Saudi Arabia is looking into establishing a social economic welfare program—a dole—for its unemployed. Details are being discussed, but the amount of money to be transferred is already drawing criticism. Some are complaining that the proposed SR 1,000/mo. is insufficient, that it’s less than even a third-world driver earns.
There is no question that Saudi Arabia has a serious unemployment problem, nor that being unemployed is damaging to the individual and society. Being able to pay some of the bills brought in by daily life is always good. Then there’s the question of how much is too much? As the Saudis figure out how to create jobs, they also have to figure out how to keep the unemployed at some general level of content, but also not to make unemployment too lucrative. It’s a messy problem that countries around the world have dealt with in different ways. I suspect the Saudi method will end up unique to Saudi Arabia.
Saudis not happy with SR1,000 benefit
Laura Bashraheel | Arab NewsJEDDAH: The Shoura Council agreed on Sunday to study a proposal to pay monthly allowances to unemployed Saudi youths until they find regular incomes.
The suggested monthly allowance would be no less than SR1,000, which according to many is not in line with what other countries give their unemployed.
The proposal was taken up on Sunday under the chairmanship of Abdullah Al-Asheikh which was put forward by the Human Resources Management Committee.
The decision to make a detailed study of the proposal was passed with a majority of 100 votes in favor, while 20 members voted against. Salem Al-Marrie, who proposed the motion at the council, said that the move would curtail social problems among the unemployed.
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February:02:2010 - 22:17
The Third World driver is not getting his money free – he works hard to earn it. There is no reason why free welfare money should be more than the hard earned income of a driver. It should be less, not more. This is a way of further degrading the job that Third World workers do in Saudi Arabia and get exploited and mistreated by the Arabs in the process. Saudis should at least have respect for the job these workers are doing that they don’t want to do themselves.
If they want to get free money from the State, they should be content with getting less than what any worker is earning by working hard.
February:02:2010 - 23:13
Less money through welfare would also encourage people to take jobs–any jobs–that pay more, I’d think.
February:03:2010 - 02:11
I have mixed feelings about welfare for the jobless. Saudi youth are lazy as-is, and too picky about jobs. Wouldn’t it be better to “subsidize” Saudized jobs?
February:03:2010 - 05:28
It’s very complicated. Drivers may get paid less but their housing is included and they are supporting a family in a different economy. Living in Saudi is expensive, and it would require more to actually “earn a living”.
I like “M”‘s idea of subsidizing Saudized jobs.
I also think there is a huge lost, under-educated generation here. They may need to be subsidized. If they’re smart they’ll get meaningful educational reform in ASAP and pay whatever it costs- importing whatever teachers are necessary to the highest standard. Otherwise they’ll end up subsidizing everyone in the next generation as well.
Yes. I do know there are exceptions to all these things. I am speaking to the general state of things.
February:03:2010 - 07:51
I like how the Saudis blame foreign workers for not being able to find jobs when in fact it’s the Saudis themselves seeking the cheapest possible labor for jobs (in some cases) that they have too much pride to do.
February:03:2010 - 15:24
I have very mixed feelings about this. On one hand I am a firm believer that people can use a hand up when things get tough…yet I look at the state of Welfare in Western countries at least in the USA. I believe in many ways(not all) it has become a way of life for people and has taken away their incentive to do better. Also in some ways it is better financially to be on welfare than to work and that is a bad thing…in that case subsiding jobs might be a better way to go. The person feels productive with a job and the subsidy for the job keeps the temptation of welfare at bay. At least they are getting a subsidy for doing something productive for society rather than getting paid for doing nothing.
On top of that there are a lot of people out of work in Saudi if you count women. will women be included? and if they do then that might be a good thing for a woman who has lost a husband to be able to receive some kind of help from the government if she is not allowed to work to support herself. As it is they are kind of in a place of few options once the husband passes aren’t they?
February:03:2010 - 17:19
If a husband dies, if a woman is divorced… it’s either pray that she has a family to support her (and whatever children), or she’s got a pretty rough time ahead. As it stands now, her best bet is to try to get married again.
February:03:2010 - 17:28
Oby, there are social welfare services, its not as effective as it should be though and the regulations put the people who need it in too much bureaucracy in failed attempt to stop people who don’t need the welfare from exploiting it.
This welfare debate is about the unemployed.. which is a lot of young people who are mostly still living with their families.. however I look at it I feel that its a disaster and a waste of money.. there are a lot more effective solutions to tackle unemployment other than paying half of the country a monthly paycheck.. With the country demographic its not sustainable to have such costly venture as more and more people are eligible to join the work force.. the dole won’t provide the jobs.. private companies, small businesses and entrepreneur sponsorship will succeed in creating jobs.
But there is also another problem, trained third world labor is much cheaper to obtain and more experienced. There is a huge difference between expatriates in specialty fields and mid to lower tier jobs.. the expats know that they are here to work, do their job, save money and then leave when they achieved their goal. But now there is a lot of foreign labor who take control of companies through favoring their countrymen… the employer will not look into it and will ignore it but the people who suffer are the Saudis who lose jobs or job opportunities because of these leverages. Saudi has a lot of problems to work on.. sponsoring unemployed Saudis is not the solution.
There are now Saudis who believe in an expression that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is now a country where the foreigner will reap its goods and the Saudi won’t be able to feed himself. It might be an exaggerated expression but its a belief that is established even by the generation that precedes the young men now. With the recent activism through internet campaigns there is now one that calls to such issue.. for example http://www.ksaforsaudi.com/
I agree that there are monopolies by foreign labor in Saudi companies.. it is a fact.. and there are many wrong practices by both Saudi and non-Saudis. However expats and labor are here for a reason, work then leave.. its not about race or social cast. There are many immigrants and refugees who were born in Saudi and lived their whole lives in Saudi and their fathers were born in Saudi also.. some of them had succeeded in gaining citizenship while others are still stateless with resident cards. Those are people who have very hard times living in Saudi while foreigners have chances to be employed into long term jobs, sometimes incited to continue working even after retirement. Those stateless Saudis deserve as much as opportunity as any Saudi no matter their ethnicity. If they also get Saudi citizenship, it would be also grand.
February:04:2010 - 05:28
Oby,
I like your idea of women getting money if they are widowed or divorced. As John says, the best bet for such a woman is to get married again. Islamic law doesn’t have a proper provision for a divorced woman’s maintenance and India has had enough problems getting the orthodox Islamic clerics to accept the Indian Civil Code which provides for alimony and maintenance as in the West, though now the tide seems to be turning.
Since Saudi Arabia has an islamic law, I think these women can be maintained by the State. Only problem is that this will only induce the men to divorce their wives even more frequently than they are doing now.
Anonymous,
There are young women in Saudi Arabia who are unemployed and divorced and some of them are also widowed. Youth should not mean only men.