Bahrain labour minister warns of ‘Asian tsunami’
A Bahraini minister has warned of an “Asian tsunami” because of the reliance of “lazy” Gulf Arabs on foreign labour to carry out even the simplest tasks, in an interview published on Sunday.
Labour Minister Majid al-Alawi told Asharq Al-Awsat that the presence of almost 17 million foreign workers in the Gulf, mostly from the Asian sub-continent, represented “a danger worse than the atomic bomb or an Israeli attack”.
“I am not exaggerating that the number will reach almost 30 million in ten years from now,” he told the pan-Arab daily.
Alawi has called for the residency of foreign workers in the oil-rich Gulf states to be limited to six years but the leadership of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council has not followed up on the proposal.
“The commercial lobby in the Gulf thwarted the project which was in the final phases before being implemented,” he said.
Alawi said that Gulf nationals were “lazy” and “spoilt”, relying on imported labour for the simplest of tasks.
“A lord with billions in Great Britain cleans his own car on a Sunday morning, whereas people of the Gulf look for someone to hand them a glass of water from just a couple of metres away,” he said.
“If the Gulf governments do not watch out for this tsunami of foreign labourers, the fate of this region is very worrying,” he said.
In October, Alawi called for the Gulf’s “sponsonship” system to be abandoned, saying it left foreign workers at the mercy of the individuals or institutions which employ them.
He called for government to oversee visas and work permits to protect the rights of foreign workers, in a region which human rights organisations have often accused of abusing employees in slave-like conditions.
AFP – 28 Jan, ’08
There you have it. It’s official. We – the Arabs – are lazy, greedy and incompetent. Said by the sitting Minister of Labour. The same minister who had his plans to limit the expatriate entry-level worker’s presence in the Gulf to a maximum of 6 years thwarted rather spectacularly by the Board of Directors of the Arabian Gulf.
The passion which was evident in his 6-year-stint plan has not left him, in fact he is now passionately warning of another ‘Asian Tsunami’ which will result in a complete demographic change in these countries. In his latest salvo, it is akin to him gleefully poking eyes and saying ‘I told you so’.
Mansour Al-Jamri, the editor of Al-Wasat in Bahrain agrees with him. In his column this morning, he outlines the legitimate danger [translate] this situation can result in. Al-Jamri suggests that foreign labour we customarily have and as their visas suggest, should not be classified as temporary due to their semi-permanence in our communities. He contends that what we really have is full-scale emigration. And this, denotes the possibility of them soon demanding their human and political rights.
Whether we like it or not, international conventions give them those rights. After all, quite a lot of them have already surpassed the requirements to gain the citizenship in the country they chose to work in even by using local constitutions and laws.
When this happens, a big political problem will occur for our communities. This concerted and sudden demographic change left unchecked and uncontrolled will lead to social disharmony at the very least. In Bahrain, we are already experiencing this phenomenon with the supposed “immoral” naturalizations.
What’s the solution then? Just stop development and force a cultural change in the community to be more productive and less dependent? Of course not. A raft of changes must be adopted to change our way of life; inclusive rule, transparency and accountability will go a long way into forming a new society and even a new culture. Social responsibility will prevail and hopefully these problems will slowly come under control.
Whatever the proposed solutions; however, citizens must buy into them for them to have a chance of success. Unfortunately with the prevalent feeling of disenfranchisement that a lot of our fellow citizens feel, this new utopia will not materialise even with the promise of them ultimately being better off. Just like most people, they are concerned with the here and now, rather than accede to medium or longer term panaceas to these problems.
Without a real intrinsic structural and courageous change, the situation might spin completely out of control and the Gulf Arab will be completely marginalised. As Al-Jamri suggests, it is not too far fetched to have India exerting its major power in our countries by proxy. It will apply inordinate political and cultural influence by virtue of the millions of its citizens gaining citizenships, or even just continuing to live and work in our countries without any measure of control and without investing in the local population’s education and rehabilitation. Al-Jamri suggests that India’s political influence might well develop into making our countries a part of a “Commonwealth of India” soon, as its former citizens will gain positions of responsibility in both private and public sectors, even rising to ministerial positions within the Cabinet.
The situation is quite serious. Since 2005, Bahrain’s population has increased from 720k to over 1 million (if the CIO’s figures are to be believed). Foreigners have risen from 38% to 49% of the population. With the limited resources that Bahrain has, and more importantly, with the haphazard and unstudied policies we seem to be adopting, Bahrain most definitely will be at the forefront of Dr. Majid Al-Alawi’s tsunami.
Comments
OMG! We’re going to die!!
This is not very much different than what is happening in the West with unchecked immigration from Muslim nations (in Europe) or Mexico (in the USA).
The real problem is that ‘social cohesion’ issue. Gulf Arabs have done to themselves exactly what many ancient cultures have – they allowed their guests to nearly outnumber them. If the Asian workers rise up against poor working conditions, then the ensuing chaos would be widespread and horrible. I trust though that the culture there is just forceful enough to prevent any major chaos.
The same can not be said for Europe, although Europeans seem to be rather bendable – bending over for any radical Muslim group that claims that it’s racist to complain about their excessive demands – Europe has a nasty tendency to flip-flop between passivity and outright methodical horror.
The Gulf will probably weather the immigration storm, although not without some social changes. Europe will not; there will be blood in the streets and likely another world war in the next 20 years or so.
صاجينيوم قالوها الخير يخص Ùˆ الشر يعم … يعنيالØÂينكلنا صرنا كسالى Ùˆ اتكاليينو ما منا ايÙÂايدة ØŸ ليش يا وزير العمل ما قلت انالمواطنينما ÙŠØÂصلونعلى الÙÂرص الكاÙÂية علشانيثبتونلك قدرتهم Ùˆ ÙƒÙÂاءتهم بدل ما تقط اللوم عليهم …. ليش ÙÂياغلب الاØÂيانيا وزير العمل الشركات تبديالاجنبيعلى ولد الديرة يعنيعلى سبيل المثال Ùˆ ليس الØÂصر تعال Ùˆ شو٠طيرانالخليج شسوو لها المدراء الاجانب الليتندÙÂع لهم رواتب خيالية Ùˆ غير الامتيازات الليما لها اول منتالي؟ Ùˆ ليش انشو٠ÙÂالجرايد الاجنبية اعلانات توظي٠منوزارات Ùˆ داوئر ØÂكومية …. يعنيمنقلة المواطنينالخريجينو المؤهلينتروØÂونو تدورونبرع Ùˆ انتو عندكم ÙÂالديرة منيقدر يمليهالشواغر؟ اسئلة بريئة اوجها لوزير العمل …. Ùˆ هاذيغيض منÙÂيض مثل ما يقولوÙâ€
The moment this asian work force decide they would rather be treated like slave labour somewhere else…is the moment you “lazy greedy incompetent” Bahrainis will be left scratching your heads and wondering what went wrong 😆
The Gulf countries should have a look on Germany, I think. When after World War II millions of “Gastarbeiters” – “guest workers” – were taken to Germany, they said, these workers would stay for five years. They are still here.
The problem with these Gastarbeiters is, that they were mostly uneducated people, which were not integrated in the society – why integrate, when they will vanish after a few years?
Today, their grandsons still have not been integrated, have bad opportunities at school… a problem, which one wouldn’t have if we had thought about integration and education for this first generation.
And in Germany, these are not more than 10 percent of the inhabitants. In Bahrain, you have 50 % – what will happen there? It wont be a tsunami – because a tsunami comes, and goes. These people are going to stay… so integrate them now, before it’s to late.
i just wrote about this, but from a different angle. its true, about us being totally lazy. but its not an inherent nature; no, its something weve become accustomed to through having an over supply of labor, which translated into cheap slavery, there to do everything for us from pouring a glass of water, to building a house, to driving our cars.
Driving up to cold store doors and beeping for service(and getting angry when the Hindi is slow to come out) has got to be one of the most blatant forms of laziness I have ever seen. Try doing that in America…all you will get is some strange looks from people and I dare say a certain form of sign language understood by everyone….not to mention a few colorful words thrown your way…if you need that pack of cigs or bottle of pop so damn bad…get your ass out of the car and get it…for real people…WTF!!!
All your immigration problems will be solved when the oil runs out. You should be building up your human capital to weather that day. I suspect that the Indian work ethic will place the children and grandchildren of your current Indian servants far ahead of the children and grandchildren of their current masters. You may come to see the day when you curse the easy and unearned wealth of oil.
Talk of an Asian Tsunami in the Gulf seems to me to be nothing but blatant racialism.
the most important part of the solution is to be honest with our self, we have to admit our weaknesses and why do we need so many people working for us:
1-we lack so many professionals in a lot of areas specially the technical side of anything, there are many ways to fix this issue and none of them come fast, cheap, or easy, we have to fix our educational system once and for all, there must be a low forcing every company to train QUALIFIED Bahrain’s and replace the foreigners in a set period of time.
2- we trust western mangers more than god, and i swear on my soul, this is the truth, and that can be a problem in area’s that we don’t see, Many of these managers are not fit for their positions, they over employ to cover that up and love to employ people form the sub-contenet for an obvios reason, the arbab mentality, I live with this problem where i work every day.
3- We are a nation of proud people, show me one Bahraini that would work in construction, and I really mean work, in the sun, in the cold, the work conedtions are bad today because we say yaah illa hnood, but tomorrow this will change, and labor cost will increase in bahrain and these Hard working men will get better Salarys and health care adn everything, like any other part of the world because it will be forced on us (ilyoom gabl bachir inshallah), we need to get the Bahraini people to approach these area’s and to be honest, not every native is fit for a desk job or a manager title.
4- Yes what Majeed Alawi said is true, we are lazy, you proof? why do we need 1,2,3 house mades? people in 2 bedroom apartments have house mades for gods sake, cant you clean you own house! why do we need a gardner, a car washing guy, and pool guy and all of them are from india, if we cant even clean these big houses that we live in, we shouldn’t have them in the first place?
I could go on for ever, but all what I want to say is that we need to Be honest, logical, and really determind to fix this problem.
Bahrain is becoming increasingly scary. This guy is a nut job. He appears to recognize a problem. However, his approach couldn’t be worse. He is antagonizing an entire workforce unnecessarily. He is proposing solutions that are completely impractical. A little bit of a reality dose would do him some good. Too much passion doesn’t help anyone achieve goals.
This is kind of like the insane idea of dual pricing for Bahraini’s and non-Bahraini’s..
What is happening to my beloved island? Why is political freedom turning this island into a place where crazy people make rules?!
It reminds me of when the all white people of Carmel Valley here called the Sheriff to deal with Mexican day laborers because they were around “their children”. They seriously wanted the Sheriff to keep day laborers away from the shopping center. The Sheriff told them he had no right to remove them since they weren’t breaking laws. What annoyed me was that they wouldn’t have their perceived problem if they didn’t hire day laborers in the first place, as day laborers only hang out where they know they’ll get picked up. What were they doing? Yard work, hauling, and menial jobs that these lazy residents wouldn’t do themselves.
I just need a JOB that will pay me enough to start a small family, rent a flat, get a car that I pay for monthly and a internet line. And if it is not much to ask afford a vacation for me and my small family not once a year but every 2 years for a month or even less I’ll take it.
If they accuse the people of being lazy, well you have to offer the right training and education and erase the typical mentality of everyone wanting to be a capitalist money earning, lazy ……. there is lots of changes to be made but who is ready to walk the extra step?
Anyway
I’m still out of a job and i guess if someone offers the chance he’ll know how hard working the sons and daughters of this nation are.
Ciao
This is not very much different than what is happening in the West with unchecked immigration from Muslim nations (in Europe) or Mexico (in the USA).
Yeah, but we like Mexicans, Ethan 🙂
I’d be down with the whole “social disharmony” thing if the US was being over-run by Muslims, though. If that happens, I may have to move to Mexico.
I agree with a lot of what Mahmood says, but this time he is more miss than hit. Talking about providing basic rights to foreign labourers as thought its a luxury is unforgivable. If I were a Bangladeshi worker, I would rise up and burn some tyres like other (better paid) people do on the island when they are angry.
If GCC Arabs are “laxy” and thirdworlders are industrious, then tht is the reason to hand out as many passports as possible and the GCC nationals will become, on average, semi-industrious
The minister’s statement is hateful.
It is good that there people in Bahrain who hold other views than that of the minister and his patrons. The Bahrain Centre for Human Rights issued a strong condemnaton of those racist comments made by the Labour Minister:
http://www.bahrainrights.org/en/node/1764
wow…amazing how much is going on in such a short space…there’s at least 4 or 5 lengthy debate topics here..anyway, heres my two fils worth on the main one; demographics n kick off with the time honoured adage, Things Change.
and we are by no means leading the change in demographics as the Dubai’ns are outnumbered 8 to 1 in their hometown compared to our 1 to 1 (ldlas). liberalisation of the real estate market and freehold laws (keep the sniggering down) means that they are here to stay, so better get used to them.
social responsibility lays with each and every one of the people living on these islands as Mahmood puts it and the critical element that is sadly missing (imho) is tolerance… something we as a society were renowned for
the economic reality of the world is that the balance of power is slowly shifting towards the middle kingdom and the subcontinent anyway and we should just be happy to be contributing towards their energy needs and that $80 looks to be about the floor…hopefully we can crawl a bit further up the value chain but that would require a a total overhaul of the education system and a complete rethink of our competitive positioning (no points for spotting the ol’fogey economist)…meanwhile, we just survivin’
the comment about Arabs does not merit a response…
OK So how much do you think you need and what are your skills – we are looking all the time.
بصراØÂØ© وزير العمل عنده درر المÙÂروض اØÂد ايمعها Ùˆ ÙŠØÂطها ÙÂيكتاب للمنÙÂعة العامة … يمكنطريقة ايصاله للمعلومات البعض ÙÂسرها على اساس انها عنصرية … بس شغلة مهمة Ù…ØÂد يقدر ينكرها الليهيالاثار السلبية للعمالة الواÙÂدة على مجتمعنا Ùˆ هنياقصد بالذات العزاب …. تعالو ÙÂالمØÂرق Ùˆ شوÙÂÙˆ العمال العزاب شلونيهيمونباوزرتهم Ùˆ شلونيتÙÂلون-ينخمون– ÙÂالشوارع منغير لا ØÂيا Ùˆ مستØÂÙ‡ …. الواØÂد بصراØÂØ© يخا٠على بناته Ùˆ نسوانه Ùˆ على الخدم الليعايشينمعاه ÙÂالبيت منهم …. Ùˆ المصيبة انهم عايشينÙÂيظرو٠انسانية صعبة عشرينواØÂد متلايمينÙÂيغرÙÂØ© متر بمتر غير صالØÂØ© للاستعمال البشري…. Ùˆ هنياللوم على وزارة العمل اللينايمة بالعسل Ùˆ الليتنطر بس مصيبة علشانتصØÂÙ‰ Ùˆ تجو٠شسالÙÂØ© … Ùˆ اللوم بعد على ارباب العمل الليما خاÙÂوا الله ÙÂيهم …. Ùˆ بالنسبة للتعليق رقم 10 اØÂنا بØÂاجة للخدم علشانيساعدونا ÙÂيتسيير امور البيت …. يعنياذا الزوج Ùˆ الزوجة يشتغلونو بالذات ÙÂالقطاع الخاص Ùˆ ما يردونالبيت الا ÙÂوقت متأخر وينيمديهم علشانيطبخونو يكنسونو ينظÙÂون؟ وهنيالمÙÂروض انالواØÂد يستقدم خدم او سواق على قد ØÂاجته Ùˆ بس مو ÙŠØÂØ· جيش منالخدم Ùˆ الدريوليه هو مب ÙÂعازه لهم…. Ùˆ مشكوريÙâ€
To paraphrase good old Richard Nixon – We will not have the Indians to kick around anymore, they all be gone in the next ten years. My concern is that we’ll be going across there, working as guest workers!
Although the minister does echo my thoughts in some respects (low propensity to work by a large part of the community, inflated expectations, etc),his previous suggestions were so utterly rediclous (e,g. the six year period,etc) that I suspect he made these suggestions to get some air time.
But as they say, where is the beef? what “constructive” alternatives does he or Mr. Al Jamri present? The reality is none.
In line with Bike Shed, I think the Minister of Labor, also famously known as Mr. Potato, won’t have to worry about a thing. With growth in India, and the spread between Indian Rupee and US dollar closing, the Tsunami will turn into a drought 😉
Ironically, the direction the GCC is taking is sourcing cheap human capital from Vietnam (no pun intended)
This minister sounds to me like a member of a right wing populist party. He does not care a bit of what the GCC is going to look like in a couple of years. He is mostly concerned about his group of people becoming marginalized. He knows that once the migrant workers become citizens, his group will have a tough chance to establish themselves on the labour market. Nevertheless, when a large group of migrant workers with a different culture and religion become part of the community, Bahrain will probably have a chance of becoming a real liberal democracy. As for Ethan you seem to not know what you are talking about. I live in Europe and I have also studied migration. What I see is actually the opposite of what you are saying. Europe is actually encouraging people to come and settle because of the low birth rate amongst “the natives”. Most of the governments in the EU are positive towards immigration and the policies that are implemented encourage people to come. However, discrimination and racism still exist but nowadays they are more covert. And they seem to come from egotistical people that are uneducated and don’t want to change.
What the……
How many people work at his excellency’s house?. How many of those is he willing to fire so that he can employ GCC staff? When was the last time he washed his car?.
Gimme a break dude. Wake up and smell the curry, its either you want “dangerous manpower ” building your shiny buildings and mowing your lawn, or you want to bring this eutopia to a sudden halt. Here is another nobel idea, lets do the same to all the doctors, bankers and insurance execs……etc.
3 years ago he was quoted that Bahrain would be expat free in 2 years. I guess negatiations with the local work force broke down.
Engage……..
I bet the Minister gets his car washed everyday by an Indian, Bengali or Nepali..
I’d love to see him in his shorts washing his car on a Friday morning..
Then again.. Wishful Thinking…
Eyad,
I beleive you are wrong. Bahrainis will work in any industry including construction. Just pay them right.
As for Bahrainis being lazy because they employ housemaids, well you are wrong again. That is not laziness. That is human nature. Don’t you think the rest of the world would do the samething if they are allowed to employ live in domestic helpers for BD 50 (US$ 133) a month or even less working for 15 hours a day 7 days a week? You see many countries have minimum wage rules. You do not!
Obviously not all Bahrainis are lazy. Mahmood is an obvious example of a hard-working one who AFAIK has started and runs his own business.
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You could always incorporate them into your culture… That would not only provide some cultural diversity, but would also engender good feelings with their country of origin – I am guessing for the vast majority of your guest workers it’s India. Not a bad way to gain an ally, especially one that is soon going to be the world’s third largest economy.
Axel
In order to incorporate them you would have to recognize them as equal to you in some way right…its a rare Bahraini that acknowledges Hindi’s are anything other than a slave…even the ones that wear suits and drive better cars then them…why do you think Saudis forbid their women from being with nonmahrems but allow them to be driven around by a fleet of nonrelated drivers…cause most of these drivers are Hindis and they dont view them as equal in humanity…as in they are rest assured that their own women wouldnt give the time of day to a lowly Hindi…so its like she is being driven around by a nonhuman…so no worries. No lie. in order to treat a race humanely…you have to see them as human first.
In my humble opinion, he is the best minister in bahrain right now. As for his promises to reform the labor market, can you blame him after -you know who- shot down every attempt?
“No Need” – the minister has had absolutely nothing to do with the labour market reforms, for this you’ll have to thank the Sh. Salman, the EDB and McKinsey, in that order.
In fact he wheedled himself into the process.
I think this minister is worried about his job, so he wants to take actions before its too late.
Sadek,
You’re not getting the point. I’m not thanking him, nor the EDB or gray mckinsey.. Niether of them solved anything yet. He’s just my favorite because he says bold things, regardless of their validity.
Question is, who is the REAL reason labour market reform, and economic reform for that matter, turned into waiting for Godut?
“No Need” – Gray McKinsey was the old trader. Anyway what is your point ? “He’s just my favorite because he says bold things, regardless of their validity.” That’s totally irrational – so I can say say bold things, even though they are invalid? Right, um.
Good luck, its with this logic that we are going to solve our problems.
Welcome to the globalized world, Bahrain! It was about the time!
Seriously, I think Bahrain will cope OK. The really fun part is, how those Saudi princes who think they are Allah’s bounty to humanity will copy. Now think of THEIR faces the day the Filipina nurse comes to tell them the United Workers’ Provisional Strikers’ Committee has taken over and that Tagalog and Hindi have been declared co-official languages.
Please Mahmood… it’s the Persian Gulf!
3fwan
The Gulf will probably weather the immigration storm, although not without some social changes. Europe will not; there will be blood in the streets and likely another world war in the next 20 years or so.
This is of course anti-immigrationist crap. For example, in France there hasn’t been a major terrorist incident for years, because mosques have been infiltrated and uncomfortable fundamentalist imams deported without much fuss.
The percentage of immigrants in Gulf countries is much higher than in your typical European country. And to put it mildly, Muslim countries aren’t very keen on assimilating newcomers (except those who are happy to turn Muslim, maybe), while European and Western culture is by its very “decadence” very inclusive and seductive. So, to be quite blunt, I am afraid there is much more potential for conflict in the Gulf countries: Filipinos and Hindu Indians will demand full citizenship, thwy won’t turn Muslim, and they won’t budge. Neither will the hardline nativists and Islamists in Gulf countries. That could be a recipe for disaster and racial war.
For how long will this uneasy status quo continue?
Not true. They will budge and it will be quite possible for Khaleeji governments and native peoples (who will be pretty unanimous on this issue) to unite and shift them. Who in the region, after all, are the ones with the military budgets? There were protests regarding this issue from Indians in the UAE a few years ago – but not for long.
couple of things…
1. the vast majority of these demographics are driven by ‘guest workers’, not immigrants…very few of these guys are able to purchase residency here anyway…these poor bastards will basically leave with the tower cranes once they’ve built all that we can think of building
2. interesting to hear the corresponding view from across the puddle link
3. why is everyone making such a drama about what is essentially the history of mankind? after all, we are living in a democratic age and the system of governors, citizens and slaves we have is probably closer to the Platonic ideal of a Republic than anywhere else on the planet…i mean seriously, far greater minds have tussled with the issue of ‘who shovels the shit if we are all equal’…just be happy it ain’t you…
What “uneasy status quo”? This is what is usually done about potentially criminal subcultures: police infiltrates them and arrests the criminals. No different from any underworld. The long-term result is, that more and more Muslims get pissed about being an underworld and accept mainstream values instead. This is happening all the time, but it does not interest media, for which only bad news is newsworthy.
Not much time at the moment, so here are
two words: demographic shift.
Craig,
Ditto Craig.
If the US even _thinks_ about doing to the Arab-Americans what they did to the Japanese-Americans during WWII, ill be the first to contribute to the “social disharmony” you’re so “down” with. 😉
-Ibn