巴林的劳动力市场

One country in the Gulf tries to wean itself off foreign workers
海湾某国尝试不再依赖外国劳工

THE newly opened Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, is a monument to Dubai’s audacity. It is also a stark illustration of its dependence on foreign labour. Designed by an American, overseen by a New Zealander and built by mostly South Asian labourers, the 200-storey tower was the work of more than 100 nationalities. Indeed, 90% of the workforce in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is foreign. In neighbouring Qatar and Kuwait, the figure is over 80%. Even in Saudi Arabia, which has more than 22m locals, foreigners fill almost half the country’s jobs.

新近开放的世界第一高塔博芝•哈里发塔，是迪拜无畏勇气的象征，也是其依赖国外劳工的显著例证。这座200层的高塔是由美国人设计，新西兰人监督，并主要由南亚劳工修建的。建造这个200层塔的工作人员来自100多个国家。事实上，阿联酋90%的劳动力都是外国人。在邻国卡塔尔和科威特，这个比例也大于80%，甚至在有2200多万本地居民的沙特阿拉伯，外国劳动力也占据了近半数的工作岗位。

Policymakers in the region fret about citizens who cannot find a government job and will not settle for private employment at the low wages foreigners accept. One observer likens the chasm in wages between Gulf nationals and poor migrants to the Mariana Trench. Rather than restrict expatriate hiring, governments typically respond by prodding companies to hire locals, imposing “Emiratisation” or “Saudisation” quotas. During the downturn the UAE and Saudi authorities instructed firms to fire foreigners first.

本地区有些居民无法在政府找到工作，又不愿勉强接受私营企业提供的与国外劳工同等的低薪，这让决策者苦恼不已。一位观察者将海湾国民与穷苦移民者的薪金差别比作是马里亚纳海沟。为应对这一切，政府采取推动企业雇佣本地人以及实行“酋长国化”或者“沙地化”限额的政策(实行“酋长国式”或者“沙特式”配额的政策)，而不是限制聘用外籍人员。经济低迷时期，阿联酋与沙特政府指示企业应首先解雇外国人（真悲惨啊。。。）。

Gulf officials are therefore paying close attention to an experiment in Bahrain, an island kingdom where expatriates hold 80% of private-sector jobs. Since July 2008 the government has charged firms 200 Bahraini dinars ($530) for a work visa and ten dinars a month for every foreign employee on their payroll. Since August 2009 it has also allowed foreigners to quit their sponsoring employer, giving them four weeks to find a new job before they must leave Bahrain.

因此，巴林的一项实验便成了海湾官员密切关注的焦点。巴林是一个岛国，其外籍人员比例在私营企业中占80%。巴林政府自2008年7月份开始，每张工作证要收取企业200巴林第纳尔（530美元）的费用，每名外国雇员还要从月薪里扣除10第纳尔上缴。2009年8月起，外国雇员可以中止与巴林雇主的雇佣关系，在被迫离开巴林之前还会获得四周时间来寻找新工作。

Since the levy came in the chasm in labour costs has begun to close, but at a geological pace at best (see chart). The gap narrowed from 252 dinars a month in the second quarter of 2008 to 225 in the third quarter of 2009. In September 159 workers switched employers; another 140 moved the next month, earning an extra 69 dinars a month on average. But these foreigners were already paid more than most.

（这句好难）自那时开始，两者的劳动力成本课税差距以缓慢的速度开始减少（如曲线图）。(自该税开征，劳动力征税分歧已开始减缓。)从2008年第二季度的252第纳尔减少到2009年第三季度的225第纳尔。9月份，有159位外籍雇员换了雇主，10月份则有140位，他们平均比以往每月多挣69第纳尔。相比其他人，这些外籍雇员已经算挣得多的了。

Bahrain’s businessmen, some of whom double as policymakers, could not stop the levy but they did succeed in limiting it to a paltry ten dinars. In paying the tax, businessmen hoped to buy the freedom to hire foreigners as they saw fit. But because the levy is so low, the authorities cannot rely on it to stem the influx of foreign labour. So some businessmen complain that requests for visas are still subject to bureaucratic humming and hawing.

巴林的商人中，有些还兼任决策者（政策制定者，下同）。他们不能免除课税，（不能阻止这项征税）却成功地将之降到微不足道的10第纳尔。商人们希望能通过缴清税收获得雇佣合适外国劳力的自由。由于税收很低，政府无法藉此阻止外国劳力蜂拥而入。有商人抱怨工作证的获取仍然受限于官僚政治的模棱两可（哼哼哈哈）。

As well as making foreigners more expensive, the government is trying to make locals more employable. Of the roughly 90m dinars the levy raises in a year, 80% goes to Tamkeen, an agency dedicated to improving the productivity of Bahraini firms and workers, partly through cheap loans and training. It hopes to equip 19,000 lower-paid Bahrainis for better positions, training receptionists to also perform data-entry tasks, for example. Tamkeen will even pay a wage increment for local employees for the first year. Thanks to these sweeteners, one Bahraini publisher says he can now persuade his countrymen to do jobs previously confined to foreigners, such as delivering newspapers to subscribers (but only by car; motorbikes are still strictly for immigrants).

政府在提高外国人待遇的同时，也在努力帮助当地人就业。一年来增长的9千万第纳尔的税收，80%都给了旨在提高巴林企业与工人生产力的机构—塔姆基。通过低息贷款和培训，塔姆基希望能帮助一万九千名巴林低收入者胜任更好的工作岗位。比如，训练前台接待员使之能完成数据输入工作。塔姆基甚至会在头年付给本地雇员递增工资。一名巴林出版商说，多亏了这些益处，现在他能够说服他的老乡去做以前只能外国人做的工作，比如将报纸发送给订阅人（但是只能坐汽车；摩托车仍然只有外国移民能开）更多信息请访问：http://www.24en.com/

“Cheap labour is preventing investment in training and technology,” says Majeed Al Alawi, the minister for labour. “Therefore productivity is low, pay is low, and the private sector is not attractive to Bahrainis.” Bahrain hopes to build, storey by storey, a workforce that is worth the higher wages locals expect. As one policymaker told his Dubai counterpart: “It’s not how tall your building is; it’s what goes inside it that matters.”

巴林劳工大臣马吉德•阿拉维说：“劳动力的廉价阻碍了培训和技术投资。因而导致了生产力底下，薪水微薄，私营企业对巴林人失去吸引力。”
巴林希望逐渐建立如当地人期待的高薪工作人口群（员工梯队）。正如一位决策者告诉迪拜同仁的那样：“关键不是在于楼建多高，而是里面的东西。