Influx of expats in Kuwait... well someone has to do the work!

For those interested in the population make-up in Kuwait…

Expat influx cuts Kuwaiti count; Asians outnumber all foreigners: study

KUWAIT CITY (Agencies): Kuwait's population rose 6.5 per cent to 2.645 million in the first half of this year, from 2.484 million at the end of 2003, the planning ministry said Tuesday. The Kuwaitis' share of the population dropped from 36.8 per cent at the end of 2003 - the year of the US-led invasion of Iraq that rocked the region - to 35.7 per cent by mid-2004, it said, quoted by the state news agency KUNA. Expatriates made up 1.7 million of the total population on June 30, an 8.2 per cent increase on 1.571 million at the end of last year. In 2003, foreigners rose 6.2 per cent from 1.479 million in 2002.

Asians, who number 987,000, made up 37.3 per cent of the total population and 58 per cent of all expatriates in Kuwait. Many of them work as maids and in menial jobs. Europeans numbered 9,000, Americans 12,000 and Australians some 1,000.
Africans totalled only 3,000. Illegal residents are estimated to be around 108,000 people. There are 581,782 Arab nationals in Kuwait, 405,000 of which are males. As to the workforce during the same period, the report said there are 1,551,000 people working, 1,160,000 of which are males. Kuwaiti workforce
totaled at 291,000 with 176,000 males while non-Kuwaiti workforce was 81 per cent reaching 1,261,984 people. Non-Arab workforce was at 907,000 with the Asian community having the lion's share. The European workforce was at 5,000 while the
Americans are at 6,000 followed by the Australians with 538.

Well thanks to John Howard’s unstinting support for the Bush regime, Aussies seem to be punching above their weight in world publicity-terms, and are now even given prominence in Kuwait’s population statistics. So there’s now about 1,000 Australians in Kuwait – I wouldn’t be surprised if half of them are kiwis! (we don’t really mind that our Aussie neighbours get all the attention, … no really).

But what's really astounding is that Kuwaiti's only make up 18.7% of Kuwait's workforce... and if you dig deeper you'll find that 90-95% of Kuwaitis draw a Government salary. Yet, my private sector employer has a Kuwaitisation target of 59% rising to 65% in 2007... and so with unrealistic targets, guess what happens.