The charm of Kuwait city

Kuwaiti citizens are actually "minorities" in their own country. Most of these foreigners are migrant workers, mainly Arabs from Egypt. In Kuwait, many hotels and restaurants employ Filipino girls as waiters. The salespeople in the shops are mostly from India, Syria, Lebanon, Greece and Armenia, while the construction workers are mostly from Pakistan and Bangladesh. Today, Kuwait has become a colorful multi-ethnic society.

The influx of foreign labor as immigrants is determined by the needs of Kuwait's economic development. Before the "oil age", the inflow of immigrants was very limited. However, with the increase of oil exploitation and the development of local industries, there is an increasing demand for experts and skilled workers. Due to the limited number of local people in Kuwait, Kuwaiti leaders realized that modernization could not be achieved quickly without attracting foreign workers, even with huge financial resources. The recruitment of foreign workers was initially completed by foreign oil companies, which determined the ethnic composition of immigrants. At that time, they opened representative offices in Beirut, Mumbai and Karachi to recruit workers and send them to Kuwait, so most of the foreign workers recruited were Syrians, Lebanese, Indians and Pakistanis. After independence, Kuwait attracted more Arab laborers, with Palestinians, Jordanians and Egyptians accounting for the majority of immigrants.

The first labor migration caused by economic demand is uncontrollable. Thousands of Arabs, Iranians, Indians and Pakistanis flocked to make big money. The influx of immigrants has also caused many social problems, and housing, schools and medical institutions are very tense. For this reason, in the late 1970s, especially in the 1980s, when the national income was reduced due to falling oil prices, the Kuwaiti government tried to reduce the number of immigrants living in Kuwait for a long time, and replaced Arab workers with workers from Asian countries, especially those who were far away from Kuwait and had no historical ties with them. During this period, not only the number of immigrants from India and Pakistan increased, but also immigrants from Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Thailand and South Korea poured in.

Foreigners have the opportunity to get rich in Kuwait, but they are also full of bitterness and unhappiness. So far, no immigrant has been able to acquire Kuwaiti nationality and receive the treatment that Kuwaiti citizens can enjoy. According to the Kuwaiti Constitution 1962, only those whose ancestors have settled in Kuwait since 1920 are eligible to become Kuwaiti citizens with full rights. Once you become a Kuwaiti citizen, it means that you will have countless privileges and benefits. However, at present, the Kuwaiti government does not intend to expand this circle of obtaining national citizenship and welfare.

Kuwait has put forward the problem of replacing foreign labor with local labor more than once, but it has been difficult to solve. One of the reasons is that the local population in Kuwait is limited, and the local labor force only accounts for 1/5 of the total labor force. In addition, most young people who have the ability to work not only leave work during school, but also go to government agencies or state-owned enterprises after graduation. Private entrepreneurs prefer to hire cheap foreign labor.

The current policy of the Kuwaiti government is to maintain a certain proportion of the population and a balance between local and foreign labor resources. One of the important measures taken to this end is to improve national health and strengthen the protection of women and children. In order to increase the number of local cadres, the government has also improved the education system through diversification of education and vocational training, and established a direct link between the demand of the labor market and the enrollment of colleges and universities. The authorities will also take some unconventional measures, such as attracting women to participate in production activities, to increase the local labor force.