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By 2015, this has reached 2.8 million and as of 2017 more than 3 mil-
lion Indians are gainfully employed in the Kingdom (India, Rajya Sabha
2018 ).
Indians comprise the largest expatriate community in Saudi Arabia and
the Kingdom also has the largest concentration of people of Indian origin
outside the country. As of 2017, the Saudi population comprises of 32
million residents, including 20 million citizens and 12 million expatriates
(KSA, General Authority for Statics 2015 ). Thus, Indians make up nearly
one-fourth of the expatriate population and about 10 per cent of the total
resident population of the Kingdom. A vast majority of the Indians or
almost 80 per cent have been engaged in industrial and construction sec-
tors while about 10 per cent are involved in white-collar jobs. The remain-
ing 10 per cent comprises of skilled professionals including doctors,
engineers, scientists, managers and educationalists (India, MEA 2016b).
These apart, media often speak of a large number of illegal migrants, that
is, workers whose visa has expired.
The Indian migrant workers have been participating in the develop-
ment work of the Kingdom and are respected for the skills, hard work and
apolitical nature. Though the actual breakup is not available, a significant
section of the migrants are Muslims, but there are also a considerable
number of expatriates who belong to other faiths. Given the conservative
nature of the Saudi society, the religious diversity of the Indian migrant
workers should not be dismissed easily. The presence of a large number of
Indians and the historical-cultural relations add to the immense goodwill
for India in the Kingdom. Technical competence, work culture and
law- abiding nature are often cited as the reasons for the Saudi preference
for Indian workers (Azhar 2016 ; Rahman 2009 ; Abraham 2012 ).
At the same time, in recent years the Kingdom has been facing many
domestic crises and regional challenges which have an adverse impact
upon the expatriate population, including Indians. Falling oil prices,
increase in native population and upsurge in educated unemployment
have forced the Saudi government to look to the nationalization of the
labour force (Hussain 2014a, b; Schuettler 2015 ; Alsheikh 2015 ; Sadi
et al. 2013 ). In the early stages, the focus was on education and skill devel-
opment of the native population towards replacing the expatriate labour
force. Progressively industries and private sectors are encouraged to
employ Saudis for all possible jobs, including those that were not previ-
ously considered ‘respectful’ for a Saudi national such as employment in
shops and supermarkets.
P. R. KUMARASWAMY AND MD. M. QUAMAR