Expatriate community drops by 19 percent‏

KUWAIT: The number of expatriates in Kuwait dropped by 19 percent in one year, according to recent official statistics that attributes the reduction to “efforts to tackle human trade, deport violators and ration the labor market”.

According to the statistics, released by the Ministry of Interior Migration General Department on 30 April, 2012 there are 2,167 million “labor forces of 23 nationalities living in Kuwait”; 94,040 of whom work in the public sector, while 1,109,000 or 51 percent are employed by private companies. The statistics further indicate that 606,482 domestic workers live in Kuwait; nearly 85 percent of whom are females, while 448,394 expatriates reside in Kuwait on a dependent visa (article 22).

The statistics show that the Indian community remained the biggest expatriate community in Kuwait with 653,223 residents; including 20,845 working in the public sector (article 17), 294,889 in the private sector (article 18), and 248,969 domestic workers (article 20). In second place remains the Egyptian community with 456,543 citizens; 45,880 of whom work in the public sector, 277,563 in the private sector and 131,226 on dependent visas. The Bangladeshi community comes in third place with 189,461 residents, 6,693 in the public sector, 114,642 in the private sector and more than 61,000 domestic workers, with 6,000 on dependent visas. They are followed by the Filipino community with 144,633 residents, including 3,542 in the public sector, at least 49,000 in the private sector and 84,000 domestic workers.

In fifth place comes the Syrian community with 131,61 citizens; 5,244 in the public sector, 51,563 in the private sector and more than 73,000 on dependent visas. The Pakistani community comes in sixth place with 119,847; 2,711 in the public sector and more than 87,000 private sector employees as well as 2,639 domestic workers. They are followed by the Sri Lankan community with 110,800; 587 of whom work in the public sector while 88,572 are registered as domestic workers.

In eighth place comes the Ethiopian community with around 74,097 nationals. Only 63 work in the public sector, 2,550 work in the private sector, while 71,231 are registered as domestic workers. The Jordanian community came in ninth place with 53,141 people; 2,631 in the public sector and more than 17,000 in the private sector in addition to 32,923 residents on dependent visas. In tenth place comes the Nepalese community with 52,704; 212 in the public sector, 359 in the private sector and 30,918 domestic workers. They are followed by the Iranian community with 42,795 citizens; 699 in the public sector, 24,684 in the private and 16,577 on dependent visas.

The statistics mention 41,775 Lebanese residents as forming Kuwait’s 12th largest expatriate community (1,089 in the public sector and 17,399 in the private sector), followed by the Indonesian community with 17,716 (736 in the public sector, 1,246 in the private sector and 14,592 domestic workers). In fourteenth place comes the Iraqi community with 15,167 (177 in the public sector, 4,120 in the private sector and 10,521 on dependent visas), followed by the Afghani community with 13,470 residents (132 in the public sector, at least 9,000 in the private sector and 683 domestic workers).

The American community comes in sixteenth place with 13,045 (561 in the public sector, 7,000 in the private sector and 4,864 on dependent visas), followed respectively by the Yemeni (10,594), the Canadian (6,482), the Palestinian – Egyptian (6,100), the British (4,044), the Chinese (3,787), the Sudanese (3,783) and the Somali community (3,612).

Information obtained from the online diary Kuwait Times from the 21st of May 2012.

Spanish community....... not sure of the real numbers but around 200 people.