ABSTRACT
The manpower crisis of the 1980s will quickly become a political crisis throughout the Arab region. The uneven distribution of oil and population in the Arab region has resulted in wide variations of living standards and rates of economic growth. The capital-rich states are now turning away from Arab labour. The analysis of the labour markets of the labour importers shows clearly that more labour from the Far East is being employed, and that Arab labour will be discarded as it is replaced by the most cost-effective and politically desirable Far Eastern workforces. The geographical proximity of the capital-rich states will mean that their own domestic economic problems will be compounded by the threat from the social unrest following from the lack of economic success in the capital-poor.
