A unique feature of the GCC countries is the labour force comprising largely of expatriate workers. The Indian migrant workers occupy a large proportion of the share of these expatriate workers and comprise not only of semi-skilled and low skilled migrants in sectors such as construction, oil and gas, mining, etc. but also constitute a sizeable number of skilled and professional migrants. Currently around 8.5 million Indian workers live in the GCC, which is approximately 65% of the total NRI community making it the largest expatriate community in the region. The Indian migrants working in the GCC countries also collectively account for more than 55 percent of the annual US$80 billion foreign remittances to India. They have actively contributed to the buoyant economic growth of the GCC countries for more than five decades. According to data, Saudi Arabia hosts the maximum number of Indian migrant workers, followed by the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain for the years 2019 and 2020 both. These workers are mostly labour which is the top job role among those migrating to the GCC and other top job roles include driver, mason, helper (to skilled workers), carpenter, electrician, technician, cleaner etc.
With the onset of Covid 19, populations across the world have been affected but these expatriate migrants have become more vulnerable due to their cramped living condition where physical distancing may not be possible, loss of wages and work, inadequate documents due to procedural formalities of getting labour card/residence card underway which takes upto 3 months to be made and may affect those who went in the past six months, lack of access to medical facilities and so on. Further, the pandemic has also affected labour market conditions, for instance the drop in global crude oil prices has meant that occupations in sectors such as oil, gas and construction may most likely experience restructuring of tenders and workers’ contracts. Infact, many GCC countries are in the process of reducing the dependency on foreign labour through nationalization drives, announcing amnesty, and this trend will have far reaching implications on Indian migrant workers as well. This situation is exacerbated by the prevalent health scenario with the top 6 GCC countries registering more than 70,000 positive cases of Covid-19. Together all these factors have led to request for facilitating the safe repatriation of these workers to India, and MEA has already rolled out the plan for their safe evacuation in a phased manner from May 7, 2020 onwards.
This movement of workers home is not only significant for the migrant workers who mostly work in informal jobs and lack safety nets in case of job loss or illness; but will also result in the decline of remittances for families that rely on the money to make ends meet. It will also have implications on available employment opportunities in the country to absorb these returnee migrants vis a vis domestic workforce. According to the Asian Development Bank, this pandemic could cost US$4.1 trillion and recovery is expected only in 2021. This recovery is estimated to be uncertain and slow given that even when containment measures are lifted, enterprises and firms will continue to face challenges on account of reduction in economic activity.
In light of these factors and the complexities that may arise surrounding the employability of these returnee migrants, it is pertinent that a roadmap of using the talent pool that these workers constitute, exists. The deliberations would focus on certain key aspects which are:
Against this backdrop, ICM is organizing a virtual panel discussion on 14 May 2020 from 1500 hrs to 1700hrs. The stakeholders would involve government officers, academicians, policy practitioners, civil society members, researchers, recruiting agents and international organizations.