Ten years after the Arab Spring, which brought hope for more dignity and better living conditions for people in the Middle East and North Africa, the region appears far from hopeful.
The situation is particularly bad in countries such as Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco that cannot rely primarily on oil and gas exports. These three North African countries were the subjects of our research as part of the Radicalisation, Secularism and the Governance of Religion: European and Asian Perspectives (GREASE) project. They are highly dependent on tourism, textile exports and remittances.
COVID-19 has dealt a severe blow to all three economies as they all have strong informal economic sectors, where people live in very precarious conditions. All three have recorded a significant increase in unemployment figures.
