The forum is to issue recommendations on employment and development in the Arab world to the first Arab Economic and Social Summit, due to be held next January in Kuwait.
Mostafa Abdul Aziz, who was part of fourth workgroup exploring solutions for the rising unemployment rates in the Arab countries, cautioned against the increasing number of the Asian workforce in the Gulf states.
Quoting the chief of the Dubai Police, Major General Dahi Tamim Khalfan, he said the ongoing construction boom in the UAE would eventually come at the cost of that country losing its identity.
Abdul Aziz, who is director of Egypt’s Centre for Immigration Studies, said the spiralling rates of unemployment in the region constituted a significant challenge to its decision-makers.
“We have to increase the Arab component in the expatriate workforce in the Gulf states,” he said.
“I do not see any problem in adopting selective approaches in recruitment. Even the European Union has its own selective policy when it comes to the recruitment of foreign workers.”
Rashid Matouq, an official at the International Union for Arab Workers, urged for a pan-Arab strategy to replace the non-Arab workforce with Arabs, saying that the “fears of ideology-orientated Arab workers no longer existed”.
He said: “I trust the ability of the Arab workers. If they were imparted the required training, they can outperform the non-Arab workforce in the Gulf.
“I think that it is time now for adopting a strategy for recruiting Arabs so that we can address the rising unemployment rates in our region. In the past, there were fears of Arab workers spreading anti-Gulf ideologies which do not exist now.”
However, Bilal al-Malkawi, the head of the Jordan’s Labour Union, raised doubts about the possibility of replacing the non-Arab workforce with Arabs, saying the current working conditions along with the low salaries made it impossible to replace the Asian workers.
“I believe the main reason behind the rising number of Asian workforce in the Gulf region is the fact that violating the rights of this group is easier. We have to give them their rights first before thinking of replacing them with Arabs,” he said.
Al-Malkawi urged the labour-exporting Arab countries to “embark on implementing training programmes specifically designed for workers going to the Gulf states”.
Bahrain’s Minster of Labour Majeed al-Alawi agreed that giving the Arab workforce “preferential treatment” was not a matter of “discrimination”, saying that “even the European Union has similar selective approaches in its recruitment policy”.
He added: “I wish that the Arab countries can at least receive one third of the $ 60bn remittance transferred annually by expatriate workforce in the Gulf states.”
However, al-Alawi ruled out the possibility of replacing the Asian workforce with Arabs: “In the present time, it is not possible for Arab workers to compete with those from the Asian countries in view of the low cost of the Asian workforce. I think that Arab workforce can only compete in specialised jobs.”
Dr Baqer Salman al-Najjar, a professor of sociology in Bahrain, blamed the decreasing number of the Arab workforce during the past few decades in the Gulf states on what he called “political reasons”.
“The Arab workforce has decreased from 75% in 1975 to 31% of the overall workforce in the Gulf states in 1996 and to less than 25% in 2006,” he said, while observing that the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait had adversely affected the presence of the Arabs as a workforce in the Gulf states, especially in Kuwait.
“From time to time we witness undeclared cold wars between the Arab countries. The political relations between the Arab countries were always a key element that affects inter-Arab workforce.
“Giving preferential treatment to Arabs over the non-Arabs is included in many inter-Arab treaties, but they are not implemented because of the lack of will. We do not need more treaties or memorandums of understanding. What we need is the joint Arab will,” Najjar maintained.
He also cautioned against the increasing number of labour force from Asian countries, saying that this would affect the GCC demographic structure.
“The fears of the Asian workforce making claim for political and civil rights in the future are not exaggerated. This was very clear in the recent protests they staged both in Kuwait and the UAE,” he said.
