Parliament’s Human Resources panel, tasked with examining ways to redress the demographic imbalance and limit the number of expatriates working in the country, in its report earlier this month noted that any sudden and large-scale reduction in the number of foreigners would have serious negative repercussions for the economy.
According to the panel, any large and rapid trimming of expat numbers could result in severe impact on various sectors of the economy, including in commerce, real estate, education, health and other services. In its observations, the panel noted that the retail and travel sectors could witness an appreciable slump in sales, while real estate would have to cope with a large number of vacant flats and unsold apartments.
In the education sector, any sudden exodus of teachers, especially those teaching specialized subjects, could have a serious bearing on quality of education provided at private and public educational institutions, while nursing staff, who may choose to accompany husbands who lost their jobs, out of the country, could impact healthcare. Services provided by the State could also suffer if a large number of laborers were terminated and expelled from the country simultaneously. Many real estate owners have already voiced their concerns over any such move by the government.
They point out that even under present circumstances brought on by the coronavirus pandemic and which has led to reduced salaries and loss of income in the private sector, many expatriates are preferring to leave the country. This enmasse departure could see the price of investment properties fall by as much as 25 percent, and occupancy rates drop by nearly 50 percent in some areas. They warned that any attempt to throw out even more expatriates would further aggravate the present situation.
The government is reportedly discussing a proposal to cut as many as 360,000 expats almost immediately, most of them illegals and senior expats above 60 years of age. According to the latest population figures, there are more than 3.4 million foreigners in Kuwait in comparison to 1.4 million Kuwaitis.
In its recommendations, the parliament panel said that expatriates should be removed from most government jobs, and they called on authorities to expedite the nationalization policy that replaces expatriates with citizens in the public sector. They also added that any move to initiate a quota system on the number of expats from each country should be deferred so as to give the government more flexibility in dealing with the matter. However, to put the panel’s recommendations in proper perspective, The Times Kuwait took a look at some figures from relevant data on government sector employment. The latest numbers, made available by the Central Statistical Bureau show that as of July 2018 there were a total of 401,057 employees in the public sector, with expatriates numbering 99,343 or around a quarter of the total employees.
Two government ministries that employed the largest number of expatriates were Health and Education, employing 34,920 and 29,655 foreigners respectively. This number constituted around 57 percent of total employees in the health sector and 26 percent in the education sector. However, the figures grow more interesting when we include some of the other government entities, such as Kuwait Airways and Kuwait Flour Mills Company. In the national carrier, there are nearly eight expatriates for every national employed — 710 nationals against 5,571 foreigners.
In Kuwait Flour Mills, which provides the nation’s daily bread, the ratio was even more skewed with expatriates accounting for nearly 96 percent of the workforce — 182 nationals and 4,330 expatriates. In the Oil Sector Services which does most field there were 15 expatriates for every national — 13 nationals and 196 foreigners Reducing these employees, especially nurses, specialized teachers, skilled technicians and experienced workers is not an option under present circumstances, given that there are very few nationals having the requisite qualifications to take up these jobs, or those that have the necessary credentials are usually not keen to work in these sectors. For instance, Kuwait has a dedicated College of Nursing to train nationals as professional healthcare providers. But despite the college’s existence since 2003 and the enticing offer of KD300 per month as stipend during the duration of their training, there have been very few takers for the courses offered at the college. Moreover, most students drop out of the two or four-year courses midway and those that go on to graduate often choose not to engage in the profession. A study conducted earlier on the recruitment and retention of nurses in Kuwait revealed that only around 6 percent of the nursing workforce in the country were citizens. Figures from the study also showed that the number of Kuwaiti indigenous nurses have been declining at an average decrement rate of 3.3 percent annually for years, leading to an increasing gap between the numbers of native and expatriate nurses in the country.
A main reason for the low number of native nurses is that nursing is generally seen as a low status and non-respectable profession that lacks support and encouragement from society. This social job assessment also extends to several other jobs, especially those involving strenuous outdoor manual work or employment in services sectors. It is no wonder then that previous attempts by the authorities to regulate and reduce the number of expatriates in the country have been less than successful.
Interestingly, the parliament panel in its extensive discussions on finding solutions to the distorted demographics did not touch on the sensitive subject of more than 700,000 domestic helpers in the country. This large number of domestic workers, including maids, cooks, drivers, gardeners and care-givers, is equivalent to nearly one domestic worker for every two citizens in the country, with the demand continuing to exceed supply. Last week the parliamentary Human Resources Committee, discussing various bills designed to reframe the demographics of Kuwait, approved a government recommendation to outline a quota system between the expatriate workers and citizens.
However, the committee stressed that domestic workers should not be included in the quota system so as to keep the Kuwaiti family stable, and ensure there was no price increase in the cost of recruiting domestic workers from abroad. Speak about priorities. Meanwhile, the government proposal to immediately cull more than 360,000 foreigners, especially illegal residents could also run up against a wall. The government has for ages been trying to apprehend and deport people without visas or expired visas who are living illegally in the country, but without any noticeable success.
In its latest assessment of the situation, the Ministry of Interior (MoI) admitted that there could be as many as 120,000 illegal residents still remaining in the country. Despite the government’s best attempts to drive them out over the years using both carrots and sticks, such as general amnesties and intensive inspection campaigns, hardcore illegals apparently remain determined to remain in the country. The latest amnesty for visa violators to leave the country ended in April.
Back then the government, taking into consideration humanitarian aspects due to the ongoing coronavirus had permitted expatriates, who do not have a residence permit or whose residency had expired on or before 1 March, 2020 the option to depart Kuwait before 30 April without paying overstay fines.
The government also attempted to further sweeten the amnesty offer by providing the violators with free flights to their home country and the right to return to Kuwait with a proper visa provided there were no legal reason to ban their return. Despite the generous offer it appears that illegal residents remain unmindful of any amnesty and unfazed by warnings of stringent measures against them. Most residency law violators a
ppear willing to take their chance of not being apprehended and deported by the authorities. A majority of the illegals are believed to be marginal workers who were brought into the country by visa traders on the fake pretext of jobs, but were then abandoned to fend for themselves on the streets of Kuwait. They obviously have nothing to lose.
