In a recent report by the New York Times, a clear trend towards migration has emerged among successful businessmen from Egypt’s Coptic community. Coptic businessmen remain a significant force in the trade, finance and accounting sectors.
One of the clear motivating factors for this phenomenon is the recent upswing in violence targeting the minority, exemplified by a string of incidents including the Maspero Massacre in October 2011 and the attack on the Saint Mark Cathedral in al-‘Abbāsīyyah in April 2013. In addition, fears of economic discrimination by means of taxes have been a further cause of this exodus. These events have further aggravated the post-revolution recession, which has in turn become an underlying cause for the flight of skilled labor and capital from the struggling economy (Engy Majdī, al-Yawm al-Sābi’, May 17, p. 6). Read original text in Arabic.