SAUDIZATION

There is something interesting happening in Saudi Arabia right now.  The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has enacted a policy of Saudization.  Saudization is the new national policy of KSA to increase employment of Saudi nationals in the private sector, which is largely dominated by expatriate workers from Southeast Asia and to a lesser degree with western expatriates.  The policy is meant to create more jobs and investment opportunities for young KSA citizens.  The government is trying to increase the percentage of KSA citizens employed in the private sector by imposing job quotas for citizens.  Companies that do not comply with the quotas face penalties.  Those workers who are illegal, face fines, jail time and deportation
There was a deadline, by which illegal workers needed to correct their status.  The deadline was this past summer and there were many newspaper and online pictures of expats, mostly from the Philippines, India, Pakistan and other southeast Asian nations, lined up outside of government offices in the extreme summer heat trying to correct their status and make the deadline.  The King extended the deadline, but that amnesty just ended.  Nov 3rd marked the first day of enforcement.

On the 3rd day after amnesty, 12,000 people were brought to detention centers.  There are lots of checkpoints where cars and trucks are searched for illegal workers.

It has affected our compound a bit.  Many of the workers, and gardeners did not show up for work for fear of arrest.  Our documentation upon entering the compound is more closely checked.  A guard even poked his head into our shopping bus to look around one morning. When we went to a smaller shopping center, many of the shops were shuttered closed.  People think that they must have been staffed by illegal workers.

Our compound has cracked down on entry procedures, supposedly to comply with the company's headquarters' regulations.  Cabs are no longer allowed onto the compound.  They have to let you off outside of the compound.  If you are carrying groceries, shopping bags or luggage, you must walk through the gates and then you can get on either a golf cart or a shuttle bus and it will drop you off at home. The compound shuttle bus is not affected.  One of the managers of the compound was not allowed into the compound a couple of days ago, even after showing his identification, which is pretty funny.   A month ago, there was a car that drove around the security checkpoints and the National Guard chased him down and pulled him out of the car.  It turned out that the driver was confused about the process.  This may have spurred the compound crackdown also.

 

 

According to the Arab News newspaper, the "Kingdom's commercial district and farm areas have taken a beating as businesses continued to struggle to staff shops, supply vendor operations and produce farms in wake of Labor Ministry's relentless crackdown on illegal workers."  Some of the raids are speculated to have a direct impact on  raising produce prices and the flow of produce to some markets."  I went to the grocery market the past two days in a row and I don't think that it has affected our produce supply yet.  But Arab News reported that there have been no new vegetable shipments in the last 24 hours from Taif, Heil, Tabuk or Madinah, which I believe are the traditional farm areas.

 

According to the Arab News, in some areas, the meat markets have been affected.  The Sudanese shepherds have not shown up for work. That will not bother my husband because he does not like lamb meat.  :)  Also, it says that the Asian butchers have fired workers who have not corrected their status.  I think that we have Egyptian butchers here.

 

It is reported that the hardest hit areas are:  construction, hospitality, service and educational institutes.  My husband's workplace has nothing to worry about because I think that they are 99 % Saudi.

 

According to Arab News, "real estate experts predict demand for commercial real estate is expected to drop as much as 30%."   That is probably reasonable because expats seem to run most of the small businesses.  It was reported that in Riyadh, the Al Batha shopping mall in the center of the city, which is usually bustling, appeared deserted, with many shops either empty or closed.

 

It has not really affected us that much yet.  I know that it has terrified the workers.  To me the question is whether Saudis will step into these vacated jobs or not.  I think that it is similar to what happened in the US, when the illegal Mexican farm workers, were dismissed.  The thought was that they were taking American workers jobs.  But Americans did not want to do those jobs.  So, I guess, time will tell about what will happen here.