Foreigners represent a large portion of the population of this country. They have come to the Kingdom to work but only because we asked them — and enabled them — to come here. They have not come to beg, steal or become a liability on our social security system. They are making the Saudi economy function, rendering the kind of service that benefits us Saudis in the first place. We need them in order to lead the modern life we want and enjoy; indeed without their presence, our lives would be more than a little miserable.
And what do they get in return? The worst kind of racism that one can imagine! What is so very painful is the fact that the racism directed at expatiate workers is largely tolerated because it goes under the name of Saudization which is used as a cloak for this totally unacceptable behavior.
In our treatment of expatriate workers, we show openly that we think we are a race superior to them and all others. Our economy is heavily reliant on foreigners and yet they are treated as an underclass. Have we forgotten that they are here only because we asked them to come and enabled them to do so? While here they don’t enjoy, along with us Saudis, such privileges as free grants, soft government loans and other incentives. We would have served our cause much better by making use of the presence of the millions of foreigners among us; by treating them properly, we would have gained countless goodwill ambassadors to improve our country’s image abroad. Instead, we prefer to spend money in an attempt to buy an image. A friend told me about six foreign workers who found themselves in jail for weeks, threatened with deportation for a crime which they had not committed. Their employer who was required by law to Saudize his business failed to transfer their sponsorship to his business. Because they were foreigners and their employer Saudi, the six were detained while the employer was absolved of any responsibility. Can we then blame those individuals for holding a grudge against us?
Worst is the widespread belief that foreigners without exception are unwelcome. Racism is found everywhere in every country in the world; it is by its very nature repugnant and is the refuge of the ignorant and the mentally weak. When the situation is such, however, that this sad behavior is no longer confined to a few, we should sound the alarm. We ourselves need to do a great deal more to uphold and defend the material and moral rights of expatriate workers. This should also be a priority for local human rights bodies. It is true that not all foreigners are angels — and as we know very well, not all Saudis are either. There are certainly corrupt individuals among the foreigners in this country but there are also many more who are hard-working and honest and worthy of our sincere respect and consideration. If we treated them that way, they would respect us in turn and return to their countries with tales that would improve, rather than worsen, our already unfortunate image.
