http://www.arabnews.com/?page=13§ion=0&article=124502&d=13&m=7&y=2009&pix=kingdom.jpg&category=Local Press
Monday 13 July 2009 (20 Rajab 1430) There must be exemptions Khaled Al-Sulaiman | Okaz When a job is Saudized, it means that a foreigner has vacated his position in favor of a Saudi. The foreigner will return home and that is it. However, there is a group of foreigners who cannot go back home because they did not come from their homes looking for jobs here. I mean those who were born and brought up in this country. Although they are not Saudi nationals, they do not know any other home except the Kingdom. When these groups of people lose their jobs because of Saudization, where will they go? How will they earn a living and support their families? Is it not possible to exempt from the Saudization process those who were born in the Kingdom, have lived on Saudi soil for many years and do not know any other home? Is it fair to equate a foreigner who comes from abroad on a work contract and who will return home after the termination of his contract with a foreigner who was born and brought up in the Kingdom like his father and grandfather and who does not know any other home? He lives like Saudis, speaks Arabic with a Saudi accent, assumes Saudi traditions, wears Saudi clothes and eats like Saudis. I am looking at the issue from a humanitarian point of view. I have no doubt that Labor Minister Ghazi Al-Gosaibi might have a better understanding of this issue. By Saudizing the jobs of foreigners who were born and raised inside the Kingdom, we are depriving their families of a decent living. We will be sending them to the unknown when we force them out of their jobs under the banner of Saudization.
