News out of Bahrain is anything but good. The country is in lockdown and the army of Saudi Arabia has invaded. This isn’t even the first time this has happened. About 20 years ago Shiite protests almost toppled the government and Saudi was forced to intervene. It seems that every generation a new uprising begins.
This is hardly a stable country to be counted on. For the purposes of this blog, what matters now is what will happen to the tens of thousands of expats who live in the country. Many have left indefinitely to avoid bloodshed. Will they be able to return to their jobs and old life?
Expats may be targeted
The United States and probably other westerners will be seen as accomplices to the king’s acts of violence. Many Bahrainis probably despise the west for abandoning them. For the thousands of Americans who live in the country working for the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, they may now be targets for Bahraini aggression.
This is one of the main risks of being a western expat, particularly in an unstable country. The acts of countries like America may have considerable repercussions where you live locally. I can say from personal experience that being an American in the Middle East meant occasional jibes, and regularly underlying tension. People did not like the fact that the United States was at war in the region and spoke out publicly about it. Newspapers, though highly censored, were allowed to speak freely about the United States’ and the West’s actions in the Middle East. It was often uncomfortable.
Will expats be targeted? It’s certainly possible, though I believe Bahrainis know that to do so would bring down considerable retribution by the local government. But elsewhere in the region, and the world there may be acts against westerners in revenge for what is being seen as a “betrayal” in Bahrain.
What happens in one place has repercussions elsewhere
One of the issues with being an expat is that you are a representative of your home country whether you like it or not. That cuts both ways. If you misbehave and are punished by local authorities, the country you live in may view people of your nationality negatively. On the other hand, if your home country does something that offends the country you live in, you may be blamed and targeted. Most of the targeting may be in the form of the occasional jibe and rude comment. But it may also be more serious as well. We’ll have to watch the news coming out of Bahrain to see how expats are dealing with this changing environment.
