Kuwait considers citizenship for top Gulf expatriates
Posted on 02 February 2011 with 3 comments from readers
Top expatriates may become Kuwaiti citizens under a plan revealed by Dr Sami Alfaraj, president of the Kuwait Center for Strategic Studies to ArabianBusiness.com.
‘We could not have managed the oil industry without expats… If we are thinking about new avenues of industry and technology to beat others we need more people specialising in that,’ he said. ‘Dubai gets the creme of expats and we get the lower end, especially the uneducated ones.’
Parliamentary initiative
Dr Alfaraj said the Kuwait parliament is studying a plan to give its top expatriate workers citizenship as a way to speed up the development of its economy, adding: ‘Kuwaitis see the expat community as part of the fabric of society’.
Kuwait is also known to be considering an end to the sponsorship system for expatriate businessmen in favor of a system of self-sponsorship, perhaps along the lines of the system used is some Dubai free zones.
Indeed, the UAE already has a system for inviting Arabic-speaking expatriates of long duration who have made a major contribution to become citizens, so what Kuwait is suggesting is nothing new. Then again Bahrain has been talking about limiting the stay of expatriates not incorporating them into its body politic.
Citizenship for top expatriates is the sort of social change that might become inevitable after the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt this year. Gulf States looking to ensure the stability of their social hierachies might find this an effective course of action.
Certainly excluding leading members of any society from citizenship is not the best way of guaranteeing loyalty, although some older nationals will doubtless throw their hands in the air at the very idea. However, in most countries of the world citizenship is normal after 10 years of residency and residency is the main criteria to become a national. Ethnicity and cultural background are not normally factors.
Top talent
On the other hand, it is important to recognize that Kuwait is talking about confering citizenship on top talent and not its Pakistani gardener or Filipina maids. And Kuwaiti citizenship is quite a prize with arguably the world’s most generous cradle-to-grave welfare system.
Would other Gulf States follow this lead? It is hard to say. But if Tunisia and Egypt can have revolutions, and Jordan install a reforming government within weeks, then granting citizenship rights to more expatriates may follow in the Gulf States.
3 Comments posted by readers:
Less likely to leave if a little trouble starts?
Pro (paid?) and anti Mubarak demonstrators were throwing rocks at each other in Cairo. Now they are fighting. I wonder if he can maintain military support while gathering enough thugs, and arresting enough leaders of the revolt, to get a civil war going, or solve his problem with a massacre like the Chicoms did? The Chicoms were able to use ignorant peasants from the countryside to mow down the ‘counter revolutionaries’ in the square. Can Mubarak? I doubt it, but you never know. No way the mob will allow him to stay until September without the army shooting a bunch of them. Egypt is now a ticking time bomb. Get ready for a bloodbath like the French Revolution. Another HUGE demonstration is planned for Friday.
Cramer thinks it is a food riot. What a fool. He has never been hit by a sadistic cop in is his entire life, much less tortured. He should read what happened to that poor food cart vendor in Tunisia. I wonder if S.A. realizes that by taking enough of these folks in, they might become the target of a revolutionary government. I would cut it out, if I were them. Weak governments are tempted to start wars to unify their subjects.
It looks like someone forgot the first rule of revolution. You start by killing the tyrant. Fail to do that, and his men then know who you are and come for you.
I was wrong again. Moody just downgraded the top Egyptian banks. So the UK wasn’t next after Japan.
The fellow who wrote ‘The Big Short’ Michael Lewis, is saying on CNBC that all the big banks should have been allowed to fail and been taken into Federal receivership. He said he has never seen people as mad about anything on his book tours, as about the bailouts of Wall Street. (The seeds of Tunisia west when the dollar crumbles in a few years?) He pointed out how they socialized their losses, while keeping their profits. EVERYONE says his book is brilliant because he made complex things so simple.
And it is below 0 degrees here AGAIN!
Yeah Sure – Another Pied Piper Story. Will never happen. Just as in its considering itself as ” Trade Hub of the Middle East “, ” Financial capital of the middle east “…
They can barely cope with their sewage !!! Forget this !
By “top” they mean WHITE!