You might ask, why this story-it is from an Arab media's business pages, why share it? Please read this important story-we can and must learn from it! DUBAI: Bahrain wants a six-year residency cap on the millions of expatriates working in the Gulf, whom it says are eroding the national character of states in the region, a newspaper reported on Monday. "The majority of foreign manpower in the region comes from different cultural and social backgrounds that cannot assimilate or adapt to the local cultures," said Majeed al-Alawi, Bahrain's labor minister.
Alawi said he was optimistic the proposal would be adopted by the Gulf Cooperation Council during its annual summit planned for December in the Qatari capital of Doha.
The six-members of the pro-Western GCC are home to a population of 35 million, of whom about 13 million, or 37 percent, are foreign workers.
The workers come mainly from the Asian subcontinent and are relied upon heavily to drive the booming economies of the oil-rich bloc.
The GCC consists of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Oman.
"In some areas of the Gulf, you can't tell whether you are in an Arab Muslim country or in an Asian district," Alawi said in an interview with Gulf News.
"We can't call this diversity and no nation on earth could accept the erosion of its culture on its own land," he added.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb
He also said the residency cap would mean that "no foreign worker would be hired for a position that can be filled by a national," adding that businesses in the GCC should reduce their reliance on expatriate labor.
Unemployment among nationals is a serious concern for GCC governments. In February, the Financial Times said unemployment in Saudi Arabia had risen from 9.7 percent to 12 percent since 2002.
Alawi also said the region's 'sponsorship' system should be scrapped and replaced with government control of visas and work permits that would protect the rights of expatriate workers.
"Violations of their human and financial rights must not be tolerated at any level," he said.
The system, a set of regulations that limits workers' movements and hands power to their employers, is in place in all GCC states but is decried by rights bodies as akin to slavery.
Under the system, employers have the right to sack foreign staff and prevent them from seeking other jobs in the same country unless they meet a set of tough conditions. -AFP
Comment: Here it is, an Arab country that understands the dangers of its “foreign manpower” unable to assimilate. Of course add to this the unwillingness to assimilate and you have described America. This same country understands the dangers of “diversity” when it says: "We can't call this diversity and no nation on earth could accept the erosion of its culture on its own land,"; and yet the USA still does not understand. Actually, it arrogantly ignores the signs, the messages and the stated intentions of its enemies and lacks the courage and political will to shift its policy to illegal peoples, many of whom are used by American agriculture and businesses for cheap labor. There are ways other than military to defeat an enemy. America’s enemies are using multiple strategies and tactics against us all at the same time. Using these collective strategies, they believe they can defeat us, change the nature of our culture from within and prevail. Their timetable extends out for 100 years. Of course, Americans, generally unaffected by the wars and battles being waged around the globe and having a quality of life unsurpassed in the history of the modern world dismiss out of hand the notion we are at war internally and have been for over 2 decades. Bahrain does understand and is taking the necessary actions to secure its unique national identity and thus protect itself from its enemies. We can, should and must learn from them!
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