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Saudis tell expats to hit the
road
By N Janardhan
DUBAI -
Saudi Arabia's decision to reduce its foreign workforce
by more than half in 10 years is a major setback for
these workers, but it reflects increased efforts to
counter its growing unemployment problem.
Following a study on the job market situation in
the kingdom, the interior ministry's manpower council
announced this week a 20 percent ceiling on the number
of expatriate workers and their dependents in the
kingdom.
The directive will also ensure that
workers from a single country will account for no more
than 10 percent of the workforce by 2013, changing the
kingdom's decades-long dependence on foreign nationals
working as hotel staff, taxi drivers and clerks, to
public relations, managers and teachers.
Some
7.5 million foreigners work mostly in the private
sector, which translates to about 40 percent of the
total indigenous population of about 17 million.
When fully implemented, the decision would
reduce the number of foreigners to around 4 million.
This means that if new recruitment is totally suspended,
around 3 million foreigners will have to leave over the
next 10 years.
Beneath of the glitter of its oil
revenues, Saudi Arabia has a serious unemployment
problem that threatens to worsen because about half the
population is under 18. There are now 360,000 Saudi
nationals, or 20 percent of the population, out of work,
according to the Manpower Council. Less than 10 percent
of women of working age are actually employed.
The limits on foreign workers "is a painful, but
important process in the evolution of all the oil-rich
countries", independent political analyst Ghassan Al
Jashi said, referring to the changed economic climate
since the oil-boom days that draw huge numbers of
foreign workers and expatriates and propped up local
economies.
As Saudi Arabia's population has
risen, per capita GDP has fallen from US$28,000 in 1981
to under $8,000 in 2000. "The important thing [in
limiting the foreign workforce], however, is to achieve
a balance between the need to assuage domestic
unemployment without compromising on quality of the
workforce," Jashi added.
The new regulations may
not make a difference immediately. But they could have a
dramatic effect on nationals from India, Pakistan,
Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Sudan, Syria and the
Philippines, whose numbers exceed the newly stipulated
10 percent cap.
But the Saudi daily Okaz quoted
Interior Minister Prince Nayef as saying, "The
employment of expatriates should not be at the expense
of Saudi job seekers. More than 100,000 young Saudis
enter the job market annually. We have long depended on
others. Expatriate workers remit no less than US$13
billion abroad annually." He added that expatriates were
increasing the government's burden in terms of putting
"pressure on infrastructure facilities and increasing
crimes".
Similar concerns about dependence on
foreigners and domestic job worries have been raised in
the other Gulf countries as well. In January, United
Arab Emirates President Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan
al-Nahyan warned of the dangers of demographic imbalance
in countries where foreigners make up as much as 85
percent of the population. "This imbalance continues to
pose a grave problem which threatens the stability of
our society and the prospects for future generations,"
Sheikh Zayed said, while calling for "the implementation
of measures to remedy this imbalance."
In 1995,
a law was issued requiring private businesses employing
more than 20 people to increase the number of Saudi
nationals by 5 percent of the workforce every year. The
current required rate is 30 percent. The government aims
to create jobs for an additional 817,300 Saudis over the
next five years through a combination of Saudisation and
the creation of new jobs.
While the government
does not plan to expel foreign workers, it aims to
discourage some classes of foreigners from applying for
jobs and to create more jobs for Saudis. Accordingly,
the government has reserved 22 job sectors - in addition
to 34 sectors already announced - for its nationals. New
jobs reserved for Saudis include administrative managers
and their assistants, procurement managers, secretaries,
car showroom salesmen and public relations jobs. The
government also intends to "Saudize" taxi driver jobs
within two years. About 50,000 drivers mostly from the
subcontinent are likely to go jobless.
Said
Shenaz Iqbal, a schoolteacher from the subcontinent,
"Benefits have been mutual - Gulf countries have
benefited a great deal from the contributions of the
expatriates in terms of development; and we have
benefited financially by earning much more than what we
could have has in our countries. But, to keep us around
until their developmental objectives are fulfilled and
then ask us to leave is unfair," she said. "I doubt if
the locals will fill in to do all the jobs that we have
been doing and for the same salaries."
Abdul
Ghafour, a human resource consultant, said the
governments need to refocus the thrust of their
nationalization programs. "While too much emphasis is
being placed on providing jobs to nationals in the
service sector, the more productive industrial sector
has been hardly tapped," he said. Another important
factor for nationalization is to have in place an
educational system tailored to the needs of the private
sector," he added, explaining that a lack of educational
planning had led to expatriate domination of the
industrial sector.
Jashi also cites a political
reason behind the labor reforms, after the September 11
attacks. "With discontent brewing among the conservative
groups at the kingdom's support for the United States,
it would be political suicide for the rulers not to
address the economic grievances," he said. "Employment
for locals is an economic safety valve that helps let
out political steam. It is a fairly foolproof political
diversion, apart from being a sound economic plan. The
truth is that the expatriates have been very competent.
This has made the local population complacent. Nationals
are certainly acquiring better skills today, but the
market is yet to be tested if they will be able to
replace foreigners just as efficiently," Jashi said.
(Inter Press Service)
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