Kuwait Doesn’t Want To Be An Expat-majority Nation Anymore ?

As the Kuwait economy is under intense strain it is suggested to lawmakers to reduce the number of foreigner workers, specifically unskilled labour. MPs are suggesting a quota system as well as replacing all expatriate government employees, with Kuwaitis national.

Kuwait aspires to reduce its dependency on its foreign workers. The bill is witnessed as a manifestation of the fact that Kuwait no longer wants to remain an expat majority country. Both coronavirus pandemic and a fall in oil prices together has shaken Gulf economies and also contributed to think on these factors.

Prime Minister of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah stated that country’s expatriate population should be more than halved to 30% of the total. Expats occupy nearly 3.4 million of Kuwait's 4.8 million people, and it will become a challenge in future to overcome this imbalance.

Gulf economies take advantage of their oil wealth to expand their populations with foreign workers and build vibrant consumer societies. In Kuwait, at least 650,000 expatriates, mostly from the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, are employed as domestic workers alone. Expats are attracted as they earn better incomes in a low-tax environment, but situation became vulnerable with few safety nets in their host nation or routes to citizenship.

As countries in the Gulf rolled out tens of billions of dollars’ worth of stimulus measures geared toward helping companies and banks survive the slowdown triggered by Covid-19 and cheaper oil, most initiatives targeted business owners rather than employees. Kuwait's Finance Minister said the country's liquidity will soon be depleted if oil prices don’t improve and the country can’t borrow from local and international markets.

The expat quota bill is been introduce, which aimed to make specific quota for employing foreigners in Kuwait. This will create a check on demographic imbalance which is been contributed by Visa traders. This bill specifies country-wise caps designating a quota a quota for how many people of a certain nationality can be allowed to work in Kuwait.

While Kuwait has for years been slowly replacing public-sector expatriates with nationals, the coronavirus has accelerated its efforts. Parliamentary elections are scheduled for later this year, and anti-expat rhetoric is attractive to some voters, especially when it concerns lucrative government jobs. At the end of 2019, only 19% of the Kuwaiti workforce was in the private sector.

In April 2020 Kuwaiti government has taken good step by ‘Amnesty’. This offers illegal expatriates’ exemption from punishment and provides free home return flights.MP Osama Al Chahin given the proposal in the national assembly that Kuwaitis should be given all permanent and temporary advisory jobs in the legislature.

Around 93,475 cases of coronavirus have been reported in Kuwait as of Sep 11th. Recently several Kuwaiti public figures demanded to curtail the number of expatriates blaming them of straining the health facilities. According to Kuwaiti government” we are responsible for everyone who lives on this land and the residency trade has exhausted the state, especially when dealing with the current situation."

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