Business
Kenya sets up new immigration rules to protect local jobs
Kenya has decided to issue fewer work permits to foreign workers in an attempt to boost employment for young Kenyans.
Kenya has shut the door on foreigners seeking permits for jobs that pay less than US$24,000 per year.
The new regulations are particularly targeted at foreigners holding jobs that can be handled by Kenya citizens.
There will also be a cap at the high end of the income scale: foreign medical, accounting, engineering, legal and real-estate professionals are banned from coming to Kenya outright.
Expatriates wishing to practice in these professions can only gain entry as investors with green shoe operations or through joint ventures with local Kenyans on condition that they have the required professional qualifications.
The new policy could particularly affect the flow of low-wage Asian immigrants to Kenya and neighboring countries. At present, Chinese and Indian nationals hold a combined 14,000 Kenyan work permits, and can be seen driving steamrollers, doing janitorial work and managing retail stores far into the hinterlands.
Kenya’s labor market experts said the new rules are needed to preserve jobs for Kenyans as concern rises over the number of expatriates holding basic jobs such as driving and retail sales.
“The regulations are needed to prevent foreigners from taking jobs that can be done by Kenyans,” said Sammy Onyango, the chief executive of Deloitte East Africa.
“Expatriates are also important but we should engage them largely as investors or professionals coming in to offer rare skills and build local capacity.” It remains to be seen how the government will handle the thousands of skilled and semi-skilled foreign workers employed in key infrastructure projects such as road and housing construction.
A total of 26,077 foreigners were issued with work permits between 2007 and April last year but only 14,000 were active. The rest had either expired or been cancelled.
Indian citizens held the highest number of work permits at 10,581, followed by Chinese (3,494), Britons (2,700), and Americans (1,593).
The number of Asian expatriates, led by India and China, has risen steadily in step with increased foreign direct investments in Kenya.
The tighter immigration rules came as the private sector’s ability to create new jobs dropped to 47,000 last year compared to 56,000 in 2010.
That drop came on the back of a slowdown in economic growth to 4.4 percent from 5.8 percent in the previous year.