The house that Saud built
It may soon fall down
It may soon fall down
Jul 21st 2011 | MORONG | from the print edition
“IT’S hard to find a job here,” says Sheryl Lozano, a chubby mother of two. Her husband, a scaffolder, is working on a building site in Saudi Arabia and sending money home. He is part of a mass exodus of Philippine workers. Their remittances pay the food bills, school fees and for new clothes. Ms Lozano’s one-room shack, a tin roof on breeze blocks, is literally the house that Saud built.
Roughly one Filipino in ten works overseas, an unusually high rate. Their combined remittances hit a record $18.7 billion in 2010, up by 8% on 2009. But the Arab spring has thrown sand in the works. Some 10,000 Filipinos had to be evacuated from Libya when war broke out. Though remittances have not fallen much yet, an uprising in an oil-rich Gulf kingdom would be serious. Saudi Arabia employs over 1.3m Filipinos, second only to America. Although the Philippine economy is less reliant on Middle Eastern wages than are South Asian countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh (see Banyan), the region is still a vital source of jobs: almost half of Filipinos who got jobs abroad last year went to the Gulf.
It is a bad time, then, for a Saudi freeze on hiring Filipino maids. The two countries have been at odds for months over the wages and conditions of domestic servants. Tales of mistreatment are legion. The Philippine government has proposed that Saudis pay a minimum monthly wage of $400 ($250 is common). The Saudis rejected this in March, and imposed the hiring freeze.
The plight of maids in Saudi Arabia touches a nerve at home. But a bigger threat to the Philippines (and other remittance-dependent countries) comes from a Saudi effort to tackle unemployment by boosting the employment of locals. Fearful lest idle young people turn rebellious, Saudi leaders want to put them to work. Under a policy of “Saudisation”, private firms have a target that is supposed to ensure 75% of jobs go to locals. If implemented fully—and many are sceptical that locals will take the menial jobs on offer—this would mean fewer contracts for foreigners, particularly in small companies.
Carlos Cao, who heads the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, says that apart from domestic servants, there has been no slowdown this year in Saudi recruitment. From September, Saudi companies will have several months in which to comply with new limits on foreign workers. Mr Cao says that returning workers can be redeployed to other countries in which demand is strong. Those that opt to stay at home can apply for government micro-loans to start a business. Ms Lozano and her husband plan to open a shop after his contract ends next year.
Garry Martinez of Migrante International, a labour organisation, reckons that Saudisation could eventually affect 360,000 Filipinos. He thinks the government has been slow to respond to the threat and is not doing enough to create jobs at home. The first wave of Filipinos left in the 1970s to escape stagnation under the then-dictator, Ferdinand Marcos. What started as a temporary fix became a way of life that eased the social and economic pressures in the Philippines. How ironic that the Saudi government is trying to do the same thing in reverse.
Roughly one Filipino in ten works overseas, an unusually high rate. Their combined remittances hit a record $18.7 billion in 2010, up by 8% on 2009. But the Arab spring has thrown sand in the works. Some 10,000 Filipinos had to be evacuated from Libya when war broke out. Though remittances have not fallen much yet, an uprising in an oil-rich Gulf kingdom would be serious. Saudi Arabia employs over 1.3m Filipinos, second only to America. Although the Philippine economy is less reliant on Middle Eastern wages than are South Asian countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh (see Banyan), the region is still a vital source of jobs: almost half of Filipinos who got jobs abroad last year went to the Gulf.
It is a bad time, then, for a Saudi freeze on hiring Filipino maids. The two countries have been at odds for months over the wages and conditions of domestic servants. Tales of mistreatment are legion. The Philippine government has proposed that Saudis pay a minimum monthly wage of $400 ($250 is common). The Saudis rejected this in March, and imposed the hiring freeze.
The plight of maids in Saudi Arabia touches a nerve at home. But a bigger threat to the Philippines (and other remittance-dependent countries) comes from a Saudi effort to tackle unemployment by boosting the employment of locals. Fearful lest idle young people turn rebellious, Saudi leaders want to put them to work. Under a policy of “Saudisation”, private firms have a target that is supposed to ensure 75% of jobs go to locals. If implemented fully—and many are sceptical that locals will take the menial jobs on offer—this would mean fewer contracts for foreigners, particularly in small companies.
Carlos Cao, who heads the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, says that apart from domestic servants, there has been no slowdown this year in Saudi recruitment. From September, Saudi companies will have several months in which to comply with new limits on foreign workers. Mr Cao says that returning workers can be redeployed to other countries in which demand is strong. Those that opt to stay at home can apply for government micro-loans to start a business. Ms Lozano and her husband plan to open a shop after his contract ends next year.
Garry Martinez of Migrante International, a labour organisation, reckons that Saudisation could eventually affect 360,000 Filipinos. He thinks the government has been slow to respond to the threat and is not doing enough to create jobs at home. The first wave of Filipinos left in the 1970s to escape stagnation under the then-dictator, Ferdinand Marcos. What started as a temporary fix became a way of life that eased the social and economic pressures in the Philippines. How ironic that the Saudi government is trying to do the same thing in reverse.
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