When Oman prevents expatriates from working
Mahad Baween, Oman's Minister of Labor, is hard at work enforcing Omanization of jobs policy. From now on, 207 professions will be exclusively reserved for Omani citizens. Sectors such as the service sector, the retail sector, the transport industry and much more have been targeted by this policy. As such, jobs like, human resources managers, coordinators, recruitment officers, tourist guides and property insurers are now reserved for Omanis. The same policy applies to the commercial sector, along with the medical professions and the transport industry: cashiers, grocery store clerks, street vendors, etc. In the transport sector, expats will no longer be allowed to work as bus drivers and drivers of agricultural machinery. In the security sector, expatriate security guards and supervisors will have to stop working. In the medical sector, foreign ambulance drivers are henceforth banned from working. Other professions are affected too, such as perfumers, fire truck drivers, data analysts, public relations managers...
Omanization, Saudization, Kuwaitization, Qatarization... the Gulf countries are surfing on nationalization
Nationalization of jobs is not a new phenomenon. Oman is only putting into effect a policy that is several decades old. Since the oil shocks, the Gulf countries have had to call on foreign labor to support their production efforts. But as soon as the economy picked up, there were calls for foreigners to leave in the medium to long term and for the "nationalization" of jobs. For the Omani Sultanate, The Omanization policy is expected to provide 32,000 jobs for its citizens.
In the same vein, Kuwait wants to end the heavy foreign presence. Almost 70% of Kuweit's population is foreign. Foreign presence is up to 80% in Qatar and 90% in the United Arab Emirates. Kuwait, a pioneer in this policy along with Saudi Arabia, is betting on "full Kuwaitization” of its civil service by 2028. The movement has accelerated since the pandemic, as has the pressure on foreigners.
Can a State deny a foreigner access to employment?
The answer is yes, a country can bar a foreigner from a job. Generally speaking, the types of jobs concerned are those in the public sector: state administration, the army, public authorities, etc. In the European Union (EU), there is a difference between citizens who are members of an EU country and those who are not. Non-members face more restrictions. European regulations compel states to make their civil service entrance examinations open to citizens of country members of the EU. Civil servants (schoolteachers, doctors, etc.) are therefore exclusively European. In France, for instance, one will need a French diploma to become a dental surgeon, notary or lawyer. He or she will also need a French diploma to work as a schoolteacher, to open a hairdressing salon or to manage a cash-in-transit business.
But there is a clear distinction between civil servants and contractual workers. A civil servant has passed the civil service entrance exams. A contractual employee has not. He is not a permanent employee. His position is therefore more precarious than that of the civil servant.
Other countries that prevent expatriates from working in certain sectors
Saudi Arabia
Last February, the Ministry of Human Resources published a new list of jobs prohibited for expatriates. Like in Oman, many of them belong to the service sector: manager, recruitment officer, receptionist, human resources director, treasurer, business manager...
Kuwait
The government of Kuwait is pleased with its policy and is leading by example. At the beginning of July, the state published the prospected ratio of workers: 80% are Kuwaitis and barely 20% are foreigners. But it is still more complicated in the educational and medical sectors, where Kuwaitis skills are still scarce. But the Kuwaitization process is on. More and more job boards are specifying "only for Kuwaitis'' on their ads.
Thailand
According to Thai law, 40 occupations are prohibited to foreigners, including 13 jobs that are subject to conditions. Handicrafts are the most targeted by these prohibitions (manufacture of paper or fabric umbrellas, manufacture of gold, silver or copper alloy ornaments, weaving, manufacture of utensils...). Certain sales professions (auctioneering, street vending) are also forbidden to foreigners. It is also forbidden to work as a tourist guide, secretary or legal employee. The professions subject to conditions also concern manufacturing (shoes, hats, mattresses...). Then there are certain accounting, construction, and engineering professions.
What impact will this have on expatriates?
Nationalization of jobs is a hard blow for expatriates. The shock is sometimes brutal, like last July 14, when expatriates working in the private sector in Saudi Arabia learned by SMS that they would have to give up their jobs. This is yet another initiative by the Ministry of Human Resources to regulate the labor market, to further constrain the foreign workforce.
Expatriates from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have been complaining for years about an "anti-immigrant" climate that has become more acute since COVID. In Singapore, too, national preference has entered the political debate.
Even more insidiously: there is growing competition between expatriates and nationals, and even between expatriates themselves. The most precarious ones are working in the construction industry, in restaurants, in the most insecure jobs. In Qatar, for instance, the World Cup has already been tainted by revelations about the working conditions of these vulnerable expatriates, who are considered more as legal aliens rather than expats. This name is mostly reserved for qualified positions, creating a division between privileged foreigners and those without rights.
How to live when the State pushes towards the exit?
Many are simply leaving the country. The Kuwait Bureau of Statistics is pleased with the ever-increasing number of foreigners leaving the country. Almost 100,000 in the first quarter of 2020 alone.
Useful links
France: list of jobs open to foreigners
Thailand: jobs forbidden to foreigners
