Al-Ahram Weekly 14 - 20 September 2000 Issue No. 499
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

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PhD holders for hire

By Lola Keilani

Stagnation in the Jordanian labour market has prompted demonstrations by unemployed holders of doctorate degrees, leading the government to charge that opposition groups are taking advantage of the situation.

Observers attribute the high rate of unemployment among holders of doctorates in Jordan to the tendency of many employers to hire non-Jordanians who accept lower pay than their Jordanian counterparts.

Most of the thousands of Jordanians holding PhDs are employed in the civil service. Protesters are angry that the Jordanian university system employs 900 non-Jordanian PhD holders as lecturers.

Considering themselves as qualified as these foreign lecturers, some 200 unemployed Jordanians with PhDs claim that despite intense lobbying, Jordan's 11 universities prefer to employ Iraqis and Syrians. They say that many of the Iraqi and Syrian lecturers in Jordan are graduates of the same east European universities that the Jordanians graduated from.

For their part, some university administrators argue that few Jordanian PhD holders are fluent in English. In response, the protesters say that the same applies to the Syrian and Iraqi lecturers.

Labour experts affirm that Iraqis and Syrians are ready to accept lower salaries than their Jordanian counterparts. With Iraq's economy in shambles following 10 years of sanctions, many Iraqis have accepted any jobs they could find outside their country.

For Iraqis and Syrians, not only does Jordan offer jobs, but also relatively good remuneration. The per capita income in Jordan is around US$1,500 compared to US$400 in Syria. Lecturers' salaries at Jordanian universities are almost three times the amount of those in Syria.

The government says that it is trying to alleviate the unemployment problem, but protesters believe it has done little in recent months. During the last seven months, unemployed Jordanian holders of doctorate degrees have demonstrated in front of parliament and the office of the prime minister.

Last month, these protesters set up a tent in front of the prime minister's office, intending to camp out indefinitely. They called off this action after eight days following regular visits by leaders of political parties. These encounters led the government to accuse protesters of being a tool of the opposition.

The government says it cannot order the privately-owned universities to employ Jordanians. "It is a catch-22 situation," said a senior official. "The government cannot twist the universities' arm because the issue at stake is the quality of education."

The government has introduced a labour law stipulating that foreign degree holders can be employed by Jordanian universities only if no Jordanians are available with the required qualifications. Protesters claim that universities subvert this law by using more stringent criteria to evaluate Jordanian applicants than they do to foreign applicants.

Samir, a participant in the protests and demonstrations, who holds a doctorate in history from an east European university, rejects all arguments by the government and universities.

"The situation is simple," he said. "They [the universities] do not want to employ Jordanians because they know that Jordanians will want higher pay and also fight for their rights. Concerning non-Jordanians, universities are free to treat them as they wish, regardless of their complaints. They intimidate and implicitly threaten non-Jordanians who are scared of losing their jobs. The universities could not do that with Jordanians."

The problem of the unemployed holders of doctorates is part of the wider economic situation in Jordan. Unemployment is estimated at over 25 per cent among Jordan's population of 4.5 million. Currently, there are nearly one million foreigners working in the country, doing jobs that few Jordanians would accept. These jobs are in the farming, construction and domestic services sectors.

In the last decade, the Jordanian economy has performed poorly, particularly since the Gulf War of 1991, when over 300,000 Jordanians were forced to leave Kuwait after having lived there for decades.

Currently, thousands of white-collar Jordanians are seeking work in the Gulf countries or Australia. The problem is compounded by the continued sanctions on Iraq, which experts suggest might otherwise absorb a large number of Jordanian expatriates.

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