Elmo
RETIRED MOD
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2009
- Messages
- 3,010
- Reaction score
- 0
United Arab Emirates
Sending home the foreigners
Jul 8th 2013, 17:34 by Economist.com | ABU DHABI
AMID growing regional unrest, authorities in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, have in recent years sought to allocate public sector jobs to Emirati nationals. This drive towards Emiratisationa policy initially launched three decades agoaccelerated markedly on July 4th when the General Secretariat of the Executive Council (GSEC), Abu Dhabi's top policy-making body which reports to the Executive Council chaired by Sheikh Muhammad bin Zayed, the crown prince, fired almost all its foreign staff. Around 60-70 employees are believed to have been affected, most of whom were considered to be the very best of the emirate's strategists. GSEC may be confident that it can fill the imminent skills vacuum with existing Emirati staff but the development raises uncomfortable questions over the future of other non-national government workers.
The move suggests that Emiratisation has gained a more forceful impetus, and that GSEC is likely setting the pace for further expatriate dismissals. The now-redundant workers have been granted six-month visa extensions to give them the chance to find alternative workresidency in the UAE is tied to employment and visas are normally revoked after 30 days of joblessness. But that is unlikely to reassure those who have lost their jobs, or other foreigners who fear they could be next. Given GSECs seniority within the government, its decision is widely thought to be the beginning of a more extensive cull. Although the public sector is already staffed predominantly by Emiratis (almost 92% of Emiratis work for the state or bodies close to it), a few thousand foreigners still occupy mid- to senior-level positions in government of semi-government entities.
Abu Dhabi is not the only place in the region to be implementing localisation measures in the labour market. Kuwait announced earlier this year that it would reduce by one million the number of foreign workers in the country over the next ten years. More drastically, it also began deporting expats for traffic violations, although it denied that that was part of the policy to reduce foreigner numbers. Saudi Arabia has long pursued "Saudi-isation", under which firms are compelled to replace foreigners with Saudi workers. In its current form, known as nitaqat, companies are classified according to a traffic-light system with green, yellow and red categories denoting the extent to which companies have complied with employment quotas. The three other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) membersBahrain, Oman and Qatarsimilarly have their own variations on the theme. Given mounting social and economic pressures across the GCC, a further cull of foreigners to make way for locals looks likely.
Sending home the foreigners
Jul 8th 2013, 17:34 by Economist.com | ABU DHABI
AMID growing regional unrest, authorities in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, have in recent years sought to allocate public sector jobs to Emirati nationals. This drive towards Emiratisationa policy initially launched three decades agoaccelerated markedly on July 4th when the General Secretariat of the Executive Council (GSEC), Abu Dhabi's top policy-making body which reports to the Executive Council chaired by Sheikh Muhammad bin Zayed, the crown prince, fired almost all its foreign staff. Around 60-70 employees are believed to have been affected, most of whom were considered to be the very best of the emirate's strategists. GSEC may be confident that it can fill the imminent skills vacuum with existing Emirati staff but the development raises uncomfortable questions over the future of other non-national government workers.
The move suggests that Emiratisation has gained a more forceful impetus, and that GSEC is likely setting the pace for further expatriate dismissals. The now-redundant workers have been granted six-month visa extensions to give them the chance to find alternative workresidency in the UAE is tied to employment and visas are normally revoked after 30 days of joblessness. But that is unlikely to reassure those who have lost their jobs, or other foreigners who fear they could be next. Given GSECs seniority within the government, its decision is widely thought to be the beginning of a more extensive cull. Although the public sector is already staffed predominantly by Emiratis (almost 92% of Emiratis work for the state or bodies close to it), a few thousand foreigners still occupy mid- to senior-level positions in government of semi-government entities.
Abu Dhabi is not the only place in the region to be implementing localisation measures in the labour market. Kuwait announced earlier this year that it would reduce by one million the number of foreign workers in the country over the next ten years. More drastically, it also began deporting expats for traffic violations, although it denied that that was part of the policy to reduce foreigner numbers. Saudi Arabia has long pursued "Saudi-isation", under which firms are compelled to replace foreigners with Saudi workers. In its current form, known as nitaqat, companies are classified according to a traffic-light system with green, yellow and red categories denoting the extent to which companies have complied with employment quotas. The three other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) membersBahrain, Oman and Qatarsimilarly have their own variations on the theme. Given mounting social and economic pressures across the GCC, a further cull of foreigners to make way for locals looks likely.
