User:Arnold Durr/sandbox

Potential Article to be improved:

"Egyptian Immigrants": Egyptian Americans

Potential points to improve:

- No recent data on number of foreign-born Egyptians in the US (only from 2012 and the other figures are of 'ancestry')

- Very little historical information on waves of Egyptian immigration and the policies/laws and political conditions which have shaped Egyptian immigration to the US

- I can also add more socio-economic characteristics of Egyptian immigrants in the US (lack of credible data on the page: for instance, there are no figures nor numbers which I have found on the American Census Bureau Surveys)

Lead section : [Points to add]

Egyptian Americans may also include the Egyptian foreign-born population in the United States. The US Census Bureau estimated in 2016 that there were 181,677 foreign-born Egyptians in the United States. They represented less than 1% of the total US foreign-born population, around 0.4% with 42,194,354 first-generation immigrants in 2016.

Demographics [Points to change/add]:

According to the US Census Bureau’s 2016 estimates, there were 181,677 foreign-born Egyptians in the United States.

Following the sentence, "The Arab American Institute indicates that Egyptians are among the larger Arab American populations in the country", one could add:

Considering the foreign-born population in 2016, Egyptian immigrants represented the second largest group of the Arab foreign-born population in the United States. They followed the Iraqis who accounted for 221,587 foreign-born individuals. After the Iraqi and Egyptian foreign-born populations, the Lebanese foreign-born population in the United States represented 128,608 first-generation immigrants in 2016. Although the Lebanese foreign-born population was the leading Arab immigrant population in the US from 1960 till the 1990s, the Egyptian foreign-born population took the lead at the start of the millennium increasing in more than ten times its size of 1960.

Socioeconomic status [Points to add]:

The Egyptian foreign-born population in the US is characterized by a relatively high educational status and professional attainment in comparison to the total US population.

In 2016, Egyptian first-generation immigrants were more than twice as likely to have a bachelor’s degree in comparison to the total US population and 20% received a graduate or professional degree versus 12.3% of the US population. This high level of educational attainment may be part of a wider phenomenon of skilled Egyptian migration to the US. In other words, the high rates of unemployment for educated young people in Egypt versus the educational and professional opportunities in the US make immigration an appealing alternative. This is especially true in periods of political uncertainty like the 1970s or following the 2011 uprisings in Egypt. Furthermore, since many Egyptian immigrants enter the US through the Diversity Program which requires a certain educational level, it is understandable that immigration policies have also pushed the more educated Egyptians to migrate to the US.

Concerning occupational differences, the Egyptian foreign-born population and the American populace do not showcase startling divergences. Yet in 2016 estimates by the US Census Bureau, both groups tended to contrast at the more extreme ends of the professional market. Indeed, Egyptian first-generation immigrants in 2016 outnumbered the US population in the management, business, science and arts occupations. Nearly 50% of the Egyptian foreign-born population was employed in these occupations whereas 37% of the US population was represented in these sectors. On the other hand, the share of Egyptian immigrants in the natural resources, construction and maintenance occupations represented under 4% of the Egyptian foreign-born population while almost 9% of the American population appeared in this sector.

Potential Section to add: Predominant Means of Entry of Egyptian Immigrants to the United States :

In the total foreign-born Egyptian population of 2016, 67% were naturalized US-citizens. A majority of 32 % of foreign-born Egyptians in 2016 gained legal permanent resident (LPR) status as immediate relatives of US citizens, the primary means of entry for most US foreign-born populations. Therefore, social networks through familial ties remain the primary means of entry for Egyptians obtaining LPR status, nonetheless, almost as many, precisely 29%, enter through Section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1990. Diversity immigrants come from countries with historically low rates of immigration to the US and applicants are required to have an educational or professional background.

In 2016, the third major channel of obtaining LPR status in the US for Egyptian first-generation immigrants were as refugees and asylees. The share of the Egyptian foreign-born population obtaining LPR status as refugees or asylees was at 23% in 2016. These figures were particularly high following the 2011 uprisings and post-revolutionary period in Egypt. Specifically, 2,571 foreign-born Egyptians were affirmatively granted asylum status in 2012 compared to 751 in 2011. Nevertheless, these numbers decreased to 690 affirmative asylum status in 2016.

Article Evaluation

The information in this article does seem quite neutral, there are short summaries to most theories of migration, key definitions and statistics.

However, most sources seem to come from the United Nations framework, which is indeed quite neutral yet it may lack diversity and at the same time specificity.

One sentence in the ‘Overview’ section states that "This income is usually sent home to family members in the form of remittances and has become an economic staple in a number of developing countries”. Yet, the source is a journal article (New York Times) therefore its neutrality may be questioned. If it were supported by many other sources, it could be more verifiable.

The neoclassical theory, dual labor market theory and world systems theory rely on a single source which also lacks diversity of opinion and therefore, neutrality.

Moreover, certain lists, like the top immigrant countries and the top ten countries of origin lack sources, dates. These are showcased by warning banners asking for ‘when’ or ‘citation required’ which undermine the article’s completeness and contemporaneity.

There are also many unnamed sources of information with paragraphs starting with "There are countless of reasons” or “Often a distinction is made”.

In the Talk section, one of the most recurring issues with the article is the lack of history and historicity (looking at older migration patterns), problems of structure and repetition. Yet, concerning history, the article does have a link to “History of human migration”.

Nevertheless, I agree with many of the comments that the article does lack a rigid and comprehensive structure since it mixes many arguments in a strange manner (for example, the paragraph on “Climate Cycles” seems out of context and refers to a much earlier period than the other migration theories).

The article is rated as a ‘Level 3’ Vital article and a “C Class” article (A being complete) which stresses that the article remains incomplete.

Indeed, compared to what we’ve seen in class, there seems to be missing theories of migration (social capital, cumulative causation, political factors,…) but also a lack of diversity since many theories come from only one source. Finally, the way the Wikipedia article addresses the key theories is very simplistic and lacks the mechanisms of migration we looked at in class.