In order to find out more about the attractiveness of Europe and the southern and eastern Mediterranean countries as places to live, respondents were asked: “If you could start a new life, in which country of the world would you start it?” Southern and eastern Mediterranean respondents were more likely to want to start a new life in their own country (60%) than European respondents (36%).

Let’s take a closer look at our experts’ comments on these facts.

On this topic, Ayman Zohry, underlines how the data helps to counter some of the persistent misconceptions that a large proportion of southern and eastern Mediterraneans would be ready to migrate. He also underlines the different preferences between younger and older people in the southern and eastern Mediterranean countries, with the youth more oriented towards Europe and older people towards the Gulf countries.

For Mohamed Tozy, it is surprising that the Dutch view their country as being the ‘horizon’, with only 12% considering a new life at home, while we see on the other shore of the Mediterranean that only 13% of Algerians would prefer a life in Europe.

Abdelrahman Aldaqqah shows the positive relationship between education level and inclination to emigrate. Considering youth as the largest group who would choose to start a life in another country (80% in Europe and 49% in southern and eastern Mediterranean countries, respectively), he presents some of the potential reasons young people have to emigrate: for European youth, they could be more related to education and employment, while for southern and eastern Mediterranean youth, employment considerations might be combined with political outlook.

Dalenda Larguèche contextualized the Survey results by stating that history also plays a large part in the question of mobility and migration. She brings up the example of Tunisians who are more attached to their country of residence than Europeans (at 59% versus 36%). Larguèche draws a correlation between the history of European mobility within the colonial empires and the birth of the European Union as an experience in de-territorialised citizenship. She also underlines that Tunisians, like other southern and eastern Mediterraneans, think of Europe as their choice rather than the Gulf countries, as further proof of the strong cultural ties within the Mediterranean region.