Omanization Shifts into Overdrive

Fewer foreign workers are coming to Muscat (Pikrepo)

Omani Minister of Labour Dr. Mahad bin Said bin Ali Ba’owain chaired a meeting on October 21 hosting all government department executives and state controlled companies to insist on faster replacement of expatriate workers by Omani nationals. The move follows a round of private sector commitments to Omanization, a quota policy first introduced in 1988 aimed at filling managerial and leadership positions with citizens in an economy fundamentally dependent on foreign expertise. The coronavirus pandemic has now accelerated the exodus of expat workers.  

Oman’s foreign worker population dropped from 2.1 million in June 2017 to 1.9 million in June 2020. Data from the Oman’s National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI) shows more than 45,000 foreigners left Oman in July, meaning expats now just make up 39.9 percent of the country's total population of 4.54 million. By August, the exodus had accelerated and NCSI reported the number of expats working in the Sultanate had dropped 14.3 percent over last year.  September’s update showed an almost 20 percent decline in the government sector and 15 percent in the private sector. 

The largest groups of foreigners forced  to leave had come from South Asian. Oman’s expat population stands at 36.9 percent Indian and 36.8 percent Bangladeshi. In the last year-on-year tabulation made by NCSI in July, 14.5 percent of Indians, 10.2 percent of Bangladeshis, and 11.9 percent of Pakistanis had had to depart while just 1.1 percent of Egyptians experienced a similar situation. Relative levels of Omanization across sectors underscore the disproportionate impact on low wage positions typically filled by South Asians. In construction, Omanis fill 8.2 percent of positions while the figures for financial industries tops 67.7 percent and 93.1 percent.     

The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre recently wrote,“It is clear that the Omani government has not adopted any notion of security of residency as far as migrant workers are concerned who, as in the rest of the Gulf, are regarded as a disposable workforce.” The group claims the government has used the pandemic to accelerate their displacement of foreigners. A worsening economy only adds to domestic pressures. The World Bank estimates Oman’s nominal GDP will contract 9 to 10 percent in 2020 in line with a 12 to 13 percent contraction in the oil and gas sector. 

Spiked Omanization serves as a microcosm for a larger regional issue. Foreigners make up 85 to 90 percent of UAE and Qatar’s populations, 70 percent for Kuwait, 44 to 50 percent in Oman and Bahrain, and 33 percent in Saudi Arabia. Oman’s neighbors have followed similar nationalistic strategies wherein  “… any expat who is trying to find a job (within the GCC) will find it difficult, so they are better off going back to their home countries and finding work there.”