
“
Millions of expatriates earn in Saudi Arabia while tens of thousands of Saudis are jobless."
“Expats ‘illegally’ run businesses (tasattur) and hurt the national economy. They deprive Saudis of work opportunities and also unfairly compete with legal companies.
“Expats run away from their sponsors and have increased rates of crime.
“Expats transfer millions of riyals out of the kingdom. Our money is landing up in their countries.”
SENTIMENTS such as these, oft-repeated in the local press and public discourses, are perhaps the reason why many Saudis—officials and citizens—believe that expats, despite admittedly having built the country, are the cause of their pressing problems.
It requires little effort to disprove these conclusions factually.
Empirical research
shows:
1. Immigrants create new jobs as consumers and entrepreneurs.
2. Natives and immigrants are interdependent and do not compete with each other, as they usually find themselves in different types of jobs.
3. The percentage of unemployment is lesser in places that have greater concentration of immigrants.
While the studies were done in the US, the results on immigrants fit with almost any country in the world.
Immigrants founded
nearly half of the Top 50 startups in America; 74 percent of the top startups have at least one immigrant holding a top-level management position (CEO, CTO, VP, etc.) and, needless to say, these companies have created thousands of new jobs.
On why all top startups seem to come out of America, Paul Graham, founder of the acclaimed
Y Combinator, notes as his
#1 reason: “
The US Allows Immigration”.
Immigration in Saudi Arabia however is non-existent. Expats cannot, by law, start a business. It is interesting to note though that many top Saudi companies (e.g. Bin Ladin Group) were founded by immigrants when Saudi Arabia was more open to immigration.

While foreign businesses can invest in the kingdom, expats living and working in the country cannot. This, as we know, has led to tasattur where an expat runs a business (not without risk) under a dummy Saudi sponsor. The contract is written such that the employee (expat) gets the major share of profits as salary while the Saudi owner receives the rest. It is no secret that many, if not most, small and medium businesses operate under this arrangement.
While flourishing economic activity should have been good news, labor officials consider cracking down on tasattur better for the sole reason that expats are running the businesses (regardless of how much they contribute to society).
There is a pressing need for some serious soul searching. If we open up to immigration and allow expatriates to start businesses, they will create many more employment opportunities for Saudis in the private sector. This is critical because to meet the rising demand of employment, the private sector
must grow by at least 6 percent every year. However, the private sector grew by only 3.7 percent in 2010.
Population is another reason why foreigners are so important to Saudi Arabia. A factor of American success is that the US is a large market with 300 million people. Saudis, on the other hand, are only about 20 million—the population of a city like Beijing or Bombay. Added to that, the Saudi birth rate has sharply
declined—from a fertility rate of 7.3 in the 1970s to 2.8 in 2012. Within a few decades, the country will be left with a large aging and a small working population.
Without immigrants, the numbers will simply not be enough to build a strong and progressing country of this size.
Then how visionary, or even rational, is it to slaughter the golden goose of expatriates? On what economic grounds, let alone ethical, are we embarking on this tirade against the ajnabi?

The malaise, in my opinion, lies in the xenophobic, nationalistic and racist feelings—condemned as “
jaahiliyyah” in Islamic terminology—which have unfortunately taken deep-seated roots in the heartland of Muslims.
it was here that our beloved Prophet (peace be upon him) abolished tribalism and held meritocracy above all. It was here that an African slave was chosen over Arab nobles for the prestige of calling the adhan. It was here that principles mattered more than bloodlines. And it was here that emigrants were received with open arms.
“
Muslims are the best of nations,” the Qur’an has declared because of the teachings we follow. Early Muslims were multicultural and practiced Islam in its true spirit. As a result, they were very successful in all aspects of life.
Even today, the Muslim World has tremendous potential, but it is severely impaired by a lack of vision, faith and courage.
Being the heart of the Muslim World, Saudi Arabia can become a hub of Muslim talent and create billions of new opportunities.
The solution to our global issues, which we so love to talk about, can perhaps begin with a change in our mindset toward immigrants.
May Allah revive the Ummah from its slumber. Ameen! -
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