7 misconceptions about South Sudan ‘expelling foreign workers’

This week South Sudan’s Ministry of Labour released the country’s new labour directive, which will place restrictions on the employment of expatriates to positions that could be easily filled by South Sudanese nationals.

The labour directive was met with praise and criticism alike from South Sudanese. Many East Africans, particularly Kenyans and Ugandans, also took to social media to express their opinions. Many opposed the directives, with many making xenophobic, derogatory and offensive generalisations about South Sudan and South Sudanese in general. International media has also misinterpreted and sensationalised the new labour directive, pushing forward major misconceptions and also often painting South Sudan as ‘the biter of the hand that feeds them’.

Highlighted are the general misconceptions of the new labour directive:

1. South Sudan asked ALL NGOs, banks, hotels, oil companies and private businesses to fire ALL foreign workers
This is NOT true according to the Minister of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ambassador Mawien Makol Arik:

“We are asking organisations to consider those positions where South Sudanese qualify. Where they don’t qualify, let the foreign workers do the job. We are not telling them to eject foreign workers. There is no such policy within the Government of South Sudan.”

2. South Sudan is doing what Idi Amin Dada did in Uganda
Not only is that NOT true but this is also an exaggeration of what the Ministry of Labour has announced. While in 1972, Amin expelled foreigners and Ugandans of Asian descent and nationalised their businesses, South Sudan is NOT nationalising or asking any foreign owned businesses or business people to leave. The Ministry of Labour is simply saying that some low-level positions such as those of receptionists, human resources, logisticians etc. must be given to qualified locals.

3. South Sudan’s economy will collapse
This is NOT true. According to an Australian economist of South Sudanese descent, Chol Deng Kuoirot, South Sudan’s economy will not collapse because it depends primarily on oil. He observed that the oil sector is a highly technical industry, which already employs a lot of highly qualified South Sudanese, some of whom actually work for these companies in Malaysia, India and China.

4. South Sudan is targeting Kenyans
This is a FALSE assumption. South Sudan, just like Kenya, Uganda and any other nation on earth, has a right to protect the interest of its own people. In fact, in 2006, Tanzania enacted laws restricting employment of foreign workers. Then in July 2012, Kenya enacted immigration laws that blocked young and lowly paid foreigners from working in Kenya. In the same month, Uganda introduced cannily similar laws.

South Sudan, just like these countries above, is doing what independent countries do – put their house in order.

5. South Sudan has NO qualified locals
This is a MYTH. South Sudan has thousands of graduates and professionals working in Europe, Australia, America, East Africa and the Middle East. There are many unemployed people who have qualifications in Juba. How does it feel to hold a Masters Degree and remain unemployed in one’s country because all priorities go to foreigners? This is what South Sudan is trying to address.

In the case where South Sudan indeed lacks any given qualification, the right foreigner can be employed until a South Sudanese is found for the position.

6. South Sudan is a young country, they have no right to do this
This is completely false. Countries such as Kenya have had the same kind of policy to ‘Kenyanise’ the Kenyan economy after their independence in the 1960s. Kenya did this to deal with Kenya’s then pressing economic issues. Thus, this measure is nothing new to newly-independent nations.

South Sudan is trying to address economic issues such as high unemployment using the same method.

7. South Sudan will end up with no medical staff or NGOs!
This is one of the biggest misconceptions about this directive. The directive is not targeted at technical or professional positions such as medical workers, head of missions, country directors and ‘financial controllers’ of any institutions including banking, insurance, hotels and NGOs. The directive also excludes all United Nations agencies, diplomatic missions and organisations such as IGAD, USAID etc. Low-level positions existing in various organisations are targeted.

This article was originally published on Talk of Juba, and is reproduced here with their permission.