Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Kuwaitis worry over demographic imbalance

Kuwaitis during an election campaign (file)
Kuwaitis during an election campaign (file)
Kuwaiti experts sounded alarm bells over the increasing demographic imbalance in the Gulf state and the constantly widening gap between foreign and local population.

Nationals are becoming a minority in Kuwait, observers warned. While the total number of Kuwaitis is estimated at 1,200,000, the number of foreigners amounted to almost two and a half million.
According to the latest official statistics, Kuwaitis make 31.6% of the population, which translates into a ratio of one Kuwaiti for every two and a half foreigners.

The statistical report, issued by the Public Authority for Civil Information, stated that Asians make the majority of foreigners in Kuwait, 56.5%, and the total number of non-Kuwaiti Arabs amounts to 36.8% while the total number of Europeans, Africans, Americans, and Australians does not exceed 2.3%.

Statistics show that out of the total population of Kuwait, estimated at 3.44 million, almost 2.34 are foreigners.

Government blamed

 The government acts in an extremely haphazard way in an era where everything is carefully calculated using scientific methods 
Sociology professor Dr. Khaldoun al-Naqib
Several experts are blaming the government for the demographic imbalance that is becoming more and more conspicuous in Kuwait.

The government is adopting a policy that weakens the Arab identity, said Dr. Khaldoun al-Naqib, professor of sociology at the University of Kuwait.

“The government acts in an extremely haphazard way in an era where everything is carefully calculated using scientific methods,” he told Al Arabiya.

Naqib specifically laid the blame on Majlis al-Umma (Kuwait’s parliemnt), civil society organizations, and the media for failing to set clear policies that determine the number of foreigners entering the country in a way that satisfies market demands without marginalizing the nationals.

“Another factor that contributed to this imbalance is the decreasing birth rate, not only in Kuwait, but in all Gulf states,” he added.

The average number of family members in Kuwait, Naqib pointed out, fell from six to 3.6 in the past 10 years.
 They keep procrastinating although they realize how critical the situation is after we’ve become minority in our own country 
MP Adel al-Saraawi

MP Adel al-Saraawi slammed the government’s reluctance to solve the demographic problem and accused officials of giving priority to their personal interests.

“Some people trade in everything, including the interest of the homeland, in order to achieve their personal goals,” Saraawi wrote in a report submitted to parliament.

“They keep procrastinating although they realize how critical the situation is after we’ve become minority in our own country.”

Saraawi called for making appointments in government institutions restricted to nationals while setting a quota for nationals in private companies.

"This quota has to be gradually increased until the required balance is finally reached,” he added.

In addition to marginalizing nationals and eroding the country’s Arab identity, demographic imbalance involves religious and social hazards.

Islamic thinker Dr. Abdullah al-Nafeesi warned of the role some foreigners play as religious missionaries as well the negative impact on social traditions in a conservative society like Kuwait.

“This is especially the case with house maids who have a strong influence on children,” he told Al Arabiya. “This influence increases if the parents are busy or uneducated.”

The increasing number of foreigners, Nafeesi added, leads to a remarkable change in all the details of daily life and which range from food and clothes to religious rituals and relationships.

Economic growth

On the other hand, officials saw this demographic imbalance as a natural outcome of development plans in Kuwait.

The economic growth the Gulf state has been witnessing, officials argue, necessitated opening the door for foreigners as the number of nationals was not enough to meet the rising demand in the job market.

Hiring foreigners, they added, was important in order to satisfy the country’s needs, especially as far as services offered to citizens like infrastructure and social projects.

(Translated from Arabic by Sonia Farid).

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