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City of Dreams, Disappointment, and Optimism: the Case of Nine Communities of Undocumented African Migrants in the City of Jeddah

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City of Dreams, Disappointment, and Optimism: the Case of Nine Communities of Undocumented African Migrants in the City of Jeddah 35 Dirasat City of Dreams, Disappointment, and Optimism: The Case of Nine Communities of Undocumented African Migrants Rajab, 1439 - April 2018 in the City of Jeddah Fahad L. Alghalib Alsharif Senior Research Fellow King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies City of Dreams, Disappointment, and Optimism: The Case of Nine Communities of Undocumented African Migrants in the City of Jeddah Fahad L. Alghalib Alsharif Senior Research Fellow King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies 4 Dirasat No. 35 Rajab, 1439 - April 2018 © King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, 2018 King Fahd National Library Cataloging-In-Publication Data Alsharif, Fahad L. City of Dreams, Disappointment and Optimism: The Case of Nine Communities of Undocumented African Migrants in the city of Jeddah. / Fahad L . Alsharif. - Riyadh, 2018 60 p ; 16.5 x 23 cm ISBN: 978-603-8206-65-2 1 - Immigrants - Jeddah 2 - Immigration and emmigration I - Title 325.1 dc 1439/7148 L.D. no. 1439/7148 ISBN: 978-603-8206-65-2 Table of Contents Abstract 6 Introduction 7 Saudi Migration Policies 7 Push and Pull Factors 9 Methodology 13 Data Analysis 14 The Semi–Focus Group: The Case of African Communities 14 The Migration Processes 18 Undocumented Entry 19 First Category: Smuggling 20 Second Category: Overstaying an Umrah or Hajj Visa 22 Third Category: Breaking a Work Contract 22 Fourth Category: Undocumented “Migrants” Born in Jeddah 23 Characteristics of Irregular Migrants, Such as Age at Arrival, Deportation Experiences, and the Value of Migration 26 Familial and Social Ties 30 Issues Related to Working Conditions 38 Legal Issues Facing Undocumented Laborers in Saudi Arabia 43 Plans for the Future 45 Conclusion 50 References 54 5 6 Dirasat No. 33 Jumada I, 1439 - February 2018 Abstract The goal in this paper is to analyze the lives of the members of nine communities of African migrants to the city of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. Through the testimonies of undocumented migrants living in Jeddah, specifically Somalis, Ethiopians, Eritreans, Sudanese, Chadians, Nigerians, Burkinabes, Cameroonians, and Ghanaians, the aim of this article is to study the major social, economic, and security consequences of their presence in Saudi Arabia in general and in the city of Jeddah in particular. Introduction The sudden shift from a traditional commercial economy to an oil-based one in the 1930s changed Jeddah and other cities in Saudi Arabia and transformed their social and economic life. This economic boom led to a dramatic increase in the living standards of the Saudis and, significantly, created new needs for skilled and unskilled foreign workers throughout the country, and particularly in Jeddah. The migrant populations that flocked to the Kingdom can be divided into four main categories: migrants who overstayed their Hajj and Umrah visas; migrants who entered illegally, having been smuggled from Yemen or from one of many other countries on the African continent via Yemen; and labor migrants who stayed after violating their work contract. Naturally, the children born of illegal immigrants must also be accounted for. Following the oil crisis of 1973, Saudi economy became one of the fastest-growing economies of the world due to the substantial increase in oil prices. The economic prosperity triggered an increase in the number of illegal migrants, which begun to rise dramatically in the following decades. This was due both to various factors in the originating countries, which constituted the push factor, and the lack of necessary national manpower in Saudi Arabia in general and Jeddah in particular, which contributed to the pull factor.1 Through the testimonies of African undocumented migrants living in Jeddah, specifically Somalis, Ethiopians, Eritreans, Sudanese, Chadians, Nigerians, Burkinabes, Cameroonians, and Ghanaians, this article aims to study the major social, economic, and security consequences of their presence in Saudi Arabia in general and in the city of Jeddah in particular. Saudi Migration Policies Before introducing the communities, it is very important to briefly talk (1) Sudan and Yemen, on the one hand, are countries of emigration, mainly to the Arabian Peninsula, as well as transit and immigration countries for African migrants. Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, is one of the largest labor importers in the world. Saudi Arabia is a middle- income country, whereas Yemen and Sudan, as well as all the other African countries noted above with the exception of Nigeria, are among the least developed countries, and rely heavily on foreign aid. See Hélène Thiollet, Refugees and Migrants from Eritrea to the Arab World: The Case of Sudan, Yemen and Saudi Arabia, 1997–2007 (Cairo, Egypt: American University in Cairo Press, 2007). 7 8 Dirasat No. 35 Rajab, 1439 - April 2018 about migration policies. First, the Saudi kafala (sponsorship) system has expanded to meet an increasing demand for workers in both the public and the private sectors. These workers include all types of foreign professional expatriates, running the gamut from engineers in construction to doctors and nurses for private hospitals and clinics, not to mention, of course, a vast number of semiskilled and low-skilled workers. When unemployment rose among Saudi citizens, policy makers adopted “Saudization”2 as a national policy to employ nationals in the private sector, with the aim of reducing the number of foreign migrants in the country. This government policy achieved its goals, though only to a small degree, with the result being the introduction of another policy, the Nitaqat3 system, as an effective tool to enforce Saudization. The word Nitaqat means “areas” or “zones” in Arabic. It is a system to organize and limit the number of non-Saudi employees in the private sector relative to Saudi employees. In other words, it is a set of regulations dictating reward and punishment intended to force the private sector to employ more Saudis. This program was introduced by the Ministry of Labor in June 2011. The Ministry of Labor teamed up with the Ministry of Interior and employed 1,000 inspectors to enforce the new laws, which established jail terms and fines for Saudi citizens who did not comply and promised to deport any foreign guest worker who violated the new policy. As a consequence of the deportation policy, many undocumented migrants were pressured to go into hiding to avoid being deported. For example, the Saudi Ministry of Interior’s records indicated that 665,960 occurred during 2013 and 605,420 during 2014.4 From 2012 to 2014, more than 1 million expatriates were deported under the two new laws. At the same time, and parallel to the deportation (2) Al Dosary, Adel S. and Syed M. Rahman. “Saudization (Localization) —A Critical Review,” Human Resource Development Internationa. 8, no. 4 (2005): 495–502. (3) Françoise De Bel-Air, “The Socio-Political Background and Stakes of ‘Saudizing’ the Workforce in Saudi Arabia: The Nitaqat policy.” European University Institute (EUI) and Gulf Research Center (GRC), 2015. (4) See Gulf Labour Markets and Migration. “Saudi Arabia: Deportations from Saudi Arabia by Month (March 2011–February 2016).” http://gulfmigration.eu/saudi-arabia-deportations-from- saudi-arabia-by-month-march-2011-february-2016/. policy, amnesty policies were adopted to address international human rights concerns regarding the conditions of migrants in Saudi Arabia. Interestingly, the standard procedure for the amnesty initiative was to provide migrants with a grace period in order to allow them to rectify their legal status, on penalty of a fine, jail time, or outright deportation. Very often, after the deadline passed, Saudi authorities would launch raids and round up thousands of undocumented workers: These raids could last from a few weeks to a few months. Different government agencies carried out raids on all types of local markets, restaurants, convenience stores, shopping centers, and residential areas.5 To clarify the implications of these initiatives, this essay is divided into four parts. The first part deals with the push and pull factors that attract these undocumented migrants to the city of Jeddah from different parts of Africa. In the second part, the methodology used is discussed. In the third part, we present an analysis of the outcomes of the semi–structured questionnaire interviews and focus group conversations conducted with the African communities in Jeddah. In the fourth part, we provide a summary and several concluding remarks. Push and Pull Factors It is imperative to analyze the push factors that lie behind migrants coming from these African countries and the pull factors that attract them to migrate to the city of Jeddah. In this regard, over the years, many migrants have fled to Jeddah for economic, social, political, and environmental reasons. Interestingly, it seems that the domestic realities of the various countries of undocumented migrants under examination in this paper are very similar. For example, civil wars, as in the case of Nigeria, or inability to deal with famine and disease stood out as the main concerns. Likewise, Eritrea suffered the worst drought in the late 1990s, causing tens of thousands of people to flee the area. Jeddah became one of their primary destinations, particularly for the poorest sector of society, while the most educated and wealthy Eritreans (5) Reuters, March 27, 2013. 9 10 Dirasat No. 35 Rajab, 1439 - April 2018 headed to Europe and North America. Chronic political instability and unsustainable population growth, with the consequent rise of unemployment, poverty, illiteracy, Islamic radicalization, and, in the case of Somalia, piracy, constituted some of the main reasons for the massive migration from Africa to Saudi Arabia and other countries. Furthermore, many of these countries were plagued by repeated environmental disasters such as desertification and floods, which made it difficult to develop a sustainable agricultural system that could have, presumably, helped more of the population to remain in place.
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