GCC Job Nationalization Policies: A Trade-Off between Productivity and Employment

During the second half of the 20th century, millions of migrant workers poured into the region in search of the job opportunities that were created as a result of the influx of oil wealth. With the large growth in the local population, and the extreme volatility of oil revenues, the ability of regional governments to create sufficient job opportunities for native people was reduced. While authorities began looking for solutions to this problem, such as enacting policies aimed at replacing expatriate workers with natives, implementing these policies was not easy due to the mismatch between the types of jobs held by the large number of expatriates.