# Foreigners are welcomed in Sharm..however...



## Horus (Sep 17, 2010)

Reprinted from Sharm Magazine. Looks like a few sphincters will be twitching

FOREIGNERS ARE WELCOMED, BUT?? ? Sharm Business and Community Magazine



There have recently been whispers amongst the foreign community living in Sharm that there is some kind of drive from the Egyptian revolution’s government to prevent them from living and working in Egypt. I also received, through our Facebook page, over 80 comments from some foreign residents expressing their fears about plans to push them out of the country along with other comments from Egyptians expressing their happiness about the same subject. In fact this is a very sensitive issue Let me first assure you, as an old member of the Sharm community, that I love the metropolitan community of the city and that’s what gives Sharm that special taste among all the cities in Egypt. But, to be fair we have to see this issue from all sides and to be very accurate too. It all started when The Ministry of Manpower and Immigration ceased issuing permits for foreign workers in the coming period. The Minister in a press conference discussed reducing the proportion of foreign workers in Egypt, pointing out that the granting of permits for foreign workers will be limited to only rare specialties. The foreigner’s common comment came right away

as follows:

Why would they do that? It doesn’t make any sense the right candidate should be given a job regardless of race, sex or religion? It is not just about qualifications either – just because someone has a certificate, it doesn’t mean that they can do the job in reality, will work hard or have the right attitude in the job or company. In Europe, we compete with foreign workers all the time for jobs and the best person for the role and company will be chosen. Don’t companies and employers have the right to choose who will work for them, regardless of race? Why should a qualified, hardworking person be overlooked just because of their nationality? Foreign workers should never be discarded; everyone should be assessed as an individual, on their own merits. If there is a truly equal choice between a foreigner and an Egyptian, then we agree that the Egyptian citizen should get the job. But some Egyptians have another point of view and said:
Egypt has many qualified people to replace all these foreigners and if they are not qualified the business owners must be patient until they have got enough qualifications to replace what Egyptians can replace. One of the new cabinet’s tasks is creating jobs for Egyptian people and the cabinet will be just concerned about the Egyptian people so we think there is chance for foreigners to leave Egypt and this will reflect on the real state rental value in Sharm and all the prices will come down, then we will have our Egypt back.

That was a brief summary of the 80 comments from foreigners or Egyptians, and here is my comment about it.I can’t put all foreigners in one basket because there are many foreigners I personally know and respect, they consider and behave as if Egypt is their own country. They also respect our culture and they follow our rules. These people took
the risk and brought their money, and sometimes all the money they have, to start businesses and have higher Egyptians to work with them. Others bought properties at a time when all the foreign sales contracts were unsafe and unsecured, those brave people injected money into our economy despite the fact that the previous corrupt regime
took a big proportion of this money for itself.Should we, post revolution, treat them badly in return?
Have we forgotten that those foreigners’ countries are sending us millions of tourists, helping our economy; we have to remember that the European countries are hosting thousands of Egyptians and a lot of them are staying illegally there, especially in Italy?

The most important thing we forgot was that, for example, the diving industry is still dependent on many qualified foreign divers and the minister of Man Power didn’t realize when he gave his statement that we still don’t have enough qualified Egyptian divers to replace the foreigners. Instead of talking loudly about foreigners, we should think about training Egyptian divers and make a plan that, for example, in the next 5 years we start to replace half of the foreign divers then in the the next 5 years we can have enough qualified Egyptian divers. I realize that the unqualified, jobless Egyptian divers are those who are just shouting loudly and not doing anything to enhance their qualifications. I warn that any other dramatic plans in the diving industry will damage the whole industry. I have to mention here the foreign “bad apples.” Sharm el Sheikh is a very fertile ground for fraud, where tourists and investors are paying a lot of money and expect a good service. The main question is, are only Egyptians involved in this fraud? The answer is a surprising, yet resounding, NO… there is also a relatively large number of foreigners who are committing direct and indirect fraud and hassle, they work on the black market and never follow any law or rules, they make money, sometimes a lot, and never pay Tax either in Egypt or their country of origin. Not only that, but I personally know some foreigners living among us in Sharm who talk all the time in a bad and insulting way against Egypt and the Egyptians. They also feed the foreign media with wrong news about Egypt, pretending they are professionals, and of course they are only a bunch of vagabonds who couldn’t find a job, either in their countries or anywhere else, so they think that Sharm is the place they can do whatever they want. I tell them no.. you are mistaken because the community knows all of you and believe me soon we will stop you.


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