Tariq A. Al-Maeena

About a year ago, a popular Emirati writer suggested in a widely read Gulf newspaper that expatriates living in the UAE should be given citizenship if they so desired.  Last month, a fellow UAE columnist wrote a piece in that paper suggesting that expatriates should be considered for UAE citizenship.   He bolstered his argument by acknowledging that one of the significant factors in the success of the UAE has been the contribution of expatriates, and because of that "it is time to consider a path to citizenship for them that will open the door to entrepreneurs, scientists, academics and other hardworking individuals who have come to support and care for the country as though it was their own."



Some UAE citizens were downright offended, dismissing such a call as absurd and a sure path to the disintegration of the Emirati identity.  In his rebuttal, another UAE writer on social affairs while acknowledging the contribution of expatriates toward his country, countered with: "The UAE deserves a chance to develop its people and citizens, not dissolve them."



Even the marriage of UAE nationals to expatriates is a matter of some apprehension.  In 2012, authorities in the UAE expressed concern about the marriage of Emiratis to foreigners suggesting that "such unions are undermining the demographic balance of the UAE."



Perhaps it is this very fear that has also kept Saudi authorities from relaxing their own citizenship laws.  And there are many who are affected by this resistance and with legitimate reasons.  And it Saudi women married to foreign men who suffer the most.



A law was passed in February 2013 granting their children "citizenship rights".  That is not to mean full citizenship as the children would still have to be retained on their foreign father’s passport.  While the law appeases some Saudi women, others were not easily mollified.



A Saudi mother took pen to paper and sent me the following: “My children are in a miserable state, and worse off than expatriate kids. At least expatriates kids have a country who will eventually take them in. What about the kids born to Saudi mothers? They have never left Saudi Arabia and always thought of Saudi Arabia as their own country. Where are they supposed to go? I am a Saudi female, who is married to a non-Saudi. When I go to Dubai, I have to get a visa for my kids to travel along with me.

 

“Whenever the issue of the kids comes along, every moment I am made to realize that I am married in the wrong place. I suffer each time just because I married a foreigner!  I am being punished for something that I never thought would ever matter to me.



“I worry about the future of the half-Saudi kids born to foreign dads. Everywhere in this world, they are accepted as half-Saudi, except in my own country itself. I am a daughter of this soil and I am punished for something that I thought would never affect my future. My kids are bright and gifted; they deserve the right to be called Saudi. But no one is doing anything about it.



“It’s unfair that Saudi men who marry non-Saudi women get their wives the nationality after some years of marriage. Yet Saudi daughters of the soil who marry foreigners lose their own identity and that of their kids. I have now reached a point where I am deciding whether or not to take my kids away from here, because I know they will never be considered to be Saudi.



“Why not take them where they are treated equally and respectfully? Has the government ever thought how many bright stars that were supposed to shine here in Saudi Arabia will be part of other nations? Saudi Arabia stands to lose so many future doctors, engineers, philosophers, scientists, teachers, Nobel Prize winners, etc., that should be part of this motherland.



“My country had better wake up before it’s too late and look into the matter of giving children the nationality they deserve. I am not asking to give the Saudi nationality to foreign fathers, as I can understand the issues of security involved, but what threats do these young children constitute to our nation? We need to develop a sense of attachment to the Saudi homeland in their young hearts before it’s too late.  Sincerely, A Saudi mother.”



Citizenship rights are not the same as full citizenship and can be easily revoked depending on who is passing judgment.  Many fathers of these children come from underprivileged or beleaguered countries with no hope of returning to anything safe and prosperous for themselves or their children.  Their children have been born and raised in this country and are Saudi in every sense of demeanor and action.



The land that houses Islam’s oldest religious shrines of Makkah and Madinah has always welcomed many who came seeking the new religion centuries ago with open arms.  Many chose to make this their home and have bred countless generations of Saudis. Let us rekindle this hospitality by providing the same privileges to children of Saudi mothers.  Granting them full citizenship will only enhance and enrich our culture.

— The author can be reached at talmaeena@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @talmaeena