Shafaq News

Foreign professionals are increasingly working across Iraq’s hospitals, factories, engineering firms, and private companies, but many are finding it difficult to adapt to the country’s language and social norms. Iraqis, too, are struggling to adjust to a more diverse workforce, leaving everyday interaction between both sides limited.

These workers are no longer concentrated in restaurants, cleaning services, and other physically demanding jobs; engineers, technicians, administrators, and healthcare professionals now hold positions in public and private institutions, many living in company-operated compounds that provide housing and essential services.

Nawras Hussein, an Iraqi national who lives in a residential complex near one housing expatriate employees, told Shafaq News that most services in her compound, including security and fee collection, are provided by foreign staff employed by major Iraqi companies, observing, “It is not only the language; sometimes it feels like we’re strangers to them.”

“Even when someone asks for a service or wants to check on something, they don’t always deal with us the way we’d expect,” she added, recalling that residents often find it hard to communicate over routine matters.

Baghdad resident Hussein Ali recounted a similar experience after requesting electrical work in his apartment. “I told the electrician exactly what I wanted, but he carried on with his own plan … I’d explain it again, he’d smile, and just keep working.”

Read more: Foreign workers flood Iraq: A threat to local jobs

Foreign workers, however, see those experiences differently.

Several expatriate employees contacted by Shafaq News declined to speak publicly, fearing media comments could affect their employment or residency status. One worker, using the pseudonym “Rahul,” agreed to explain why many expatriates appear reserved.

“We don’t choose to live like this,” Rahul remarked. “We work long hours, and the company decides where we live and how we get around. There isn’t much chance to meet people.”

He believes many misunderstandings begin before foreign workers arrive at their jobs, noting that employers explain their duties, accommodation, and transportation, but rarely prepare them for the language, customs, or daily life in Iraq. “When you don’t understand the language, you’re always afraid of making a mistake; sometimes people think we’re ignoring them, but that’s usually not the reason.”

Rejecting the idea that foreign workers intentionally isolate themselves, Rahul said, “We’re here to earn a living for our families, and nobody came to build a separate community.”

Companies, in his view, should play a bigger role in helping foreign employees settle into everyday life.

That lack of preparation has become more significant as the country’s foreign workforce has expanded. Roughly 47,000 foreign workers were legally registered in Iraq as of February 2026, according to the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MOLSA), though the true size of the foreign workforce is widely believed to be far greater because the country has no comprehensive count of undocumented labor. In April 2025, Sattar Al-Danbous, a representative of Iraq’s General Federation of Trade Unions, estimated the workforce at more than one million, aligning with the Strategic Center for Human Rights’ August 2024 assessment that around one million undocumented migrant workers —many from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Iran, and Syria— were living in the country.

Unlike countries with long-established migrant workforces, including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Singapore, Iraq’s labor system is designed to regulate employment rather than support workers’ integration. Labor Law No. 37 of 2015 sets out rules on work permits, workforce quotas, and employee protections, leaving language assistance and cultural orientation largely to employers. Although MOLSA and the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) have organized limited orientation initiatives in selected areas, those efforts have yet to develop into a nationwide framework.

Speaking to Shafaq News, Walid Naama Faris, head of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions, said foreign specialists play an important role in filling skill shortages and supporting economic growth, maintaining that “the problem is not the presence of foreign workers but the limited interaction between them and the communities around them.”

Without preparing Iraqi workers to take on those skilled roles, he warned, unemployment among young people, particularly graduates and other qualified workers, could increase over time, reducing opportunities for knowledge transfer, leaving more people feeling that opportunities are not shared fairly, and ultimately affecting social cohesion.

Read more: Iraq tightens labor rules as unemployment tops 1M

Business owner Saif Furat, who employs both Iraqi and foreign engineers, credited expatriate specialists with helping improve his company’s performance and develop its technical capacity. However, he noted, “They’re good at what they do, but they rarely pass their experience on to young Iraqi employees as many stay within their own group … and that makes communication harder.”

Any country hosting large numbers of foreign professionals, social researcher Manahel Al-Saleh argued, needs to create a shared space between them and local communities.

“Living in closed communities prevents both sides from sharing knowledge and experience,” she said, cautioning that when people remain separated for long periods, relationships tend to stay limited to work instead of developing into partnerships that benefit society.

Written and edited by Shafaq News staff.