Residency cap is not the solution

A residency cap for unskilled workers is an emotive issue. It is also an issue that strikes at the very heart of the Gulf's role in the world economy. Businessmen, for instance, believe it would create a shortage of trained and experienced personnel and have serious repercussions for the labour market.

This is a crucial time for the regional economies. The Gulf is developing and entering into competition with the more established global economic centres.

At first glance, a residence cap contradicts all that globalisation should stand for. If workers are forced to leave their employers because of an arbitrary cap, then projects will suffer. Their expertise, built up over the previous years, will vanish with them to be replaced by another worker totally unused to that particular working environment. By the time this particular worker finds his or her feet, precious months may have been lost.

But the Gulf is a unique economic environment that houses a huge international workforce. No other major economic area reflects the make-up of the Gulf region. No other major economic area has been so welcoming to such a proportionally high number of foreign workers. Other countries, both in Europe and Asia, do have caps on the number of years foreigners can reside within their borders. But generally speaking putting a residency cap on workers has the potential to do more harm than good, to be more disruptive than constructive. Maybe in certain areas under certain well-defined conditions a certain sector could be limited but this must be clearly defined without any degree of vagueness. The Gulf is undergoing a huge transformation and it needs workers to help build the new airports, roads, hotels and cities. As a rule of thumb, capping their length of stay may create more problems, not least that many workers would choose not to come in the first place.