"Saudi Arabia if anything was over protecting it's people."

All I know about Saudi Arabia is what I've read. For example, the CIA World Factbook states the following:

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Population: 25,795,938
note: includes 5,576,076 non-nationals (July 2004 est.)

Labor Force: 7 million
note: more than 35% of the population in the 15-64 age group is non-national (1999)
Roughly five and a half million foreign workers play an important role in the Saudi economy, for example, in the oil and service sectors.

Unemployment Rate: 25% (2003)

The government in 1999 announced plans to begin privatizing the electricity companies, which follows the ongoing privatization of the telecommunications company. The government is encouraging private sector growth to lessen the kingdom's dependence on oil and increase employment opportunities for the swelling Saudi population. Priorities for government spending in the short term include additional funds for education and for the water and sewage systems. Economic reforms proceed cautiously because of deep-rooted political and social conservatism.

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Ok. So there are some reforms going on. But this may be an after-effect of world events. With a labor force of 7 million, 1.75 million are unemployed (25%), and 5.25 million have jobs. But the info also suggests that all 5.5 million foreign workers have jobs, otherwise they wouldn't be there, right? So the number of non-citizens with jobs outnumbers the number of citizens who have jobs. Obviously there is a huge imbalance there, oil companies seem unwilling to train locals to do the work, and frankly I'm seeing the same pattern in Canada. The huge number of foreign business owners in Canada never went through our school system, can't distinguish between community college and university, don't know what diplomas/degrees are granted by schools here, and are looking for very odd skill sets in new employees as a result. They also are sometimes unfamiliar with, or averse to Canadian products, and import capital equipment because they are loyal to their former country. They would rather not buy Canadian products, and it has absolutely nothing to do with competitiveness.

In the future I'd hate to have to browse job ads worldwide to find work, just because certain industries prefer certain particular foreign locations to set up shop.