THIRTY years ago, life was not so complicated in Saudi Arabia. It was simple. The population was not so large and things were managed easily. Many systems adopted then worked. Today, we have over 9 million expatriates living in the kingdom.

The Saudi population has doubled and is growing. As the population grows and becomes diverse, different perceptions and views come into the picture.

A whole generation of Saudis has grown up with foreigners. And a whole generation of expatriates has grown up in the kingdom. This has naturally led to an identity crisis.

People of my generation, for example, have no clue what country they should call home because we were raised here.

Similarly, my childhood Saudi friends simply cannot behave the way their fathers behaved. They cannot treat me like a foreigner from another country and I cannot consider them my sponsors. We are friends – friends who grew up together, friends who experienced good and bad together, friends who went to school together.

Now, here is the problem: They are citizens, I am not. So, a government officer working let's say at the passport office, who came straight from some village, has no clue about me and what I do here. For him, I am just an Iqama number. If he misbehaves with me or treats me in a rude fashion, as if I were an expat who just came to Saudi Arabia, my Saudi friends will be offended, and this has happened in the past. My Saudi friend reprimanded the chief of the Passport office for being rude to me. What an awkward situation that was for me!

Such issues bring a lot of frustration to people who have been living here with Saudis, and as Saudis. Many friends are like family now. From their perspective, it is embarrassing to hear stories of discrimination against their old friends.

This is my generation. The coming generation is even more complicated as the groups are bigger and the mixed population is larger.

Sponsorship issue

The crux of this problem comes back to the sponsorship issue. Every foreigner must be sponsored and this alienates them even if they are not strangers. Also, every Saudi cannot be a good or an honest sponsor, and so is the case with expatriates. Every expatriate cannot be 100% legal and employed. What has been its result? Increase in crimes. Such laws are difficult to control and they open up several pathways for criminals to do their work.

For example, I hired an Indian man locally. For the first three months, he did nothing and was depressed and angry all the time. When I spoke to him, he told me he really did not want to be in the kingdom. He had made a mistake by coming and that he was staying only so he could pay back the loan he took to "buy" the visa he came on. Moreover, his sponsor would not give him an exit until he paid SR5,000 to him. I spoke with his sponsor, who owned a small office in Batha, Riyadh. He had over 400 people under his sponsorship. He brought these people and allowed them to work anywhere, as long as they paid him a certain amount every month. That was his business.

I requested the sponsor to let go of this man. We negotiated for SR3,000, which we paid and then bought the man's ticket and sent him back home. Now, is this right? It is not under the existing law, but what can the law do about this? How can this be controlled? There is no way to control it.

It is high time the Saudi government took charge of the expatriate population and abolished the sponsorship system. The government should be the "sponsor". It should set categories based on income, years spent here, contribution to society, nature of business, education etc to monitor and organize growth. It will only benefit the country. It is high time expatriates are relieved from the burden of sponsorship. And it high time that Saudi sponsors are saved from the curse of employees because of this system.

I do not advocate that every expatriate be granted citizenship. But it could be categorized. Certain "expatriates" are not expats, they are Saudis. They deserve citizenship.

Long-serving expatriates should also get better rights. They could be given permanent residence. The permanent residence would not make them a Saudi citizen, but it would remove the sponsorship issue and give them rights to own property, do business, or change jobs as they wish (subject to the terms of the contract of course).

This will not only be just to those deserving, but will also increase investment and lead to the creation of more jobs. The economy will grow and entrepreneurship will flourish. Such a permanent visa could be issued against a security deposit paid to the government.

Coming back to our question of sponsorship issue, if the government does take the charge, it will enable the government to have a centralized control over immigration. It can also be in direct contact with expat workers. Expats too will be relieved and work more efficiently.

There may be a fear that the hundreds of Saudis employed because of the sponsorship system will become jobless. But this fear is baseless. The same people can be hired to manage the affairs of all the 9 million expatriates in Saudi Arabia. More staff and new departments would definitely be needed to turn this into reality.