Decades of ongoing conflict have reduced Yemen, already one of the Arab world’s poorest nations, to a state of systemic economic collapse, leaving millions of citizens fighting for daily survival. For the country’s low-skilled working-age population, the challenge of securing stable employment to support families has grown even more dire amid a growing wave of transient East African migrants, who have reshaped local low-wage labor markets.
Zahed al-Zabidi, a 30-something Yemeni native originally from conflict-battered Hodeidah governorate, knows this struggle intimately. Seven years ago, he relocated to the southern port city of Aden in search of more reliable work, leaving behind a life of inconsistent day labor that barely put food on the table for his five family members. For more than 15 years, Zabidi has made his living washing dishes and cleaning dining spaces at local restaurants – work that requires no formal education or specialized training, the only kind of employment he can access. Where he once had no trouble securing shifts, opportunity has all but dried up in recent years.
Zabidi blames the growing competition from Ethiopian migrants passing through Yemen on their way to Gulf Cooperation Council nations. “I worked at several restaurants in Aden, but the situation gets worse every day because Ethiopian migrants are taking our jobs, and many restaurants have started hiring them,” he explained. “Ethiopian migrants are ready to work for any amount, so restaurant owners prefer them and fire us.” Zabidi once earned 130,000 Yemeni Riyals, roughly $83, per month – a sum already barely enough to cover his family’s basic needs – before he was replaced by an Ethiopian worker who accepted just 80,000 Yemeni Riyals ($51) for the same role. For Zabidi, that lower wage is impossible to accept: unlike many transient migrants, he has a family of five to support, and the reduced rate cannot cover even the most basic household expenses.
Today, Zabidi remains out of work, traveling from restaurant to restaurant across Aden seeking any open position, with no luck. His family now survives on just bread and tea for most meals, with meat only appearing on their table when a charitable neighbor shared it during the Eid al-Fitr holiday. “It is difficult for a jobless person like me to buy good food for his family. We are only eating to survive,” Zabidi said. Now, he is planning to leave Aden to seek work on farms in Lahj governorate, where relatives already work, even though he has no prior experience in agricultural labor. “I don’t have experience in farming, but I will learn it from my relatives and try my best to work there,” he said.
Official data underscores the scale of Zabidi’s crisis: Yemen’s national youth unemployment rate hit 32.39 percent in 2024, with the hardest impacts falling on low-skilled workers like him who rely on informal, unskilled roles. The United Nations estimates that 22.3 million Yemenis – nearly three-quarters of the country’s total population – require some form of humanitarian assistance or protection support in 2025.
The influx of migrants that has reshaped Yemen’s labor market is part of a long-running regional migration pattern. Yemen’s strategic position on the southwestern edge of the Arabian Peninsula has made it a key transit hub for decades for migrants fleeing conflict and poverty in East Africa and the Horn of Africa, most notably Ethiopia and Somalia, who seek better economic opportunity and safety in Saudi Arabia and other wealthy Gulf states.
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), 110,144 migrants have entered Yemen since the start of 2025, 97 percent of them Ethiopian and 3 percent Somali. More than 90 percent of these new arrivals list Saudi Arabia as their final destination, with only 10 percent planning to settle in Yemen permanently. For most, the country is nothing more than a temporary stopover as they coordinate the next leg of their dangerous journey.
Because migrants only need enough income to cover immediate daily survival costs while they wait to continue north, most are willing to accept extremely low wages that Yemeni heads of household cannot afford to work for. One Ethiopian migrant, who gave his name as Ramadan, explained this dynamic in a brief interview with Middle East Eye. “We plan to reach Saudi Arabia, and while we are here, we need to eat, so we work just like anyone else,” he said. Ramadan, who has picked up basic Arabic during seven months working at an Aden restaurant, added: “I love Yemen and Yemenis, and I don’t want to make anyone unhappy. Yemenis are our brothers, and we share the same suffering.”
Restaurant owners in Aden openly admit that they prefer to hire Ethiopian migrants for low-wage cleaning and dishwashing roles for this reason. Ali, an Aden restaurant owner who spoke to MEE on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that the lower labor costs and higher willingness to work long hours make migrants the more attractive option for business owners. “The Ethiopian migrants work hard and they clean the restaurant better than some Yemenis. Moreover, they accept lower wages and don’t complain,” Ali said. “While some Yemeni workers frequently demand higher wages and require a lot of time off, that is not the case with Ethiopians, who work silently and dutifully perform any task requested of them. As a businessman, I prefer to employ Ethiopians for these roles because they work longer hours for less pay.”
Economic analysts note that while the migrant influx exacerbates strain on low-wage Yemeni workers, it is not the root cause of the country’s unemployment crisis – that stems from the 10-year ongoing civil conflict that collapsed Yemen’s national economy. “These migrants work in cleaning, strenuous domestic labour and farming, especially Qat farming, where they accept low wages,” explained economic expert Wafeeq Saleh. “These low wages are not enough for a Yemeni to eke out a decent living for a family, creating unfair competition in the labour market between Yemeni workers and Ethiopians.”
Saleh added that shifting cultural norms have already pushed more Yemenis into these once-shunned low-skilled roles. “There used to be a relative reluctance among Yemenis to take up cleaning jobs because it was culturally viewed as ‘shameful’, but the severe economic crisis has contributed to the fading away of this culture, and Yemenis are now in dire need of any opportunity,” he said.
Even many Yemeni workers who have lost jobs to migrants do not oppose migrants working, but rather call for uniform wage standards that eliminate the unfair advantage low-wage transient migrants give employers. “I am not against Ethiopian migrants working, but I am against the low salaries that encourage restaurant owners to hire them,” Zabidi said. “If we received the same salary for the same working hours, restaurant owners would prefer us.”
