By Dr Fatima Damagun
I am sitting in the living room of a hotel suite in Madina and we are having a hearty conversation with friends and family. A younger colleague who works in a hospital in Madina has come visiting with his beautiful wife and daughter. Amid laughter and generous helpings of tuwo (that we were all craving), he fed us tales about the discrimination immigrant doctors face while working for the Saudi government.
We have all heard these tales. The Saudi government has only two classifications of people – Saudi and Non-Saudi. It does not matter whether you are Italian, Lebanese, Nigerian, Indian, American or Australian; all of us are termed ‘Non-Saudi’. The discrimination is not based on gender, race, nationality or religion – it is based on citizenship – pure and simple. A Muslim from Nigeria and an Egyptian Christian are treated the same – all as ‘Non-Saudi.’
In principle, Saudi Arabia employment laws generally prohibit discrimination based on nationality, including regarding holidays and leave. However, the Kingdom’s emphasis on “Saudization,” which prioritises Saudi nationals in the workforce, can create differences in terms of benefits and opportunities for Saudi and Non-Saudi employees.
A typical example is during the Eid leave. A Saudi national is entitled to up to 15 days of paid leave while a Non-Saudi is entitled to only 4 to 5 days. In fact, when signing an employment contract in Saudi Arabia, there is a clause that states that your contract can and will be terminated at any time a Saudi national is available to take your position – meaning that if you are a Nigerian thoracic surgeon working in Saudi Arabia, any day a citizen of the country is determined to have the same credentials as you and is available to fill your slot, you are automatically fired.
That day, as he was telling us about the disparity in salaries between ‘Saudi and Non-Saudis’ (a junior Saudi doctor can earn triple what a senior Non-Saudi doctor earns) and the numerous benefits they enjoyed, we laughed and joked about our dear country, Naija.
Later, as I went to bed, a thought crept into my mind – What exactly is wrong with what the Saudi government is doing? Is it not their country? Should they not put their citizens first? Isn’t that the reason you hardly hear Saudi nationals emigrating? Where else will the masses and middle class enjoy free qualitative and standard health care, free education while enjoying security and peace of mind?
What is exactly the problem of putting their citizens first?
Fast forward to last week. The United States president suddenly declared that Harvard University would no longer enrol international students on their campus in an effort to ‘put American citizens first,’ and of course, due to ‘security concerns.’ His explanation was that the school is so hard to get into and Americans should have a higher chance of getting into the school and not have to compete with international students who make up roughly 25 to 30 per cent of the schools’ population.
I am sitting at my desk in Boston, watching the news, sweat beads forming on my forehead. What the heck?
Although it affects me, the nagging, objective part of my brain still wonders: Is it wrong to put your citizens first?
Now, I am hearing rumours that the British government is also planning to give training (residency) slots to only British doctors because the slots are too few and many International Medical Graduates (IMGs) are taking up the residency jobs.
Remember during COVID? Immigrants (or expatriates- whatever you want to call them) in Singapore were shocked when the government decided to give vaccinations to citizens of Singapore first before non-citizens. Insults were thrown. Threats were made. Long scathing articles were on print media.
These are rather entitled actions. If you think about it, local citizens are being affected as well. Here’s the question – What is wrong with that? Blinded by self-interest, many people seem to have forgotten the purpose of having a government in the first place.
Permit me to refresh our memory (But please remember that this is old-school secondary school stuffs. Don’t shoot me!)
The first responsibility of the government is that they should protect their citizens. They need to protect their citizens from violence, which can come from foreign foes as in the case of the two world wars. It can also come from within, such as in the case of murders and assault. This responsibility of the government means that they would have to fund, train and equip an army and a police force; to build courts and jails; and to elect or appoint the officials to pass and implement the laws citizens must not break. In the case of a pandemic, it is also the government’s responsibility to protect their citizens by ensuring an ample supply of protective equipment or vaccine for their own people.
The second responsibility of the government is that they have to provide for their citizens. Think about the three basic needs like food and water. The government has to ensure that infrastructure is in place for there to be sufficient food and water. They also play a role in creating and managing infrastructures like that of houses and roads. The government is there to cushion any inability of citizens to provide for themselves. Before they start feeding other nations, they would have to first ensure that they can feed their own.
With wealthy nations, the third responsibility of the government is to create a system that allows their own citizens to flourish socially and economically. This can come in the form of schools or investment in resources to allow their citizens to succeed. Occasionally, this involves the investment in foreign talents to bring over their skills and expertise to train their own citizens. However, as many expatriates have forgotten, the end goal of such an investment by any government is for the proficiency of their own citizens. It is for their own population to learn those skills and introduce new technology the country is yet seen. Once in a while, such foreigners are naturalised, but at the end of the day, such policies are not meant for a mass integration of a foreign population.
Lastly, it is the responsibility of the government to give its citizens a voice on a global stage. They are supposed to speak up in the interest of their own people to ensure that their country would not be taken advantage of.
At the end of the day, it is important to remember that governments are the protector, provider, enabler and the voice of their own people. It is only right that every government puts their citizens first.
Nigeria needs to put Nigerians first.