Economic migration of Palestinian youth: a search for a future or an escape from a difficult reality?

Writer: Hazem Al-Qawasmi

For many Palestinian youth, immigration is no longer just a desire to travel, seek a higher salary, or experience a new life. For a growing segment of young people, the question seems to have become tougher: Can I build my future in Palestine, or do I have to look for it elsewhere? This question does not come out of nowhere. Today, Palestinian youth face a combination of unemployment, weak job opportunities, low purchasing power, high housing and marriage costs, severe restrictions on movement, and declining economic activity. In Jerusalem, in addition to the high costs of housing and living. In Gaza, the economic situation has reached unprecedented levels of collapse and unemployment. Therefore, talking about the economic migration of Palestinian youth is no longer just about individual ambitions, but rather about a development and national issue related to the future of an entire generation.

When work becomes a dream

The numbers clearly reveal the scale of the problem. In 2025, the unemployment rate among Palestinian youth between the ages of 15 and 29 years reached 37.3% in the West Bank, compared to 85.5% in the Gaza Strip, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. Unemployment among young women in the West Bank reached 46.5%, compared to 34.8% among young men, while among young women in Gaza it reached 94%. These are not just numbers in a statistical report. Behind every number is a young man or woman who finished school and is looking for an opportunity, or a graduate who sent dozens of job applications and did not get a job, or a young man who postpones marriage because he does not have a stable income. What is even more disturbing is that the problem is not limited to young people without a university education. The unemployment rate among young graduates in the West Bank, those holding an intermediate diploma or higher, reached 37.5% in the fourth quarter of 2025, and it rose to 44.5% among female graduates. The unemployment rate among young graduates with academic degrees in Palestine reached about 42.5% in 2025. Here one of the biggest paradoxes in Palestinian society appears: the more a family invests in educating its children, the more a degree does not necessarily guarantee them a suitable job opportunity.

The problem is deeper than unemployment

Unemployment may be the most obvious indicator, but the real problem is the lack of horizon. A young person may be able to endure unemployment for several months if he believes that a job will come later. But when the wait turns into a year, two years, or more, the question becomes different: What will I do with my life? ILO data shows that Palestine has one of the highest rates of unemployed youth not enrolled in education or training in the region. In the West Bank, the percentage reached 37.1% in 2025, meaning that more than a third of young people in this age group were out of work, education, and training. The percentage increases with age to reach 58.5% among young people between the ages of 25 and 29 years. What is most telling is that highly educated young people are not immune to the problem; The NEET rate among them was about 44.7%, according to an analysis by the International Labor Organization. This means that the issue is not simply that young people do not want to work. In fact, a large portion of them want to work and do not find the opportunity that matches their education and skills. From here, immigration begins to transform from a dream into a practical option.

When the salary is not enough to build a life

Even getting a job does not necessarily mean that the problem is over. The young man needs more than a monthly salary. He needs housing, marriage, starting a family, and perhaps buying a house or establishing a business. As prices rise and purchasing power declines, these goals become more difficult. The Palestinian economy has witnessed a sharp decline in recent years. In the fourth quarter of 2025, the number of unemployed people in the West Bank reached about 280,000 people, and about 172,000 Palestinian workers were prevented from working in the Israeli market. Thus, in a short period, the Palestinian economy lost one of the most important outlets of work and income on which thousands of families depended.

Jerusalem: When housing becomes an obstacle to marriage

If unemployment is a general problem, Palestinian youth in Jerusalem face an additional set of challenges. The astronomical housing costs in Jerusalem have become one of the most important factors that push young people to leave the city they love. High real estate prices make purchasing an apartment out of reach for a young person at the beginning of his career. The price of an apartment today is $800,000 or more, at a time when incomes do not fully match these prices. Here the housing crisis turns into a social crisis: How can a young man get married and start a family if buying an apartment requires hundreds of thousands of dollars! As for rent, it in turn represents a huge burden on families with medium and limited incomes, and a new graduate cannot afford it at all. But the problem is not only related to the price. According to international and human rights reports, the Palestinians in East Jerusalem face great difficulties in all aspects of their lives, as they are besieged by racist occupation laws economically, socially and culturally, and are pursued by high taxes, violations and fines in every aspect of life. If a father wants to add a room for his son, Israeli bulldozers chase him. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 215 buildings were demolished in East Jerusalem during 2024, of which 141 buildings were demolished by their owners themselves to avoid fines and other measures. The office also documented the demolition of 76 buildings for these reasons during the period it monitored in 2025, the owners of 47 of which had demolished them themselves.

Gaza: From economic migration to migration in search of life

If the West Bank and Jerusalem are facing a crisis of opportunities, then Gaza is facing a crisis like no other in the entire world. The World Bank indicated that more than 90% of the working-age population were unemployed, according to its data related to the labor market. Poverty, hunger, and lack of food, water, and medicines are not a problem. The World Bank, the United Nations, and the European Union estimate the recovery and reconstruction needs in Gaza at about $71.5 billion. Three years have passed and the world has done nothing to end the suffering of our people in the beloved Gaza Strip. If the borders are opened to population movement in a way that allows young people to leave, it is expected that there will be a great desire among a segment of them to search for opportunities outside Gaza, especially in light of the massive unemployment and economic devastation. Of course, the size of this migration cannot be determined in advance; This depends on travel conditions, the countries that will receive the migrants, the speed of reconstruction, and economic opportunities within Gaza. But there is a clear reason for concern: the longer the job creation process is delayed, the more attractive migration becomes for young people. If we want young people to stay, it is not enough to tell them: Stay. Rather, we must provide them with a convincing reason to stay.

Conclusion

Economic migration of Palestinian youth is not a phenomenon that can be explained by a single reason. It is the result of the accumulation of a number of factors: high unemployment, weak ability of the economy to create jobs, mismatch between education and the labor market, high housing and marriage costs, unprecedented restrictions on movement and work, and difficult political and economic conditions. Therefore, the real question is not: “Why do Palestinian youth want to immigrate?” Rather: “What have we done, and what can we do, so that remaining in Palestine becomes a viable economic option?” Palestine cannot build a strong economy without its youth. If its best graduates, professionals, and businessmen begin to see their future outside it, the loss will not only be the loss of individuals, but rather the loss of part of the ability to build the future itself. Migration may be a right and an opportunity, but it becomes a dangerous indicator when it turns from a choice to improve the future into a necessity to escape a reality that does not provide a future. Here lies the greatest responsibility: not in convincing young people not to leave, but in building a Palestine that makes them want to stay.