I was pleased to read last week that Crown Prince Abdullah had directed the formation of a committee to study the Saudization of 21 job categories. These 21 categories currently employ 200,000 non-Saudis. I must admit I am impressed by headlines screaming about Saudization. At the same time, I feel defeated when I encounter the details of large sums of money being transferred abroad while our youth loiter at all hours in the streets without work.

Let us do some mathematics to arrive at a sensible conclusion. We have 200,000 jobs, including every conceivable type of work, waiting for Saudis. The figure may suggest that if all these jobs were taken by Saudis, the unemployment problem would be solved. Yet 200,000 are just a drop in the bucket of nearly seven million expatriates, so that number represents only a tiny percentage of the Saudi unemployed. Several questions must be asked: How can we deal with the unemployment problem? What about the overwhelming majority of non-Saudis in addition to the 200,000? What are they doing and where do they work? The situation is very serious indeed. This is a country which offers thousands of job opportunities and yet its citizens continue to play the role of guest rather than host.

People come to the Kingdom by legal and illegal means, and all we do is sell the future of our children because some of our own people resort to fraud, including commercial fraud, in order to make money. Those criminal individuals could easily be exposed, but the real problem lies with all the different Saudization committees entrusted with finding solutions.

They have failed to deal with the problem, thinking their mission is to provide more loopholes with the result that Saudization has now become a meaningless word.

The so-called Saudization of the gold market and the taxi business are the best examples of the failure I am talking about. The recruitment of a non-Saudi work force was a necessity at one time. It is now a very lucrative business for those who care nothing about jobless Saudi youth.

All that connects these unfortunate young people to their country is a birth certificate or identity card. The recruitment of foreign labor has, over the years, become a grant bestowed on some, just like gifts of land and import licenses.

Arab News From the Local Press 23 April 2003