Stop asking the government for jobs, the Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani said during his speech at the opening of Sulaimani’s first five-star hotel recently. Jobs for the young are not only the responsibility of the Kurdish government, but much more of the private sector, was his message.
He pointed to the fact that many jobs in Iraqi Kurdistan need foreign labor to get done. As an example, he mentioned the repair of an air conditioner. He called on graduates to stay in Kurdistan and take these jobs.
I remember when the first foreign laborers came to Kurdistan, because at the time I was training journalists and it was one of the stories we worked on during the course. It must have been 2007.
The interesting point was that these Asian laborers did not want to be here. They were told they would go to Dubai, but instead ended up in Iraqi Kurdistan. Some were angry, not only because their housing was miserable but mainly because they did not want to be in Iraq.
All that has changed. People now choose to come and work in Kurdistan because they like the pay and because the security concerns have lessened, even though the working conditions of some are not up to international standards.
According to the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, since 2009 some 15,000 foreign workers have come to the Kurdistan Region. They come mainly from Iran, Syria, Turkey, Indonesia, the Philippines, Somalia, Ethiopia and Bangladesh.
They can be found in all sectors of manual labor such as construction and cleaning, but also in specialized work like security, accountancy, IT, telecom, et cetera.
There are maids and nannies too; Kurdistan’s nouveau riche are copying the wealthy in many Arab states, where children are being brought up by nannies from Asia and Africa. Bangladeshi and Ethiopian girls are particularly popular.
In the economic boom that has hit Kurdistan, foreign laborers are not just attracted because of the income they can send home to their often poor families. It has become an essential part of the boom, as some of these laborers bring knowledge or skills that are not yet available – or readily available -- in Kurdistan.
But it is even a bit more complicated. At the same time that workers are flown in, Kurdish graduates sit and wait for their government jobs, coveted because they come with a pension. And if they do get the job, they often then might seek employment in the private sector and take a leave from the government job -- in order not to lose the pension.
The government already demands that companies have a majority of local employees. The prime minister made it seem easy enough: Graduates should just take over the jobs of foreigners. But the next question is, do they actually suit the vacancies.
The CEO of the Faruk Group Holding was happy to mention that the companies within the group, like telecom provider Asiacell, are pushing back foreign labor and now have over 95 percent locals doing the work. But he also made clear that, without those foreigners, these companies would never have been as successful as they are. Asiacell could only push out the foreigners by making sure that, before they went, they taught their skills to the locals.
Skills: That is what it is about. Iraqi Kurdistan has plenty of universities and thousands of graduates reporting for work every year. But they do not fit many of the jobs in the private sector because those need practical knowledge and skills they do not have.
There is a gap in Kurdistan’s educational system when it comes to vocational training. This means that most builders learn their job at the workplace from their elders; the same for car mechanics, for cleaners and even for cooks and waiters in restaurants.
I have met some young interns who had been educated for the hotel trade, who had gotten all their knowledge from books. No practical training was given at all. They had to learn how to make coffee, how to clean a toilet and how to make a bed during their internship, making the books that they had studied seem utterly useless.
The diversity of technical, administrative and commercial knowledge that a company like Asiacell needs is not available in Kurdistan because no institute trains for it. So, whoever gets the job will have to be re-schooled and trained on that subject specifically.
When I first came to Kurdistan, one of the frustrations of going to a restaurant was the lack of skills and service of the staff. They seemed to think that the place was theirs and that you should be thankful to be able to be there, and lucky to get something you might like.
That has changed considerably, partly because Syrians have taken over most of the jobs in the hotel and restaurant sector. They are better educated and more motivated, as they need the jobs and the income and don’t have the possibility of getting into a government job and looking forward to a pension.
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