ABSTRACT
It has been reported in recent years that Kuwait has offered a less rewarding situation than the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and that, in consequence, there was movement of selected grades of skilled employees from Kuwait to the UAE. On a larger scale, there was an earlier return migration of Iranian workers during the years 1974 to 1976, when the economic boom in that country induced a number of mobile and mainly bachelor Iranians to go back to their homeland. The structure of the immigrant worker population by age was reflective of the long history of Kuwait as an employer of foreign labour. It is no small paradox that the shortage of trained workers during Kuwait's long period of economic change from the 1950s created a demand for a rapid increase in the educational and training system within the country. The oil industry has always been a preserve of foreign workers.
