Abdullatif Al-Melhem
Some news reports claim that there are around one million Saudi immigrants who live and work in other countries. Is this figure accurate? We do not know. However, the authorities should investigate this issue and ascertain the facts.
Personally speaking, I have doubts about this figure. There are a large number of Saudis who work and live abroad but those are well-to-do Saudi families who can return to their homeland anytime they wish. They are not immigrants; they are families who traveled abroad for study or business purposes. They did not give up their Saudi nationality. Therefore, we cannot call them immigrants because the definition of an immigrant does not apply to them.
Moreover, some Saudis have dual citizenship and most of them are Saudi-Americans. This is because many young Saudi men who won scholarships to study in the US got married to American women while studying there and had children with them.
Naturally, the children were granted US citizenship. However, there are no Saudi communities in the US, such as the Lebanese and Syrian communities that exist in certain American states.
We have to find a way to determine the number of Saudis who have been living abroad for a long time. I am not talking here about Saudi students who study abroad on scholarships, because they usually return to the Kingdom after they finish their studies. However, it is important to find out if there are any other reasons why some Saudi families stay abroad and do not come back. Is it because they are not satisfied with the Saudi education system or is there something else?
