Non-Indigenous Citizens and “Stateless” Residents in the Gulf
Andrzej Kapiszewski NON-INDIGENOUS CITIZENS AND "STATELESS" RESIDENTS IN THE GULF MONARCHIES. THE KUWAITI BIDUN Since the discovery of oil, the political entities of the Persian Gulf have transformed themselves from desert sheikhdoms into modern states. The process was accompanied by rapid population growth. During the last 50 years, the population of the current Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman1, grew from 4 million in 1950 to 33.4 million in 2004, thus recording one of the highest rates of population growth in the world2. The primary cause of this increase has not been the growth of the indigenous population, large in itself, but the influx of foreign workers. The employment of large numbers of foreigners was a structural imperative for growth in the GCC countries, as oil-related development depended upon the importation of foreign technologies, and reąuired knowledge and skills unfamiliar to the local Arab population. Towards the end of 2004, there were 12.5 million foreigners, 37 percent of the total population, in the GCC states. In Qatar, the UAE, and Kuwait, foreigners constituted a majority. In the United Arab Emirates foreigners accounted for over 80 percent of population. Only Oman and Saudi Arabia managed to maintain a relatively Iow proportion of foreign population: about 20 and 27 percent, respectively. This development has created security, economic, social and cultural threats to the local population. Therefore, to maintain the highly privileged position of the indigenous population and make integration of foreigners with local communities difficult, numerous restrictions were imposed: the sponsorship system, limits on the duration of every foreigner’s stay, curbs on naturalization and on the citizenship rights of those who are naturalized, etc.
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