If you are an expatriate living in Kuwait, you might have recently noticed the number of expats in Kuwait is on the decline. Since last year, expatriates who live in Kuwait have decreased by 19 percent according to statistics by the Kuwait Ministry of Interior Migration General Department.
This report does not come as a surprise to many and is on target with a projection made less than a year ago that Kuwait would decrease its expatriate community by half over the next five years by limiting the number of expat workers permitted.
In the past, Kuwait has attempted similar efforts to reduce the percentage of expats in its workforce, however, expat workers have been able to skirt around most initiatives that would limit the number of working expats, by exchanging issued visas for a work permit. The allowance of this type of replacement has since been restricted.
Although the number of expats in Kuwait is on the decline, statistics show that as of April 2012, there were still 2,167 million expat workers from 23 different nationalities in Kuwait and only 606,482 domestic workers.
The largest majority of expat workers are made up of individuals from India (653,223), Egypt (456,543), Bangladesh (189,461), Philippines (144,633) and Syria (131,610).
Previous to this effort to limit the amount of expatriate labor, the percentage of expatriates that made up the workforce in Kuwait was 70 percent. Kuwait officials set a target to bring that number down to 34 percent over the next five years according to The Times of India.
If you are an expatriate in Kuwait and have noticed your expat social circle growing smaller, you might not have seen the end of it as the number of expats in Kuwait is expected to decline even further over the next five years.
