<P> Since the 1960s there has been a significant number of guest workers / foreign expatriates allowed into Saudi on work visas, and these now make up around 20 - 30% of the population of the country . Guest workers range in occupation from high skilled workers (employed to jobs Saudis cannot do), to manual service workers (doing jobs Saudis "will not do"). A number of sources describe a "pecking order" among workers established by factors such as the importance of your employer, and country of origin . One source places workers from Gulf oil producing countries at the top, another places Americans there, but all agree that Nationals from places like Bangladesh, Yemen and Philippines are at the bottom . While foreign workers from Western countries are now a small minority, numbering only approximately 100,000, most of whom live in compounds or gated communities . </P> <P> With a large number of unemployed Saudis, a growing population and need for government spending but stagnating oil revenues with which to pay foreign workers, the large number of expats has come to be seen as "an enormous problem" that "distorts" the Saudi economy and "keeps young people out of the labour market ." </P> <P> In October 2011, the Saudi Labour Ministry put a "ceiling" on the number of guest workers at 20% of the Saudi population, requiring a reduction of foreign population by up to three million over several years . In March 2013, a campaign was initiated to "get rid of its illegal foreign workers, control the legal ones", and lower native - born Saudi unemployment . Approximately one million Bangladeshis, Indians, Filipinos, Nepalis, Pakistanis and Yemenis left between the campaign's beginning and the deadline (November 4, 2013), with authorities planning to expel another one million illegal foreigners in 2014 . Ethiopians were a particular target of the campaign, with thousands expelled . Various Human Rights entities have criticised Saudi Arabia's handling of the issue . Prior to this workers were sometimes not hired or expelled as a way of registering Saudi disapproval of the workers' country . Saudi Arabia expelled 800,000 Yemenis in 1990 and 1991 during the Gulf War due to Yemen's support for Saddam Hussein against Saudi Arabia, and cut the number of Bangladeshis allowed to enter Saudi in 2013 after the Bangladeshi government cracked down on the Islamist Jamaat - e Islami party there . </P> <P> The Saudi--Yemen barrier was constructed by Saudi Arabia against an influx of illegal immigrants and against the smuggling of drugs and weapons . A 2004 law passed by Saudi Arabia's Council of Ministers, entitles Muslim expatriates of all nationalities (except Palestinian) who have resided in the kingdom for ten years to apply for citizenship with priority being given to holders of degrees in various scientific fields . (The estimated 240,000 Palestinians living in Saudi Arabia are excluded, because of Arab League agreement instructions barring the Arab states from granting them citizenship of another Arab state .) </P>

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