alwatan.com.sa
As of 2012 there were more than two million foreign workers throughout the Kingdom. This figure includes expatriates who are in executive level jobs to domestic workers and laborers. However, the Kingdom is cracking down rapidly and strongly against foreign workers in the Kingdom in its effort to have many of these positions filled instead by unemployed Saudis. The present unemployment rate of Saudis is 12.5 percent in spite of many of the Saudis having received higher education or technical training.
Most foreign workers in professional sectors are in the Kingdom because they have a skill or expertise that the Kingdom is unable to fulfill with a Saudi national. However, Saudi Arabia has recognized they must build up their own indigenous workforce and are positioning Saudis to receive skills and expertise presently unavailable in the Kingdom through foreign scholarships abroad with the intent to ultimately replace many expatriate workers.
In the past six years, Saudi Arabia, under the auspices of King Abdullah, has greatly expanded educational opportunities inside the Kingdom within its medical and educational sectors. There are now multiple universities where Saudis can receive training and education to become physicians, nurses, technicians and educators in a board spectrum of fields.
Although more challenging to fill due to the type of work, Saudi Arabia is making efforts to have Saudis work in positions as drivers or laborers. Some Saudi women are taking domestic positions as well but they do remain a very small minority due to cultural resistance.
At the same time, the pool of now illegal and unemployed foreign workers in the Kingdom gets bigger each day. This is in part to either employers terminating contracts with foreign workers and to a degree, due to some Saudis who sponsored expatriates into the Kingdom as their own money making scheme. In this case, a Saudi would sponsor some expatriate workers who would find their own jobs, usually as drivers, and would pay the Saudi a fee each month for the sponsorship. Jawazat (entity which controls the iqama residence permit) has been aggressively cracking down on expatriates who have overstayed after their employment has been terminated in addition to the expatriates who have been operating in the Kingdom as “freelancers.”
American Bedu has seen an increase in emails from expatriates who are employed but remaining in the Kingdom. These individuals all ask for help in finding another job stating that they are responsible for supporting their family back in their home country and that there are less employment opportunities back in their home countries.
It’s a catch-22 in a sense. It is understandable that Saudi Arabia wants to be more independent and less reliant on foreign help. Naturally the Kingdom would like to see the funds of the salaries remain in the Kingdom too, supporting the local economy. Yet it is also easy to feel sympathy for the expatriate workers who came to the Kingdom seeing an opportunity to rise the standard of living for their family back in their home country.
In closing this post, American Bedu is sharing three videos which all depict the fear expatriates feel when they hear the dreaded announcement, “Jawazat.” (please note – video three is a spoof and pure humor)
Filed under: Economy, expat, expatriates, politics, Saudi Arabia, Saudi blogs, Saudi education, Saudi Living, travel, Uncategorized | Tagged: blogging, Saudi Arabia | 9 Comments »