Talat Hafiz
DEPUTY CROWN PRINCE Muhammad Bin Salman said in an interview with Al-Arabiya TV channel that the Kingdom was going to introduce a Green Card system for non-Saudis over the next five years. This move is a step in the right direction, given that expatriates constitute a large percentage (around 45 percent) of the Kingdom’s demography and workforce. This is 20 percent higher than the globally accepted standards of healthy demography, which is 25 percent.
The problem does not lie in an imbalance in demography (Saudis and non-Saudis) but in the fact that expatriates in the Kingdom do not have freedom to invest their savings in the local economy. That is why the Kingdom globally ranks third in terms of foreign remittances and foreign currencies. Last year, the remittances reached SR140 billion, around $37 billion.
Expatriates in the Kingdom (around 14 million including families of workers) welcomed the move to grant them a Green Card over the next five years and had been very optimistic about it. Some expatriates were born and raised in the Kingdom and got married here and had children in the country.
They practically have settled down here with no plans to go back home, especially those who have been living here for five decades. Some of them cannot go back to their homelands because of the chaos and destruction that has rippled through their countries as a result of the so-called Arab Spring.
This move to grant expatriates permanent residency will encourage non-Saudis to invest their savings here as the government will provide them with facilities. Such investment will make them feel secure and settled-down and increase their love for this country and never want to leave it. This money will definitely bring benefits to the national economy as well and, more importantly, will lower the total amount of annual remittances.
I hope the introduction of the Green Card system will repeal the sponsorship (kafala) system and grant Saudi citizenship to expatriates who are highly-qualified and highly-educated and can benefit the country and play a role in development.
