In the Paper Today--We are in good company...

Expatriates form 34.5% of GCC population
In the US media we always hear about the disputes between nationals in Middle Eastern countries. What we don't talk about (or at least I haven't heard much about) is all the "foreigners" living and working within the country. Population affects the social climate, structure, and stability of any area. The Expat community in Qatar is very high--approximately 55-67% (depending on the source.) I was surprised to read the statistics for other GCC countries:

In Saudi Arabia, expatriates accounted for 25.1 per cent of the total population in 2002-2004. This is expected to come down to 20 per cent by 2017. The figures for other GCC countries are as follows- UAE: 66.1 per cent (2002-2004)-63.4 per cent ( expected in 2017). Kuwait: 62.5 per cent- 59.8 per cent. Bahrain: 37.7 per cent- 34.9 per cent. Oman: 26.2 per cent-23.9 per cent.

Adnan said, though the inflow of expatriate work force is still on the rise, their educational standards are going down in most of the GCC countries, compared to the nationals. This is due to the inflow of more unskilled and semi skilled workers as well as domestic workers.

He said, the number of housemaids and other domestic workers have gone up in most of the GCC countries, which does not augur well on the social or economic development. On another level, unemployment among the nationals, especially among the educated youth in on the rise in all the GCC countries. The rate of unemployment is particularly high among the females.

This shows that these countries have not succeeded in creating job opportunities for natives on par with the increase in population as well as the level of education.