Breaking the Maid Habit

In this editorial, Arab News seems to have come to the conclusion that the dependency on foreign domestic workers that the Saudi society has created must come to an end. The issues surrounding maids have become so negative—from abuse of maids to abuse by maids—that it’s time to break the habit.

The writer correctly points out that if your children are raised solely by foreigners, there’s little likelihood that those children will be absorbing local values. In the case of Saudi Arabia, that might not be an utterly bad thing as some Saudi values are certainly ready to be discarded. Xenophobia, an unwarranted superiority complex, and an over-devotion to ‘tradition’ could certainly be replaced. Then there’s the fact that young people—both men and women—are growing up without even minimal life skills, like cooking or changing a tyre. Other values, including Arabic language skills, a sense of belonging to a unique culture, and a reasoned national pride are worth keeping, something made difficult when the primary care givers for children do not share those values.
Much of this reliance on foreign workers is the result of the perpetual childhood Saudi society imposes on its own women. Not being able to do things most women in the world do as a matter of course (like driving, working in mixed-sex environments, being personally responsible for themselves) necessarily leads to reliance on someone else to do them. Allowing Saudi women to be a fully-functional, equal part of society would do much to reduce the need for servants.
The editorial asserts that Saudi society is the most dependent on foreign domestic workers and I’ve no reason to doubt it. From the cultural costs to the very real monetary costs, Saudi Arabia needs to kick the maid habit.

Maids: Bitter truths
It is estimated that there are two million working in homes in the Kingdom
Reports about maids all too regularly hit the headlines in this paper and others in the Kingdom. There are stories about maids who are abused, maids who are kept locked up or unpaid for months, even years. There are stories about maids who run away, or who have tricked or cheated their employers. Likewise, there are complaints about the costs of bringing a maid into the country. There are reports, too, of other countries being whipped up into a frenzy of concern about the treatment of maids in Saudi Arabia and their threats to stop them coming in future or imposing conditions about their employment contracts, including demands to know details about the families they are going to, their financial position, a description of the house, the number of rooms, photos of the wife and husband. Regularly, too, there are reports about new sources of maids — from Cambodia, Vietnam, indeed anywhere they can be found.
The fact is that Saudi Arabia has become over-reliant on maids. It is estimated that there are two million working in homes in the Kingdom. There are reportedly 400,000 from Sri Lanka alone. From Indonesia, there are supposed to be even greater numbers while it is reported that 15 percent of the 1.3 million Filipinos in the country are also in domestic service. Add to that the maids from Nepal, from Ethiopia and elsewhere in Africa, and two million does not seem that excessive. But at two million, they constitute the biggest workforce in the country. It works out at roughly one maid for every nine Saudis, or one for every two households. It is no wonder then that maids are such an issue in Saudi Arabia.