Hélène Thiollet, associate researcher at the Institut d'études politiques de Paris, (Sciences Po), gives a lecture on immigration in Saudi Arabia at the French Consulate in Jeddah recently. — SG photo by Selma Roth Selma Roth Saudi Gazette
JEDDAH – The Saudi migration policy, aimed at preventing foreigners from integrating into Saudi society and, hence, from staying in the country, has been a failure. Hélène Thiollet, associate researcher at the Institut d'études politiques de Paris, or simply, Sciences Po, said that data showed that the “proportion of immigrants versus Saudis” has been “pretty consistent over time, starting in the 70s. The Saudi population is growing, and so is the migrant population.” The latter represent 31 percent of the population, and expatriate male laborers account for 22 percent of this whole. The top three countries expatriates originate from are India (1.4 million), Egypt (1 million), and Pakistan (1 million), according to the 2007 World Bank data. Thiollet made the remarks during a lecture on immigration in Saudi Arabia at the French Consulate in Jeddah recently. “It is not a judgment; it is a fact. The state has been talking about preventing settlement, and has been designing policies in order to implement anti-integration policies, and it has failed,” she commented, adding that segregation of nationals and foreigners in labor camps and compounds was one of the strategies used by the government, companies, as well as by the foreigners themselves. Other tools for segregation are differentiating access to socioeconomic rights, such as education and health, and the institutionalized and “rationalized” labor market that employs “hierarchical wages within companies for people with similar education that do not earn the same salary based on nationality”. The interesting thing, however, is that Saudi Arabia, in this regard, is like any other country in the world that has tried to implement anti-integration and anti-settlement policies said Thiollet, who is also a visiting researcher at the King Faisal Centre for Research and Islamic Studies. Germany, which served as an example for Saudi Arabia's migration policies in the 1970s, saw the same failure. “We all know that the ‘Gastarbeiter' programs in the ‘60s and ‘70s were also meant to import massively Turkish labor in Germany on a temporary basis with short-term contracts to ensure the turnover of labor force, and we probably also all know the result – that there is an extremely important community of Turkish origin that acquired nationality rights quite recently.” The reason, according to Thiollet, is that state policies are only a small factor that drives migration. Economic factors, such as the possibility of finding a job and purchasing power; as well as social factors — whether the immigrant already has family or business relations in the country, if there is already a community from his country — are much stronger determinants. “You cannot change this with integration policy as a state, or at least it is difficult and takes a lot of time,” she said during a phone interview with Saudi Gazette the day after her lecture, adding that although the use of the term “immigrant” is very controversial in Saudi Arabia, the international definition for an immigrant is someone who lives outside the country of which he has the nationality for more than one year. Thiollet is also a research partner at the International Migration Institute at Oxford University and has been studying migration in the Kingdom extensively. She said the most important findings are the renewal of focus on Saudization, which started approximately two years ago, and the existence of a second generation of foreigners in the Kingdom. “The previous Saudization wave happened in the 1990s under Interior Minister Prince Naif, but was slightly inefficient in the private sector.” The current wave uses “more vigorous measures” and has better data to work with, she said. In addition, the first wave was linked to the Gulf War, among other contexts, which led to the Gulf states' acknowledgement of their dependence on foreign labor, when the majority of migrants left Kuwait, causing major problems there. The current Saudization wave is sparked by concerns of unemployment and its link to political unrest. However, Thiollet does not think the current Saudization wave, including the Nitaqat program, constitutes a major change in the nature of the policy. “The collection of data has become more efficient, and the means to enforce policies is deemed more powerful, but it is too early to make conclusions,” she said, adding that the only evidence is the departure of 1 million foreigners during the amnesty period last year. She said it is not that companies do not want Saudization, but there are many challenges, such as the compensation the state currently pays for part of the losses corporations incur by hiring Saudis rather than cheaper foreigners. An interesting aspect of her research, Thiollet continued, is the relation between the ministries of interior and labor, with the latter taking the lead in the current Saudization wave. “There is cooperation, but also tension,” she remarked. The French lecturer was also surprised about the number of young non-Saudi residents. Her research showed that 1 percent of migrants in the country are 65 and over, 79 percent aged 15 to 69, and 20 percent are below 14. “Either those children came very early on as very young laborers, and that is unlikely, or they are the children of the 79 percent of adults. Questions like ‘What will happen when they grow up?' and ‘Is the economy benefiting from them?' remain unanswered,” Thiollet said. Currently, Thiollet is studying the variables that impact settlement. “What characteristics are determining that people stay and have children or bring their children? And what kind of settlement are we talking about? Variables that we want to look at are cultural, religion, nationality, language, race, gender, locality where migrants settle, neighborhoods, and class. These are the questions and the results are not yet there. The research is ongoing,” she concluded.
