s policies in the area and with its own manpower needs. In the 1970s, government- Elizabeth Taylor • 23 min read
MER Article From the Editors (June 1984) For just the space of a day in mid-May, the shroud of silence that has enveloped occupied south Lebanon was lifted by the Israeli army raid on ‘Ayn al-Hilwa, the large Palestinian refugee camp that has been rebuilt outside Sidon. Events leading up to this encounter vividly illustrate the dynamic of The Editors • 4 min read
MER Article Two Economic Histories Charles Issawi, An Economic History of the Middle East and North Africa (New York: Columbia University Press, 1982). Roger Owen, The Middle East in the World Economy, 1800-1914 (New York: Methuen, 1981). James A. Reilly • 3 min read
MER Article Gran, Development by People Guy Gran, Development by People: Citizen Construction of a Just World (New York: Praeger, 1983). This ambitious book seeks to serve as a guide to building new societies in the Third World (and ultimately everywhere else) based on grassroots participatory development and the democratic empowerment o Karen Pfeifer • 1 min read
MER Article Abraham and Abraham, Arabs in the New World Sameer Abraham and Nabil Abraham, eds., Arabs in the New World: Studies on Arab-American Communities (Detroit: Wayne State University, 1983). Eric Hooglund • 2 min read
MER Article Fawaz, Merchants and Migrants in Nineteenth-Century Beirut Leila Tarazi Fawaz, Merchants and Migrants in Nineteenth-Century Beirut (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1983). Carolyn L. Gates • 1 min read
MER Article Algerian Migration Today Richard Lawless and Allan and Anne Findlay, Return Migration to the Maghreb: People and Policies, Arab Papers 10 (London: Arab Research Centre, 1982). Philippe Adair, “Retrospective de la Reforme Agraire en Algerie,” Revue Tiers-Monde 14 (1983). Jean Bisson, “L’industrie, la ville, la palmeraie au David McMurray • 4 min read
MER Article Letter from Bangkok In 1975, around 1,000 Thai workers left for Bahrain and Saudi Arabia; by 1982, 108,520 workers, over one third of all Thailand’s expatriate work force, had left for 11 different countries in the Middle East region. Their remittances, totaling over $450 million, amounted to the equivalent of half the A Special Correspondent • 4 min read
MER Article Letter from the West Bank Driving through the West Bank on Land Day, March 30, we pull to the side of the road outside Balata refugee camp, on the outskirts of Nablus. In the valley, two bulldozers move slowly against the backdrop of the Nablus hills, plowing a new road through wheatfields. Spring has come early this year, a A Special Correspondent • 7 min read
