In-Between Categories 47 targeted specific sectors, such as banking and commercial, and mandated that the directors of companies and administrative boards related to these sectors had to be Egyptian nationals. However, they did not dictate the nationality of the personnel—Egyptian or otherwise—like the Company Law 138/1947. Even though the 1957 laws did not specifically target non-Egyptian workers, it did intensify the insecurity of foreign employees in the Egyptian job market. This insecurity deepened and led to more departures when Ministerial Decree 263, which addressed the position of foreigners in the labor market, was issued in 1960. Hence, the new laws in the 1950s and 1960s demarcated a new relationship between the Egyptian state and nonEgyptian nationals, as they increased the need for obtaining Egyptian citizenship, a need made even more pressing for this period’s children who would enter the labor market once they finished school.35 CHILDREN AS FUTURE EMPLOYEES IN THE JOB MARKET In 1960s and 1970s, the Egyptian government regarded children, regardless of their origins, as future employees in the Egyptian labor market. Likewise, children’s labor potential was recognized by several international companies that operated in the Suez Canal region. Gamal Abdel Nasser, the second president of Egypt from 1954 to 1970, emphasized the public sector’s growth and the government’s economic interventions, which were implemented in several phases. Indeed, in Nasser’s economic planning, the public sector was central to the drive for industrialization and nationalization. The public sector employed millions of people, including university graduates and individuals from Egyptian society’s lower strata. Hence, it was not surprising that children were seen as possibly useful economic actors that would equip the public sector once they finished school.36 In addition, the Suez Company and other international shipping and construction companies that operated in the canal region needed skilled personnel. Employers assumed that Greek islanders’ familiarity with the sea made them the most suited for the type of work needed by those companies. Indeed, until the 1920s, Greeks comprised the largest group of employees at the Suez Company within the category of “Europeans.” Several of my interlocutors commented that their children could find jobs more easily as divers and workers on ships, or, if they were more highly educated and skilled, as pilots and seamen. They too framed Greeks as most suited to shipping industries. One of them commented, “Egyptians were afraid of the sea, and most of them did not know how to swim.” Hence, young islander Greeks were seen as the best fit for such jobs. Besides their suitability for jobs