Selection Method:

Recommendation method was suggested by people who wanted to discuss issue of how important foreign expats are important for the country; many of those foreign labors are getting more wages than local ones which makes social indifferences between them. The other side of the story is many Yemenis believe that foreign existence is helpful and a capacity-builder opportunity and Yemenis should use it very well and accordingly we should prioritize the employment of foreign labor; to be more connected to the world.

Number of Participants: 8 (4 per team).

Number of Audiences: 128 people.

Articles: 2 articles.

Video(s): 2 videos.

“Basement is my free space and my sanctuary; we, 15 persons and I, were trained on debating skills through the project “Spaces.” And through it we were able to discuss public topic along with many different media. Foreign labor prioritize was our selected topic.“Basement is my free space and my sanctuary; we, 15 persons and I, were trained on debating skills through the project “Spaces.” And through it we were able to discuss public topic along with many different media. Foreign labor prioritize was our selected topic.I was selected along with Amani, Karama and Mohammed as a thesis team, even when you are not really with but we were chosen to apply debating skills in order to earn victory by changing people’s votes.Because we were on the weaker position, we predicted the impression that many will stand with the local labors, so we started to focus on practicing experiences storytelling and questionnaires about the topic. Finally, we have gained the audiences’ hearts and mind. ”

Mushera Abu Hashem’s Facebook post (Originally in Arabic)

Articles: Shaima Thabet’s article “Foreign Labor in Yemen.. Why?“: was Shaima’s antithesis article calculating the number of unemployed local labors compared to the foreign ones. While Ali Nadeem’s wrote an article titled: “Why Foreign expats?” noting the importance of foreign labor historically and their importance today.

Flashes: the produced flashes have used the comparison method between local and foreign labor; antithesis noted that foreign labor can get away with their misuse of power by their states while local one are more to put into accountability.

While thesis video is mentioning the differences between local and foreign labor; the foreign labor is more into developing itself and more committed with their jobs while locals are not, therefore stakeholders should stick to what is best.

Event: On Saturday evening, December 8, 2018, at the Basemant Cultural Foundation, a public debate was held entitled “Give priority to opportunities for expatriate labor versus local employment”. Two teams of young men and women discussed the preference of foreigners for jobs in Yemen.

The seminar was organized by the Basemant Foundation, where it provided training to participants in the fields of comparative skills and research techniques. It provided them with the opportunity to discuss their dissertations in virtual debates before the public debate was held. In addition, articles were published by interested parties in the field of debate. The two sides of the thesis were written by Ali Nadim and Shaima Thabet. Two visual works were also produced by Basemant to clarify the two points of view on the subject.

Participated in the debate from the team in favor of granting greater opportunities for foreigners:

– Mushira Said: Dentist

– Karama bin Mahri: a graduate of political science

-Amany Habashi: Decoration Engineer

-Mahmed Khaled: Scriptwriter

The Foreign Preference Group:

-Majd al-Matari: Political activist

– Sarah Al Afif: Pharmacy student

– Majed Dahmachi: Community activist

– Lamia Mohamed Fadel: film director

A preliminary vote was taken for the public opinion poll and support for either side of the thesis. The result was 36% favoring preference for foreign labor, 63% rejecting preference for foreign workers over local, 1% neutral.

The debate started with presenting the views of the two groups on the thesis and their position on it, presenting the arguments to prove their positions, then responding to the arguments of the other team and refuting its arguments, and then presenting the response letter that explains the conclusion of the discussion.

In the end, a vote was taken to determine the change in public opinion after the debate ended, and the result was:

43% with priority given to foreign workers, 50% against the preference of foreigners on Yemenis, 7% neutral. The result showed the ability of the pro-foreign preference group to change the outcome and change the opinion of a portion of the public in favor of it.