The overarching reality of the Middle East today is conflict. Military operations, civil wars, and violence are raging in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, in Southern Lebanon, in various parts of Syria, in Yemen, where the United States continues its campaign to eliminate Houthi missiles and drones, and in Sudan due to the bloody fighting between the Sudanese National Army, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and other militias.
Today, the Middle East is one of the regions in the world that is suffering the most from bloodshed, destruction, displacement and refugee crises, and deteriorating humanitarian conditions.
In today’s Middle East, countries, armies, militias, and external powers are involved in conflicts and wars in the region, representing a diversity of actors that limit real opportunities for peaceful settlements and solutions. The weakness of multilateral diplomatic institutions and tools and, unlike in other regions of the world, the absence of collective security arrangements that would enable conflict prevention and peacemaking are making matters more difficult.
However, the shocking reality of today’s Middle East obscures other developments that highlight cross-border communication and cooperation between the peoples and countries of the region. These demonstrate that conflicts and wars are not people’s choices and perhaps are not inevitable if governments have the positive political will to end them.
For example, although our region does not resemble the European Union, which guarantees its citizens the freedom to travel, work, and live in any member state regardless of borders, the Middle East is witnessing a steady increase in the movement of people across its borders, whether for work, tourism, or cross-border marriages.
According to 2022 data, nearly nine million Saudi citizens, more than 700,000 Kuwaiti citizens, around 100,000 Emirati citizens, and slightly fewer Omanis and Qataris visited Bahrain. In contrast, more than three million Bahrainis, more than two million Kuwaiti citizens, slightly fewer Emiratis and Qataris, and less than half a million Omanis visited Saudi Arabia.
Qatar also witnessed a surge in visits from other Gulf countries, with more than half a million Saudis visiting in 2022, around 100,000 from Kuwait, a similar number from Bahrain and Oman, and over 60,000 Emiratis. Oman saw around 100,000 Saudi visitors in the same year, more than 50,000 Emiratis and Qataris, and nearly 40,000 people from both Kuwait and Bahrain. Meanwhile, Kuwait in 2022 attracted half a million Saudi visitors and just over 20,000 from Bahrain and Qatar.
Cross-border movement in the Gulf is not only limited to Gulf citizens either, as 2022 data show that nearly two and a half million Egyptians visited Saudi Arabia, while more than one and a half million Jordanians, nearly 700,000 Yemenis and Iraqis, around 250,000 Moroccans, and 100,000 Iranians visited the country.
While the increase in the number of visitors to Saudi Arabia can be attributed to Muslims performing religious rituals there or to opportunities available to non-citizens in the Saudi labour market, the numbers of non-Gulf visitors to the other Gulf countries demonstrate that cross-border mobility in the Middle East has diverse backgrounds.
In 2022, Qatar received more than 50,000 Egyptians, and a similar number visited Oman. Oman was visited in the same year by more than 55,000 Iranians and nearly 20,000 each from Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. Kuwait for various reasons hosted nearly a quarter of a million Egyptians in 2022, as well as up to 100,000 Syrians, 50,000 Jordanians, 30,000 Lebanese, and around 15,000 Iranians.
Beyond the Gulf’s attraction to non-citizens due to its higher standards of living and better economic and social conditions, these cross-border mobility figures also demonstrate the growing interconnectedness of the region’s peoples.
In 2022, approximately 800,000 Saudis, 650,000 Israelis, 300,000 Libyans, 225,000 Palestinians, 200,000 Kuwaitis and Jordanians, around 100,000 Syrians, 70,000 Lebanese, nearly 50,000 Iraqis and Turks, and slightly fewer Bahrainis, Omanis, Tunisians, Algerians, and Moroccans came to Egypt.
Egyptian government and international statistics do not record the number of arrivals from Yemen or Sudan for the same year, despite their relative high numbers due to the unstable domestic situations in both countries and their historical ties to Egypt.
As for Jordan, over 800,000 Saudis visited for tourism, medical treatment, and other reasons, as did approximately 600,000 Palestinians for reasons related to the special ties between the two peoples, together with at least 170,000 Israeli passport holders and around a quarter of a million Syrians, many of whom migrated during the years of the Civil War in Syria to Middle Eastern havens.
These nationalities were followed by Egyptians, with approximately 200,000 low- and medium-skilled workers and tourists visiting Jordan, followed by over 150,000 Iraqis. Following the Egyptians and Iraqis, varying numbers of visitors also went to Jordan, with Kuwaitis, Lebanese, Bahrainis, Omanis, Turks, Emiratis, and Qataris all visiting the country, together with approximately 80,000 Kuwaitis and 12,000 Libyans.
The same highly diverse picture was repeated in Lebanon, where Egyptians work, Iranians, Iraqis, Jordanians, and Turks visit for a variety of reasons, and Gulf nationals visit for tourism, study, and other purposes. Lebanon is a prime destination for many people in the Middle East, with recorded numbers in 2022 ranging from over 1.5 million Syrians to 155,000 Iraqis, 40,000 Egyptians, and between 30,000 Jordanians and Turkish citizens visiting the country.
Despite numerous political crises, Iran has not been excluded from the circle of cross-border visits in the Middle East, as its Middle Eastern visitors in 2022 included nearly two million Iraqis and varying numbers from the Gulf and Turkey, ranging from 70,000 Saudi citizens to 30,000 Turks.
Turkey has not been excluded from the same practice either, as millions of Iranians arrived in the country in the same year for various reasons, along with hundreds of thousands of Gulf Arabs, Iraqis, Egyptians, Lebanese, and people from the Maghreb, and around 100,000 Israeli citizens. For its part, Israel attracted more than 20,000 Turkish citizens and just under 5,000 Egyptians and Moroccans in 2022.
In the Maghreb, apart from Libya, for which no government or international statistics are available on its Middle Eastern immigrant population or visitors, Algeria attracted nearly half a million Tunisians in 2022 and tens of thousands of Moroccans, Libyans, and Turks (in reverse order of numbers). As for Morocco, the number of Saudis and Israelis arriving in the country in 2022 approached 70,000, while the numbers for Tunisians, Algerians, and Turks ranged between 30,000 and 40,000. The numbers of Egyptians and Emiratis dropped to just under 25,000.
Finally, Tunisia has become a vital destination for nearly two million Libyans, one and a half million Algerians, 50,000 Moroccans, and several thousand people from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and elsewhere.
All these figures demonstrate that the peoples of the Middle East are moving across the region’s borders for a variety of reasons, indicating the fact that increasing communication and cooperation in our region is a reality, even if the maps of bloodshed and destruction caused by ongoing wars and conflicts obscure the visibility of this and other developments.
Additional figures related to trade and investment between Middle Eastern countries, and even the rates of cross-border marriages between peoples, also demonstrate those other realities. It is upon them that the pursuit of regional coordination and security arrangements can be based.
The writer is a political scientist and former MP. He is currently director of the Middle East Programme at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, DC.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 1 May, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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