Recently, while in the United States in a government office in Florida waiting to renew a student ID card, I sat next to a man from India whose name was Michael. He said he was waiting to finalize his papers and become a naturalized American at the end of three years of continuous hard work in the United States.
When he learned I was from Saudi Arabia, he told me that he and his wife, both doctors, had worked and lived in Jeddah for two years. He said they liked working in the Kingdom where there were no taxes and also because living conditions were extremely good there. He told me that he and his wife wanted to return to the Kingdom on their new American passports in order to secure their and their children’s financial futures.
Listening to him speak of his plans, I could not fault him or others like him who have enjoyed working in our country. The fault is with our Ministry of Labor and other government bodies who allow employers to determine workers’ salaries based on their nationality. Has Michael developed extra arms and legs that enable him to work twice as hard as he did before in Jeddah? Is it fair that he receive double his former salary — for the same work — just because he has an American passport?
Muhammad, a Sudanese who is now a naturalized Canadian, told me he had worked at King Saudi University in Riyadh twice. The first time he was Sudanese and the second was after he had been granted Canadian nationality. Of course, as a Canadian, he earned much more than he had as a Sudanese.
I still remember reading an article in a local magazine in which a Saudi doctor employed in a government hospital complained of work conditions. He wished the hospital would treat him as well as the American nurse he worked with whose conditions of employment were superior to his.
How can any one expect the doctor to excel in his work if he feels discriminated against? Why don’t we benefit from qualified individuals working in our country regardless of their nationality? Why don’t we allow Indians, Sudanese, Egyptians and others to become naturalized Saudis instead of forcing them to leave, go to work and live in Western countries and return to us at the end of their career?
The benefits to be reaped from expatriates are many. There are six million foreign workers in this country out of a population of 24 million. It is impossible to find out the nature of the jobs they are doing or even to see a breakdown based on nationalities because the Ministry of Labor’s website merely provides general information and even this can only be accessed by those who read Arabic.
