46 Eftychia Mylona
One of my interlocutors, Giannis, noted that one of the main
problems the Greek youth faced was that only a small proportion of
them completed their higher education in Egypt. Most Greeks chose to
study elsewhere (in Greece, for example). Studying outside Egypt
disadvantaged them in the labor market compared to Egyptian
nationals, who obtained their degrees from Egyptian universities or
technical schools. Therefore, most Greeks were limited to working
either in the Greek community’s institutions, in Greek companies, or
companies operating in Egypt where employees with dual language
skills (Greek and Arabic) were preferred.32
Indeed, until the late 1950s, the Greeks’ education was oriented
less towards the Arabic language and more towards the Greek state,
striving to keep strong connections to the Greek language and
Christian Orthodox faith. In addition, the community’s schools, which
primarily controlled the Greek community’s education, focused more
on classical studies rather than technical training. Hence, in addition to
the laws introduced by Nasser, the limitations derived from the Greek
community’s education and broader environment, which reinforced
their Greek identity more than the Egyptian one, also defined the
relationship between young Greeks and Egyptian society and the labor
market once they graduated from school.33
The 1956 Suez Canal War and the nationalizations that followed
demarcated a period of government interventions. One year later, in
1957, the Egyptian state began its first five-year industrial plan focusing
mainly on state enterprise. The government’s interventions intensified
after 1961, although the private sector still performed most of the
country’s economic activity. The nationalization of the Suez Canal by
Nasser aimed to finance the Aswan High Dam project by using revenue
from the canal. In October 1956, Israel crossed into the Sinai Peninsula
with the encouragement of Britain and France. British and French
planes began to bombard the canal zone, an event known in history as
the “Suez Crisis.” The post-World War II situation had already created
an unemployment crisis, which continued after the Suez Crisis. Indeed,
once the Allies left Egypt after the war, a number of non-Egyptian
enterprises, specifically bars and restaurants that employed Greeks,
closed and dramatically affected foreign laborers’ prospects.
Foreigners who were involved in military service and demobilized
after the war also faced unemployment, as a new law reinforced and
strengthened young Egyptians’ position in the labor market. 34
In addition, the position of non-nationals in the job market
worsened in the late 1950s, as more Egyptianization laws were
introduced. The Egyptianization laws 22, 23, and 24, passed in 1957,