Unemployment is a very serious problem and should be solved with the appropriate solutions.
Without a job to earn a livelihood, people cannot support their families and provide them a decent living. The level of employment in a country reflects the country’s economic power.
A falling employment level in a country means the failure of its government in discharging its duties effectively. There are instances of governments falling because of spiraling unemployment rates and shattered economies.
Unemployment means wasted energy, stunted growth, and economic slowdown. Its inevitable result is the spread of poverty and a simmering discontent which will eventually lead to bitterness, ill health, social unrest and other undesirable situations.
Unemployment in the Kingdom is basically an economic issue and should be confronted with economic solutions, according to the Ministry of Labor. The panacea, the ministry also says, is to minimize our dependence on foreign labor.
This could be done either by discouraging their coming here by levying a very high recruitment fee or by simply restricting the recruitment. I agree with the ministry’s findings that unemployment is an economic problem and hence it deserves an economic solution.
On the other hand, making imported labor economically unaffordable to the people is not an economic solution.
It also makes one wonder how expensive foreign labor can help to wipe out the scourge of unemployment.
A strong economy means rational spending with expenses being brought down and reduced. Raising the price of foreign recruitment could never be called an economic solution.
Raising the cost and fees obviously means an increase in the price of the product and services and that, of course, is not an economic solution.
It is against the economic interests of the people as it would quicken the rate of inflation, causing people to spend more money for cheap services. Their present level of income would not suffice for half of what they currently enjoy.
Such ideas from the ministry betray its lack of awareness of market realities or its reluctance to give up its control over foreign recruitment. The cheap labor the ministry is referring to includes maids, household drivers, cleaners, factory workers and farm hands. These are areas which the vast majority of Saudis will not work in.
The foreign workers in the Kingdom can be categorized as low, middle and upper levels. The lowest level — maids, household drivers, cleaners etc., — is not attractive to Saudis while the upper category requires advanced qualifications in science and technology, including medicine.
Specialists in those fields are hard to find and are in great demand all over the world. They are well-respected in their own countries while many other countries attempt to lure them with offers of citizenship.
The middle level jobs which include marketing, finance, administration, computer and maintenance — all of which bring a good wage — attract young Saudis but they have to compete with foreigners. Saudi employers ask for quality and efficiency and show no racial or ethnic preference. The more qualified foreigners are given higher salaries and the fittest survive, regardless of his nationality.
Many quote the Saudi economist Dr. Ali ibn Talal Al-Johani, “Had Germany opened its doors to cheap foreign labor, there would not have been a single German in the Mercedes plants.”
He also said that Saudis had turned the Kingdom into a mere recruiting center for cheap labor from third world countries; in so doing, they stuck their heads in the sand — or in heaps of riyals — and took no notice of the increasing number of unemployed Saudis.
I would like to point out to Dr. Johani the difference in the prices of a Mercedes, European or American cars and Korean, Indian or Malaysian ones.
The higher wages in the West is reflected in the higher price of products manufactured there.
Though more expensive, the lack of cheap labor from third world countries has helped the West maintain the quality of its products.
Is it correct to attribute all our woes to foreign labor? It should be borne in mind that there are more than three million Turks working in Germany, two million North Africans in France and two million Indians in Britain.
America is a melting pot of people of all races and ethnic origins. Tens of thousands of people are being naturalized in the United States every year.
The Mercedes company has been opening plants all over the world and all its employees are foreigners, except for the top management. Even in Jeddah, there is a Mercedes truck division. The same is true with Toyota and General Motors.
Most well-known international brands also have plants in Malaysia, Korea and China. Then why do they import labor to their countries?
