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Saudi Arabia continues to plan for a future with fewer foreigners, currently seven million or a third of residents; the goal is to reduce their number by 50 percent within 10 years, and to limit foreigners from any one country to no more than 10 percent of all foreigners. Saudization is being implemented by barring foreigners from working in an expanding range of occupations, and stepping up efforts to train Saudi youth for the jobs vacated by foreigners.

For example, beginning in March 2004, foreigners were not allowed to work in travel agencies and in gold and jewelry shops. About 95 percent of workers in the private sector are expatriates, accounting for two-thirds of all workers.

The official unemployment rate is 10 percent, but only 500,000 Saudis work in the private sector. About 100,000 Saudis join the labor force each year, and the government hopes to open jobs for them, but most private employers say that Saudis prefer to work for the government, where the work is easy and the pay is better. Per capita incomes in Saudi Arabia are a fourth of what they were in 1980, when oil prices peaked, and some worry that there could be unrest as youth face unemployment or hard work for lower-than-expected wages.

Israel. Germany received more Jews from Eastern Europe and the ex-USSR in 2003 than Israel, 19,200 compared to 18,000. Germany's Jewish population has increased to over 100,000 from about 30,000 in 1989.

Iraq. Some 70,000 of the 200,000 Iraqis who fled to Iran during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war have returned to the southern part of Iraq. However, those returning face many of the same problems confronting Iraqis, including insecurity and lack of jobs.