Expatriate Workers in 1970s Kuwait: The Invisible Majority

In the early 1970s, the streets of Kuwait City were a swirl of languages—Arabic, Urdu, Malayalam, and English—as thousands of workers from the Levant, South Asia, and the Gulf region poured into the emirate. The oil boom that began after 1973 had turned this small British-protected sheikhdom into a construction site and a magnet for labor. Yet the men and women who built the highways, hospitals, and towers were rarely seen in the official records of the ruling family or the expatriate clubs. They were the invisible majority. By 1965, foreigners had already become a majority of the population, and by the mid-1970s, more than 70 percent of the labor force was non-Kuwaiti. This article reconstructs the era through the eyes of contemporary observers, using population studies, labor reports, and official documents to show how a nation was remade by its expatriate workforce.

What Happened?

Kuwait’s transformation began with the exploitation of oil in 1946, which triggered a massive influx of foreign labor to support development. The population grew rapidly, and by 1957 the government began systematic census-taking. According to a 1985 study by H. Ishow, official statistics for 1957–1975 reveal that since 1965, foreigners constituted a majority of the country’s population. The labor force, likewise, was overwhelmingly foreign: even before the post-1973 oil boom, more than 70 percent of workers in Kuwait were expatriates, as noted by Nasra Shah in a later study of migrant workers. The demand for labor far exceeded the indigenous supply because of the small population size and low labor force participation, particularly among women and the young age structure of the Kuwaiti population.

The early immigrants were primarily Arab, drawn from Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, and Syria. However, from the mid-1970s, Kuwait deliberately shifted its recruitment toward Asian workers—especially from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh—to reduce the “dependent population” because Asian workers had a very low dependency ratio compared with Arab workers. This policy was documented in the 1978 ILO working paper by J.S. Birks and C.A. Sinclair, which examined labor-importing states in the Gulf. By the end of the decade, the Asian share of the expatriate population had grown to more than one-third, while the Arab share declined to two-thirds of the expatriate population.

How It Was Seen at the Time

Contemporaries understood the influx as both a necessity and a threat. Official reports and academic studies framed it in economic terms: the oil revenues demanded a rapid expansion of infrastructure, and Kuwait’s small native population could not supply the labor. The 1973 study “The composition and growth of the labor force in Kuwait” noted that “the large immigration of expatriate workers, needed to fill the demand for labor, transformed the society from being almost entirely indigenous to a composition where non-Kuwaitis became the majority.”

“The data show that since 1965 foreigners have constituted a majority of the country’s population.” — I. Ishow, 1985

Yet there was also a sense of unease. The 1985 study by Ishow examined the “economic, social, and political consequences” of this immigration, hinting at fears about national identity, political stability, and the social costs of a transient population. The ILO report in 1978 described the “labour import” as a deliberate process, but it also flagged the risks of dependency on foreign labor. In the local press and in official statements, the government spoke of “balancing” the demographic structure, but the visible reality was that Kuwait was becoming a country where the majority of residents were not citizens.

Historical Snapshot

Numbers at the Time

Official Reports

The most significant official document from the era is the 1978 International Labour Organisation (ILO) working paper by J.S. Birks and C.A. Sinclair, “Nature and Process of Labour Importing: The Arabian Gulf States of Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE.” This report provided a detailed analysis of the supply of labor in Kuwait, including the population and educational attainment levels. It confirmed that the “import” of labor was a deliberate government policy, and it described the shift toward Asian workers as a strategy to reduce the “dependent population” because Asian workers had lower dependency ratios. The report also noted the fluctuating growth of the non-Kuwaiti labor force in response to economic conditions. A 1973 study in Perceptual and Motor Skills also examined the composition and growth of the labor force, emphasizing that the two factors limiting Kuwaiti labor supply were the small population size and low labor force participation, particularly among women and the young. These official and academic documents were used by policymakers and international agencies to understand the labor dynamics.

What People Feared

Contemporaries feared that the demographic imbalance would undermine Kuwait’s national identity and political stability. The 1985 study by Ishow explicitly examined the “political consequences” of immigration, and the ILO report raised concerns about the “dependency” on foreign labor. There was also anxiety about the social costs: housing shortages, cultural friction, and the transient nature of the workforce. Some feared that the Kuwaiti population would become a minority in their own country, leading to demands for political rights or even unrest. These fears were not unfounded—the 1970s saw a series of strikes and protests among expatriate workers, though the government maintained strict control. The official response was to implement policies to “balance” the population, such as encouraging Asian workers who would not settle permanently, and to limit the length of stay for many expatriates.

How Historians See It Today

Modern historians view the 1970s as a turning point in Kuwait’s demographic and economic history. They emphasize that the reliance on expatriate labor was not a temporary emergency but a structural feature of the Gulf economies. The 2009 study by Nasra M. Shah, “The Changing Characteristics of Migrant Workers in Kuwait,” notes that the goals concerning the magnitude and structure of the migrant worker population underwent substantial revisions as the country went through economic changes. Historians today also highlight the deliberate policy shift from Arab to Asian workers as a way to reduce the social and political costs of a dependent population. The long-term consequences—such as the fact that Kuwait’s population still remains majority-expatriate—are seen as a direct legacy of the 1970s decisions. Unlike the contemporary view that treated expatriates as a temporary labor force, modern scholarship recognizes the permanent structural role of migrants in the Gulf economies.

Common Misconceptions

The 1970s left an enduring legacy. The primary sources—population censuses, ILO reports, and contemporary academic studies—reveal a country that had become, in effect, a nation of immigrants. The invisible majority of workers built the infrastructure of modern Kuwait, but they were also the subject of constant policy debate and demographic anxiety. The experience of the 1970s set the pattern for the Gulf states today, where expatriates still outnumber citizens in many countries. Understanding this era through its own records helps us appreciate how a small oil state navigated the challenges of rapid development and how its choices continue to shape the region.