Jordan’s journeymen

Migrant labor has become part of economic life in a globalizing Middle East, with countries increasingly dependent on workers hailing from across borders and often from outside the region. Yet, with unemployment buffeting many Arab economies, the issue of migrant laborers is becoming increasingly contentious. The unemployment rate across the Middle East will rise to 11 percent this year, according to the International Labor Organization, and the typical reaction of governments in crises is to restrict the movement of labor to keep foreign workers out. However, other forces are also at work restricting labor flows into and out of the region as well as within it. In particular, the last few years have seen a general trend towards labor market regulation, made possible by more efficient computerized public sectors, and rendered necessary by government fears over internal security. As 2009 draws to a close, these trends have combined to impose