I’m not even sure I know what the author means by ex-pats. I presume it means expatriates, but is it foreigners who left or Saudis? Where would 800,000 people working low paying jobs go?
Duarte is prohibiting Filipinos from working there. Not sure if that accounts for all 800,000
Foreigners working in Saudi have been leaving.
They are going home mostly. Much of this is due to Saudi business laying them off due to hard times - low oil prices reducing Saudi consumer spending.
No, Duterte is not preventing Filipinos from working in Saudi. That was Kuwait, and Duterte just suggested they leave.
I have the same confusion. Doesn’t the author understand that the word expat is a subjective descriptor? Like left and right? It depends what country you are expatriate from.
800K will be Filipinos, Pakistanis, Indians, Bangladeshis, Somalis, Yemenis, Egyptians and Ethiopians and Sudanese
I think three factors fell into play.
1. Via social media, the ‘expats’ started to compare problems working in Saudi Arabia, and just said enough is enough.
2. Money is tight for projects and hired labor. I suspect that some employers cut pay scales, and folks refused to work for less.
3. This hiring crisis is a long-term deal. If these 800,000 folks refuse to return, and they can’t find alternate hirees...local Saudis won’t work (for any amount of money) on physical-labor jobs.
I’ll predict the next decade is a period with turmoil in the kingdom, and you start to see some Saudis exit the country (maybe to Lebanon...maybe to Germany...maybe to the US).
“I’m not even sure I know what the author means by ex-pats.”
I am pretty sure what the author meant was foreign workers.
Thank you! I sick to death of poorly written articles that are appearing all over FR. It’s not FR’s fault, of course, it is the fault of young journalists who can’t write and can’t define words with any accuracy. Are they Saudis or are they foreign nationals?
Back to the Philippines.