Filipinos In Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia is currently the largest employer of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), and has the largest Filipino population in the Middle East. Filipinos make up the fourth-largest group of foreigners in Saudi Arabia, and are the second-largest source of remittances to the Philippines.

Filipinos in Saudi Arabia

Philippines Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III (right) speaking to a group of Filipino workers stationed in Saudi Arabia in 2016
Total population
725,893 (2022 census)
Languages
Filipino, English, Arabic
Religion
Islam, Roman Catholicism and other Christian denominations
Related ethnic groups
Filipino people, Overseas Filipinos

Filipinos first arrived in Saudi Arabia in 1973, when a group of Filipino engineers migrated to the country. As of 2009, staff at the Saudi Arabian embassy in the Philippines process between 800 and 900 jobs for Filipinos daily. In 2008, Saudi Arabia had 300,000 job orders for Filipinos. Later, in the first time hiring Filipino medical professionals, Saudi Arabia announced intentions to hire 6,000 Filipinos as doctors and nurses between 2009 and 2011. In addition to medical professionals, Filipinos work as automotive workers, construction workers, and engineers, as well as in the fields of desalination, petroleum production and processing, telecommunications, and transportation. In 2023, there were an estimated 130,000 Filipino nurses working in Saudi Arabia.

 

Every year, an unknown number of Filipinos in Saudi Arabia are "victims of sexual abuses, maltreatment, unpaid salaries, and other labor malpractices," according to John Leonard Monterona, the Middle East coordinator of Migrante, a Manila-based OFW organization. Some Filipinos are attracted and transported to Saudi Arabia illegally, where they are left stranded without work. Between January and August 2008, approximately 800 throughout the country sought help at Migrante chapters, and 922 others were deported to the Philippines in the first three months of 2008 after overstaying their visa requirements. At one point in early 2008, 103 Filipinos stranded in Jeddah lived in a tent camp under a bridge before being able to be processed for deportation.

 

As of February 2006 about 75% of the Philippine international schools represented by the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) were located in Saudi Arabia. Community-owned Philippine schools, including the International Philippine School in Al Khobar (IPSA), the International Philippine School in Jeddah (IPSJ), and International Philippine School in Riyadh (IPSR), were by 2006 managed by independent school boards but were initially managed by the diplomatic missions themselves. As of 2006, Riyadh has 13 Philippine private schools and Jeddah has five Philippine private schools.

Large numbers of Philippine children came to Saudi after many Filipino workers arrived in Saudi Arabia in the 1980s. The first Philippine school in Saudi Arabia, Philippine School in Jeddah was established after the Philippine Consulate in Jeddah began making efforts to start a school in 1983, and Philippine schools were later established in Riyadh and other Saudi cities. In 2000 Saudi Arabia had nine accredited Philippine schools. By 2005 Jeddah alone had four Philippine international schools, with two more scheduled to open shortly. By 2006 there were 21 Philippine schools recognized by the CFO, reflecting a 133% growth rate from 2000.

Community international schools in Saudi Arabia are not required to separate male and female students into separate campuses and are allowed to host social activities with men and women mixed. Regis and Guzman stated that in private Philippine international schools, unlike in the community schools, many Saudi rules that are not consistent with the culture of the Philippines are enforced.

 

The different Filipino Community Organizations are organizing some recreation, tournament and community services, to meet with fellow friends, relatives and fellow Filipinos.

List of sports: basketball, volleyball, tennis, bowling, badminton, darts, biking, scuba diving, fun run.

List of activities: Search for Mr. & Ms. (beauty contest), fishing contest, cooking contest, Zumba dance, fashion show, talent search, singing contest, family fun day.

List of community services: medical mission, blood donation, tree planting, clean-up drive, fund raising to help less fortunate OFWs.

• Ramiele Malubay - is a Filipino-American singer. She was born in Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
• Margaret Nales Wilson - is a Filipino-British model. She grew up mostly in Saudi Arabia and she spent 14 years in Jeddah.
• Graynne Angel Edralin-Panitan - the first Filipino female with a driver's license in Saudi Arabia.

• Brian "Ibrahim" Asinas Mendoza - an OFW since 2002. He is a collector and the founder of Pinoy Museum on Wheels, a mobile museum that travels to different places in Saudi Arabia for exhibition of Philippine memorabilia. His advocacy has been recognized by different award-giving bodies abroad and in the Philippines. The museum was launched on August 23, 2018 at Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia. His museum was featured in different newspapers, magazines and television.

   

• Philippines-Saudi Arabia relations
• Foreign workers in Saudi Arabia
• Migrant workers in the Gulf Cooperation Council region