The past few days, I’ve been hearing speculations about the number of expatriates that will be forced to leave their jobs in the Arabian Gulf and return to Lebanon in the coming months.
Expatriates’ possible return has been painted as dramatic because they are expected to flood the local job market and face difficulty seeking work. However, I see things differently. My personal thoughts on this – regardless of the number of returning expatriates and their potentially precarious situation – are…
- Many expatriates will be returning with life savings they might wish to spend or invest in Lebanon.
- Expatriates’ presence will once again make available a wider pool of professional talent at reasonable remuneration packages and will diversify and enrich HR resource availability in Lebanon.
While I wish everyone a profitable year and solid retention of their jobs and positions, I also invite them to look at the possible positive outcome and hidden opportunities created by any change they find themselves forced to face.
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Comments ( 3 )
Jean-Pierre Hakim (M.D.) A2A PRODUCTION added these pithy words on Jan 02 09 at 12:21 pmWell I agree with you on this matter, and I’ll add that our market needs a new blood, professional with a high potential.
Joseph Noujaim added these pithy words on Jan 06 09 at 9:33 amKnowledge boom… we need creative, innovative and new interactive communication means to boost knowledge and information flow.
Check Alvin Toffler’s book “Revolutionary Wealth”. The third wave of wealth in knowledge! (After Agriculture and Industrial waves decades ago)
So whatever the crisis, what ever the next boom, opportunities might pass by and we might not catch it, simply because we “didn’t know”. Assumption and market feel is one thing, but knowledge is is the key.Watch “The Matrix”; Merovingian (The French Geek) is the one who can predict stuff out of knowledge, since he is a “Traffiqueur of information”. He can dominate any negotiation and set his own terms, just because he knows much more then others…
So… We should think how we can develop such an “Interactive Communication”. all the rest is collateral
Rani added these pithy words on Jan 22 09 at 3:00 pmThe return of professional Lebanese to the home country will ensure an improvement of standards and work efficiencies.
The typical Lebanese worker has enjoyed for years now a balanced life style, although they also complain how much they are putting in. It is now safe to conclude that the average work level of a Lebanese working in Lebanon is 1/3 that of a Lebanese working the Gulf. Coupled with the hectic life style an expat is exposed to in a location like Dubai, one can realize that the wealth gained from surviving that life style improves the productivity levels of the worker.
The return of such workers to the home country will improve standards and force professionals who have built their careers in Lebanon and without foreign experience to improve their own standards and start performing at a new level of professionalism.The 2nd positive impact with the return of professional Lebanese home will be the usage of the money they have saved and kept. With their return, the professionals can now build up small businesses to supplement their life styles and look to achieve a goal they only dreamed about when abroad. They probably have saved up to set their own business in the future … the sudden changes will force them to activate their life long desire earlier.
The 3rd positive point will be the forced elevation of salaries in the market. The new know how introduced to our country will mean that productivity has improved and thus return on investment will be clearly identified to employers at the interview. This will ensure that employers will now pay attention to this new flood of talent which they were previously not exposed to due to the limitations of hiring home grown careered professionals.
Although the psychological impact of each expat being forced back home is detrimental, when the objectives are set in the right direction, we can see a capitalization on the 3 positive points suggested in this comment.
