'What's the point of staying?': Gulf faces expatriate exodus - Reuters

'What's the point of staying?': Gulf faces expatriate exodus - Reuters:

A popular Saudi talk show host told private businesses this week it was their national duty to lay off foreign rather than local employees, warning that the dominance of Saudi Arabia’s workforce by expatriates was a “real danger”.

Khaled al-Oqaily’s comments on his daily TV show encapsulated the dilemma faced by 35 million foreigners who form the Gulf’s economic backbone: as firms shed jobs because of the coronavirus pandemic and oil price crash, and governments move to protect citizens’ jobs and wages, should they stay or go?

The expatriate exodus is expected to be larger than after the 2008-2009 financial crisis and the 2014-2015 plunge in prices for oil, the region’s main export, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said, without giving figures.

 In Oman alone, the number of expatriates dropped by over 340,000 in 2010 following the 2008-2009 crisis, according to official data. That year, Oman’s economic growth slowed by 1.3 percentage points, World Bank data show.