Researcher Shatha Khalil *
Translated by : mudhaffar al-kusairi
Iraq has embraced many expatriates since the beginning of the modern Iraqi state in terms of the ease of the law of residence, work and study. It was granted to the Arab nationalities without any restrictions. Most of them were Arab nationalities such as Palestinians, Syrians, Egyptians and Sudanese. Most of them were stable and working, some of them got the Iraqi identity later on . Yet, the economic boom of the late 1960s and early 1970s made Iraq a destination for many workers and peasants, who began to flock, especially from Egypt and Sudan, where factories, workshops and farms were filled with migrant workers, Arab expatriate labor began to spread in the simple business market, most of whom were construction workers and farmers, some of whom worked in government occupations.
The former Iraqi governments facilitated the law of residence and employment, especially before 1990, when they numbered more than four million. The number of Sudanese reached three million. The labor market attracted other nationalities such as Bangladeshis, Indians and others. However the second Gulf war and Economic crisis suffered by Iraq in the 1990s forced most of them to leave for other countries or to return to their countries of origin, some preferring to stay despite the difficult circumstances.
After the occupation in 2003, the security chaos and sectarianism experienced by the Iraqis, some expatriates preferred to stay in Iraq, especially Egyptians and Sudanese, whose presence is still evident in some places in central Baghdad.
In recent years, the Iraqi labor market has attracted various nationalities, mostly non-Arab. Commercial centers, restaurants, private sector establishments and shops in the residential areas have been filled with workers mainly from the state of Bangladesh, and their numbers are constantly increasing due to the desire of employers to hire them for their simplicity, commitment and discipline.
Unemployment in Iraq rose to more than 30 percent in 2016 according to government statistics due to the repercussions of the war, the increasing number of displaced people, the economic crisis that has plagued the country for more than two years, the weakness of the private sector, and the inability of the government to absorb more young people in its jobs, which makes the arrival of foreign labor adversely affect the local labor market, and makes it more difficult to get employment for Iraqi youth.
Iraqi citizen Thaer Raad, aged 23, says he has not yet found work to spend on himself and his family, saying he has not been successful in his previous occupations because of low wages, heavy pressure on workers and increased working hours without adequate financial fees . He added that he had to leave the construction work recently, because the contractor who works with him is delaying the payment of wages, and that injury while working in construction recently deprived him of the opportunity to find a good alternative, so he was obliged to sit at home waiting for a job or a long-awaited job.
In a similar context, a recent report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) revealed that the rate of unemployment among young people in Iraq was more than 40%. The report added, the rate of women outside the labor force in Iraq is approximately 85%.
As for the legal offense, the Iraqi law no. (137) for the year 2016 approved the work guarantee for the young Iraqi in Article IV of Chapter II of the work, as a right for every citizen capable of it, and the state works to provide it on the basis of equal opportunities without discrimination.
The Iraqi law also specified the percentage of foreign workers in private institutions at 5%, according to the consulting lawyer at the Erbil court in northern Iraq , Jaafar Sharif , but he attributed the reason for the deregulation to some companies that deliberately circumvent the law in agreement with the offices of the recruitment of foreign labor, and smuggling them to the labor market, and thus led to increased unemployment in the country.
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Sharif considered that the best solution to avoid this impotence is the drafting of the parliament’s strict laws, and the need for intervention by the Workers’ Union to control productivity to encourage the employment of local labor.
Despite some legal obstacles that the government has recently begun to set up to control the recruitment of expatriate workers, the pace of their arrival is increasing. Iraqis have been accustomed to seeing them in public places and dealing with them normally. Most of these expatriates learned Arabic and became acquainted with People are easy, as local media began to address their situations and discuss them in television programs, and recently entered the world of comedy programs by assigning some of their minor roles.
In light of this problem, the Iraqi Ministry of Labor is announcing that it is in the process of introducing new regulations to regulate foreign workers to Iraq and obliging employers to limit the number of work hours and holidays for foreign workers.
The ministry added an item to the contracts signed with the investment companies that entered Iraq, committed that half of the workforce in its projects to be from Iraqis.
Most of the foreign workers are providing services, receiving and delivering patients, cleaning floors in private hospitals, as well as in hotels, private gaming towns and some commercial shops.
Some foreign workers from countries such as India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and the Philippines face the problem of illegal residency in Iraq, making their movement outside the workplace somewhat restricted. All of them entered the country without work permits and through tourist visas only.
The owner of a foreign employment office in Baghdad expressed his deep resentment at the Iraqi government’s decision to deport foreign workers and to deny them entry visas.
The owner of the employment office, who declined to be named for reasons described as security, said that the foreign worker by virtue of his low physical status and the distance he traveled from his country to Iraq, is more keen to master his work in the best image, and many owners of companies and employment offices prefer foreign worker to Iraqi ones because of the low wages and increase the number of hours of work compared to the Iraqi worker , who is sometimes gets a kind of laziness .
In addition, some professions are rarely practiced by Iraqis, such as domestic service, childcare, and some families seek to hire foreign workers to care for their children while the housewife is away from home. Najat Abbas, an employee of the Ministry of Oil said , the long absence from house calls for the presence of a nanny for her three children, take care of their affairs, cook for them, and prepare their requirements until her coming back from the work, she has contracted with a nanny.
The negative effects on the citizen and the Iraqi economy:
The latest statistics from the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs indicate that the unemployment rate rose to 1.2 million unemployed, many of whom have university degrees. The Iraqi government has issued a decision to deport foreign workers working in Iraq to reduce their unemployment rates among the Iraqi youth, according to the Parliamentary Labor and Social Affairs Committee.
Economists believe that the increased dependence on foreign labor is a cause of the spread of unemployment in Iraq, which increased significantly after 2003, this cheap labor has become a favorite in the labor market, and the Iraqi economy suffers from already chronic unemployment , and it is difficult to solve it , only through the intervention of the State directly and effectively by controlling the entry of foreign labor to Iraq.
The increase in the unemployment rate in Iraq, which is the “dumping of goods” resulting from the entry of large quantities of goods and commodities to the country at cheap prices, which compete with the local industry, and the freezing of factories and laboratories, all reasons led to the closure of many Iraqi laboratories and the demobilization of workers, in order to counter this phenomenon, and the economic expert emphasizes on “the need to support the private sector to eliminate unemployment, which amounted to more than (35%), it is impossible for the public sector alone to absorb this number.”
We find a very important conclusion: “The spread of unemployment among Iraqis has led some to resort to suspicious ways to get money, fueled the drug trade, increased suicides and high kidnappings, rape and thefts.
Here, the Iraqi government and the responsible ministries should ensure a balance between allowing the Iraqi market to be covered for the Iraqi labor first by meeting the Iraqi young man’s right to work , protected him from poverty and need, and placing a special percentage of the number of foreigners in the workplace according to the law .
Economic Studies Unit
Rawabet Center for Research and Strategic Studies