Indonesians in Saudi Arabia

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Indonesians in Saudi Arabia
Total population
850,000 (2004)^[1]
Regions with significant populations
Various
Languages
Indonesian, Arabic^[2]
Religions
Islam^[2]

Indonesians in Saudi Arabia consist largely of female domestic workers, with a minority of other types of labour migrants. As of 2004, roughly 850,000 were believed to be working in the Kingdom, comparable to the numbers of migrants from Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Sudan, and Egypt, but smaller than the communities of workers from Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan, each of which numbered one to 1.5 million people.^[1]

Indonesia first signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern governments on manpower exports in 1983; in that first year, 47,000 Indonesians went to Saudi Arabia for work. Their numbers grew rapidly; in the five-year period starting in 1989, Saudi Arabia took in a total of 384,822 Indonesian workers, or 59% of all labour migration from Indonesia during that period.^[2] Indonesian domestic workers find themselves quite vulnerable to abuse and exploitation by labour brokers and their employers, and the Indonesian government are reluctant to advocate very strongly on their behalf, for fear that the Saudi government might respond by cutting back on the number of visas issued to Indonesians performing the hajj. Ironically, Indonesian domestic workers typically find themselves unable to perform hajj or umrah during their stay in Saudi Arabia.^[3]

Recruiters seeking to hire Indonesian women to work in Saudi Arabia typically focus their efforts on pesantren (Islamic boarding schools) in rural areas. Pesantren students are likely to have learned some Arabic in the course of their religious studies, which eases their communication with their employers; Saudi Arabia as a destination is more likely to appeal to devout Muslims such as the typical students at these schools, and employers in Saudi Arabia are also more comfortable hiring Muslims.^[2] However, regardless of the religious bond, Saudi employers are often surprised that the Indonesian government allows unaccompanied women to travel and work overseas, unprotected by male relatives; they perceive the presence of Indonesian domestic workers in Saudi Arabia as representing a moral and economic failure on the part of the Indonesian government and the women's families.^[3]

Roughly 39,000 Indonesians in Saudi Arabia registered to vote in Indonesia's 2004 presidential election through one of the 27 polling stations set up for them in the kingdom; they represented nearly half of all Indonesian in the Middle East who registered to vote.^[4]

[edit] See also

Iraqis in Saudi Arabia
Koreans in the Arab world, many of whom went to Saudi Arabia as labour migrants in the 1970s

[edit] References

^ ^a ^b “Migrant Communities in Saudi Arabia”, Bad Dreams: Exploitation and Abuse of Migrant Workers in Saudi Arabia, Human Rights Watch, 2004, <http://www.hrw.org/reports/2004/saudi0704/4.htm#_Toc75678056>
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Silvey, Rachel (2005), “Transnational Islam: Indonesian Migrant Domestic Workers in Saudi Arabia”, in Falah, Ghazi-Walid & Nagel, Caroline, Geographies of Muslim Women: Gender, Religion, and Space, Guilford Press, pp. 127-146, ISBN 1572301341
^ ^a ^b Diederich, Mathias (2004), “Indonesians in Saudi Arabia: religious and economic connections”, in Al-Rasheed, Madawi, Transnational Connections and the Arab Gulf, Routledge, pp. 128-146, ISBN 0415331358
^ “Indonesians in Saudi Arabia register to vote presidential polls”, BNA Reports (Bahrain News Agency), 2004-07-05, <http://english.bna.bh/?ID=17517>. Retrieved on 6 May 2008