Foreigners originally arrived in Saudi Arabia to work in the government sector to make up shortages in managerial positions. Some years later, the fifth development plan concentrated on training Saudis to qualify them for jobs held by foreigners. When economic conditions in Saudi Arabia improved, many factories and various kinds of workshops were built and there was an urgent need to bring foreign workers to operate these factories.
When Saudis apply for a visa for workers, they must specify the job which the foreign worker is qualified to do. The fact is that a very large number of foreign workers who come to the Kingdom do not even know the most basic things about the jobs they have come to fill. For example, you bring a foreigner here to work as a driver and he shows you his international license; then you find that he has never sat in the driver’s seat of any motor vehicle until he is behind the wheel of your car.
In reality, these foreigners have the perfect opportunity to come to Saudi Arabia and get free training and acquire technical skills while receiving a monthly salary. They come here with no qualifications, train for free and then take their acquired training and skills back to their home countries. We provide the perfect environment for them to train free of charge. When we deal with them, we find that most of them will not hesitate to do any job. Do not be surprised if you find that one has worked as a plumber, then an electrician, then a mechanic and finally as a clerk in a grocery store. In other words, he is apparently fit to do anything. The workers will not hesitate to tell you that they can do anything.
Another thing they benefit from is learning Arabic. When we talk to them, we have to simplify our speech and speak a kind of broken Arabic so they will understand.
The greatest benefit for the workers is the ability to send money to their families. In most cases, these workers are contracted to receive a specific amount of money every month. What happens in reality is that the owner of a business brings the workers here, trains them and then lets them manage the business after they agree that to give the owner a specific amount every month. The tables are turned. Instead of the owner giving the worker a monthly salary, it is now the worker who is doing this job and providing the owner with a salary. This is common here in many businesses.
It is accepted that a foreigner will not work as hard when he receives a monthly salary because he knows he will get his money at the end regardless of his productivity. When he is managing the business for himself, however, he will work very hard for long hours in order to make money. In the end, we allow a portion of our revenues to be sent abroad and this naturally has a negative impact on us and our economy.
Efforts to Saudize began a long time ago. They have succeeded in many sectors but still facing a number of problems in other sectors. Orders were issued to Saudize the fruit market and many Saudis benefited from the decision. Foreign workers still managed to come back and work in the fruit market. They slowly began to come back as salesmen in the market and went to farms and worked as wholesale businessmen. Enforcing Saudization requires a continuous effort by officials to make sure foreigners are doing jobs which have been Saudized.
Saudis must also work hard to prove themselves in business because business requires huge efforts. The Saudis who complain that they are unemployed have no excuse because they should go out, work hard and prevent some foreigner from taking a job from them. We could benefit from the example of other Arab countries where there are no foreign workers. We see the father working with his children in the bakery and we see a man employing his cousins and relatives in the workshop. These people are doing a service to the domestic economy by employing from within and not relying on foreign workers.
Arab News Local Press 07 September 2003
