my friend sami, an egyptian-american engineer, says that he moved to live and work in america, and within a few years was able to obtain citizenship and that his youngest daughter, born in america, has the right to run for the presidency, the greatest country in modern history, knowing that president barack obama ruled america for two terms and his father was a muslim from kenya.
accordingly, he does not understand the problem of the bedouin in kuwait, and why the kuwaiti g o v e r n m e n t does not give them citizenship and end the problem, once and for all, instead of suffering for both sides, financially, morally, and from the humanitarian aspect, and the loss of reputation internationally, so how can one who was born and lived his life in kuwait be denied citizenship. it’s his entire fault that he has no identity papers? my friend sami concluded by saying that the way to deal with this group is inhuman and racist.
i wrote this article after it became clear to me that many people share my friend sami’s thinking, whether they are arabs or ‘khawaja’!
first of all, it is logical not to compare the status and size of america, or any of the major western countries, such as canada, australia, germany, france, and others, and its military strength, laws, and political stability, with a country like kuwait, whose citizens barely make one and a half million, compared to america, whose population is close to the 350 million mark, and it can naturalize approximately one percent of its population every few years without fear of disturbing the social fabric, or the political situation of the state being affected.
while the naturalization of the bedouin in kuwait means adding 120, 000 to the number of citizens, or approximately an immediate increase of eight percent over the current population, an increase that could pose a huge danger to the state’s internal situation, security, and livelihood, and would have a clear and rapid negative impact on the level of well-being.
all of these do not own homes, for example, or government jobs, or have commercial licenses, and their entry into the labor and housing market, and their inclusion in the lists of various government aid, subsidies, eligibility for pension funds, and other benefi ts, will put enormous pressure that neither government agencies and their capabilities or citizens can respond to and bear.
also, the origins of all bedouin are known, and their affiliations are known, and there is no way to overlook these facts just because some of them, or their parents, chose to destroy all the documents in their possession proving the truth of their affiliations and the most dangerous thing is that the majority of the bedouin belong to countries with which we have no relations.
border issues are still stuck between us and them, and thus bringing these citizens into the social fabric, overnight, will create a sensitive security and political situation, especially since their “electoral” votes will have a shattering effect on the results of the upcoming elections.
deciding on this dangerous and complex security file and given the social, religious, and racist unrest that has been taking place for some time in several european countries as a result of their rapid absorption of the others, or the displaced, is the best evidence of the seriousness of this file.
on the other hand, it is not possible to accept the continuation of the situation of these people forever, and a plan must be developed so that groups of them can be integrated, within a specific quota, into society over the coming years, so that those who meet the conditions for naturalization with a high academic average and required scientific specializations will obtain citizenship locally.
solutions to their situation exist, and all we have to do is take the appropriate decision and follow it, and start with those whose entitlement to kuwaiti nationality has been proven, for years.