Lebanese minister of Labour has announced a new law, by which None-Lebanese (Read: Syrians) are denied to take any type of work, except for cleaning, agriculture and construction works. Here is a link to information in Arabic about the new law: elnashra/news/show/821623/ The law is designed to protect the Lebanese labour market, which is affected deeply with the 2 million Syrian refugees (more than one million registered with UNHCR and what surely looks like another million who are not registered at all). Im all for protecting the market, I realize that local workers need to be protected by the government. However, this law is going to complicate things in Lebanon even more. To give you an example: a friend worked in Lebanon for two years between 2012 and 2014, he worked for six days a week, 9 hours a day, for a startup salary of whipping $400. Thats $2.2 an hour. The Canadian minimum wage in Vancouver (which is a cheaper city than Beirut) is almost $11. In his two years of work, he saw Lebanese coworkers getting paid double, and sometimes triple that salary. The reality of the Lebanese job market is very simple: Most employers have found cheap and good labour in the Syrian crisis, they prefer to hire Syrians because: 1. They dont have to register them with the labour ministry. 2. They dont have to humanly pay them for their efforts in a dignifying way. 3. They can use them and abuse them. The problem is NOT that Syrians are fighting Lebanese people over their jobs, which is what this law is trying to target. The problem is that neither Syrians nor Lebanese workers stand the chance in this market ruled by job owners who are trying to make as much money as possible while paying their employees as little as possible. A useful and timely law would be a better labour regulations that would protect the Lebanese as well as the Syrians: Better minimum wage, better monitoring on local businesses to make sure they are not breaking the laws, etc. However, we saw how the Lebanese government, and many Lebanese people, treat the help, we saw the Ethiopian maids jumping off balconies, and we saw the Palestinian refugees who are born and raised inside Lebanon after their grandparents escaped Palestine. I can clearly see where the future is heading for Syrians in Lebanon. My only advise to my Syrian friends in Lebanon: Get out! Here is a link to the Express Entry Visa page on the Citizenship and Immigration Canada Website: It allows skilled workers from across the world to apply for visas to Canada. If youre approved, you might be here in six months. cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/express/express-entry.asp
Posted on: Tue, 16 Dec 2014 16:00:05 +0000
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