RIYADH, 5 August — Saudi Arabia’s vast expatriate community is in two minds, whether to continue until they are declared unwanted or call it a day sooner than later.
The dilemma is the direct result of a recent government move to reserve 22 job sectors for Saudis. Since the official announcement came a few days before the summer vacation, some of those who had planned to spend their holidays in countries other than their own changed their plans and headed home in a bid to explore job or business opportunities.
Aside from the narrowing scope for jobs, since the profession on the Iqama has to match with the job held, other factors influencing professionals are disparities in salaries and hours of work. It is generally alleged that holders of Western qualifications are offered higher salary than those from the Third World.
"Salary disparities, which are narrowing in recent times, were wide some years ago when doctors holding qualifications from Third World countries were discriminated against those graduating from European and American universities," a physician pointed out.
"The discrimination is no longer seen now because Westerners are not that many here now," he said, adding that the expat community in general had no grouse against paying higher salaries to Saudis. "This is, after all, their country and they need to be offered high salaries as an attraction," he said.
Giving an example, he said there was a time when a medical degree holder from the Indian subcontinent was offered SR3,500 to SR5,000 depending on his experience, whereas the salary offered to a degree holder from Britain or the United States was upward of SR8,000 depending on his experience," said another physician. "Those with MRCP or FRCS earned up to SR20,000 or beyond a month."
Similar is the situation with regard to top management positions in the private sector. A senior general manager of a leading company said these days the number of Third World expatriates occupying top management positions is high. "This was not the case a few years ago when such positions were reserved exclusively for Western expats. Some companies chose to reduce their overheads by replacing Western expats who had to be paid high salaries and high-class facilities in terms of housing and transport in accordance with their lifestyle back home. Today, some of the Third World expats have replaced them but they don’t enjoy the same salary structure and facilities as their Western counterparts did," a top executive of a transport company said. He pointed out that the present Third World incumbents were being paid salaries and allowances totaling less than 50 percent of what Western expats earned.
"The current heightened wave of Saudization may sound alarm bells for expats but does not mean that all is over for them," a Filipino professional in an IT firm said. "Although the scope of employment for expats is narrowing day by day, the Kingdom will continue to need highly skilled people and professionals aside, of course, from those doing physical labor, especially for sectors like maintenance and cleaning," he added. An Indian professional said training would play a big role in preparing young Saudis for challenging jobs. "In fact, it is encouraging to note that Saudis are being employed, given on-job training and absorbed in factories," he said, and pointed out that Saudis were capable of taking up any type of job. He gave a recent example where local companies organizing events to mark the just-ended Jeddah summer festival employed Saudis to conduct them. Their tasks included laborious work of preparing the stage for various acts.
A random survey conducted in Riyadh shows that Asians in the Kingdom and the five other Gulf states work longer hours than their Western counterparts. Asians seem to log over 48 hours compared to under-39 hours by American or European counterparts.
"There is still wide disparity between the earnings of an Asian and a European or American expat," said a 10-member group of senior Asian managers each of whom drawing between 30 to 50 percent lower salary than their Western counterparts.
"I’m unable to meet the increasing educational expenses of my children because of the disparity in salary and allowances. My three children are studying in a Canadian university," an Asian executive said.
