November 2013 was the deadline given by the Saudi Arabian government for foreign workers in violation of residency or work regulations to correct their status. At that time, a campaign was launched to search for any remaining workers in violation of regulations. During the "correction" period, more than 1 million foreign workers left or were deported, while more than 3 million changed their status.

During the same period — less than a year — more than 250,000 Saudi citizens gained employment in the private sector, while a little more than 700,000 citizens entered the private sector in the past three years. This last figure is close to the total number of Saudis working in the private sector four years ago, before the start of labor-market reform projects initiated by the Ministry of Labor. The end of the deadline, the campaign to search for violators and the continuation of legislation and laws enacted by the Ministry of Labor to reform the structure of the labor market, reduce the flow of cheap foreign workers and push more Saudi citizens to enter the private sector all indicate a radical change in the form of the Saudi economy. This change will not be limited to economic aspects alone, but will extend to affect social and political issues.

The flow of foreign workers increased in the mid-1970s in conjunction with the start of the first oil boom, which provided the state with the resources to carry out large-scale infrastructure projects. The state also took advantage of the flow of foreign labor as a means of wealth distribution, particularly in smaller cities. In addition to government jobs, which were the main channel for the distribution of oil revenues among citizens, recruiting cheap foreign labor was an effective way to get a reasonable income for many citizens, especially those who were unable to obtain jobs with the government. Many citizens took advantage of the ease with which they could bring workers to the kingdom, and re-contracted them with institutions or other companies. Sometimes they left the worker on his own to search for sources of income, in exchange for paying a fixed amount to the person who sponsored him. Finally, some citizens received workers and provided them with the necessary permits to establish a business. The business would be entirely run by the foreign worker and he would pay the sponsor a fixed amount. All of these methods represented a major source of income for hundreds of thousands of Saudi families. 

Exploiting the flow of foreign labor as a means of distributing wealth among citizens instilled a model of a rentier economy, something that is unsustainable. At the same time, it placed pressure on the government budget, as the number of young people entering the labor market each year exceeds 200,000. The state is no longer able to continue employing this many people in the governmental sector, which has significantly grown as government spending has reached high levels. In the past 10 years, government expenditures have increased from around 200 billion riyals ($53 billion) to 600 billion riyals ($160 billion). Meanwhile, the number of foreign workers has become very high. Official figures indicate that there are more than 9 million foreign workers, while estimates from some unofficial sources suggest that the number exceeds 11 million. Ten years ago, there were fewer than 6 million. These high numbers of foreign workers put pressure on infrastructure and government services, especially in light of the heavy subsidies the government provides for fuel and other goods and services, with annual governmental support amounting to 300 billion riyals ($80 billion). Moreover, these workers send home tens of billions of dollars a year, with Saudi Arabia ranking second in the world in terms of the size of workers' remittances.