Mahmoud Ahmad



A friend of mine forwarded me an article written by a Saudi writer urging Saudi officials not to grant any foreigners citizenship. The author provided several excuses supporting his argument on why foreigners should not be granted citizenship.



For example, they do not interact with locals, they speak gibberish, they isolate themselves in groups, and so forth. Then the author accused expatriates of stealing jobs from Saudis for decades.



In my article here I will limit my counterargument to two points only: citizenship for expatriates and stealing jobs from Saudis.



Before I start here I would like to say that it was expatriates who helped develop this country and contributed a lot throughout the years. They came to this country as engineers, teachers, doctors, trainers and more.



Expatriates did not invade the country, but they were encouraged by us to come with their experience at a time when we lacked expertise. They included doctors who cured our sick, teachers who taught our kids, engineers who built our streets and other infrastructure, and trainers who trained our Saudi youth to become fit and work in certain jobs.



These are the expatriates, sir. They helped in building my country and your country and we should thank them and not accuse them of stealing jobs that we hired them to fill in the first place.



They came to this country on visas we have provided. Of course my argument here excludes those who broke residency laws, decided to overstay after performing Haj or Umrah or sneaked into the country illegally. In this case, the country has the right to deport such illegals.



As for expatriates born and raised in the Kingdom, I sympathize with them because they saw no country but this one. Their loyalty, whether we like it or not, belongs to this country first because they never went back to their original countries.



I am not authorized here to speak on behalf of the Interior Ministry because it is the only department authorized to grant citizenship and draw the laws needed for it. What I can do here is hope and call on the ministry to look into their situations and treat those who were born and raised in this country all their life differently when it comes to education, health care and job opportunities. Some of these expat youths are third and fourth generation.



As for expatriates who worked almost all their lives, if a citizenship is difficult for whatever reason, then the best reward is a permanent residency where the government is sponsoring the expat worker. That is the least we can do.



There is a long set of rules for a person to get citizenship, like if the mother was Saudi and if the person does not have a criminal record and so on.



Claim that expatriates are stealing our jobs is a myth. The market is big enough for everyone and the market will respect those who work hard. We have major Saudi businessmen who are controlling industries.



How did they do it? They did it by working hard and not by making excuses. The expatriates who are successful at their jobs did it because they are dedicated, worked hard for long hours and demonstrated commitment.



Sadly, not many of these traits are ingrained in our youth and we have many stories of businessmen complaining that young Saudis are not serious about their jobs.



The fruit market has been a battlefield between Saudis and expatriates where the former is accusing the latter of driving them out of the market. Now, if there are people driving others out of the market using their influence then that is wrong, but the question is, where are the authorities to ensure that there no wrong is done to either side?



The same goes for the fish market and jobs in other fields. If local authorities maintained a strong presence and enforced the law, then many of these problems and complaints would disappear.



Lets face it, there are jobs Saudis will not do whether we like it or not. However, we have seen Saudis working in jobs that they would not do in the past.



They are drivers, workers in the fruit and fish markets, employees in stores inside malls and in many other fields, side by side with expatriate workers. Those I salute. No excuses, just work hard and do the job.



If we complain that they speak bad Arabic, then we must ask how many Arabic schools we opened for them to learn our language. Until recently there were very few.



Saudis, if they travel abroad on scholarship or for work, choose to live close together in an isolated community. So that is not an excuse.



How many doctors and engineers are there who were looking for permanent residency and not citizenship but could not obtained what they desired? The large majority of them end up in the West with citizenship and a good position, not to mention their great contribution to those countries.



Expatriates did not choose to isolate themselves from us out of choice. It is us who are isolating them.



– Mahmoud Ahmad can be contacted at mahmad@saudigazette.com.sa