Research Question
The issue of foreigners working in the United Arabs Emirates has become of great concern around the world. This is based on several factors, some of which will be discussed in this essay. The research question for this analysis is stated below: Should the UAE ban all foreign workers?
Thesis
Under normal circumstances countries around the world need each other in a wide-range of ways. In fact, there is no country, which is self-reliant to ignore the rest of the world.
Through mutual relationships and agreements, nations benefit from each other, thus boosting their economies and international relationships. Moreover, foreign workers equally add significant value to the host country. Based on this, the UAE should not ban all foreigners.
Introduction
The United Arab Emirates has in recent years attracted the international community for its strict regulations, regarding foreign workers in the country or applying for a working permit. In most cases, majority of foreigners who apply are not considered. Additionally, the country’s administration has even gone ahead to ban some workers who do not have a university degree from visiting the country (Annabelkantaria, 2011).
While these regulations are being discussed and analyzed, the primary issue that has to be addressed is the impact of foreign workers in UAE, the benefits and costs related to hiring foreign workers. Whilst this analysis is necessary, UAE has significantly benefited from foreign employees for a long period of time.
This paper discusses the issue of foreign workers in UAE, by focusing on the benefits of encouraging foreigners to apply for working opportunities in the country. Since the issue has remained double sided, the analysis will equally explore some of the disadvantages of hiring foreigners in UAE.
Current statistics of foreign workers in UAE will also be considered as the foundation of the argument. To achieve this target, the information used in developing this synthesis will be obtained from authentic websites, news articles, journals and online books.
Working foreigners in UAE
UAE working population is highly dominated by foreigners. By the year 2010, the country had more than 3.8 million foreign workers, distributed around the world. Moreover, approximately two million of these workers do not have qualified skills like university degrees and other professional qualifications.
This means that these sectors, which heavily rely on foreign labor, do not emphasize the need for specialized skills that are mainly obtained through training. According to economic experts, the influx of foreigners has been triggered by the economic status of UAE, which has equally been enhanced by other factors.
For instance, there were about 1.8 million foreigners in the country at the beginning of the 21st century, before tripling by 2010 (AFP, 2011). This demonstrates how UAE has remained attractive to most people around the world. As a result of this exponential increase, the government has introduced regulations, aimed at reducing the influx and cut down the population of unskilled workers in the labor industry.
Besides reducing the number of foreign workers in the country, the government intends to create more job opportunities for its nationals, based on the increasing number of qualified Emirates.
It is also estimated that the number of Emirates working in UAE represents 11% of the total number of employees in the country. Whilst UAE attracts people from all over the world, it is worth noting that most of these foreigners originate from Asia and Arabic countries (AFP, 2011).
Even as the country prepares to tighten rules and reduce the number of foreign workers in the country, it is important to underscore that they have played a significant role in transforming the country’s economy into what it is today. The following segment focuses on ways through which UAE has benefited from its foreign workers.
Supporting Foreign Workers
Despite the fact that UAE authorities are set to restrict foreign workers from working in the country, there are valid reasons that support the role of foreign workers. As mentioned before, there are more than three million foreigners distributed in various parts of country (Awad, 2010).
These workers contribute to the economic growth of UAE, which has remained stable for several years. In line with this, it is essential to note that the influx was necessitated by inadequate labor force since 1970s.
During the last quarter of the 20th century, UAE experienced tremendous growth in the oil industry, which opened the marketed and created demand for labor that could not be met by domestic workers and UAE citizens (International Organization for Migration, 2006).
As a result of deficiency in labor force, there has been a genuine reason as to why people from other countries have remained relevant in UAE for a long time. In the absence of these opportunities, no foreigner would be seeking UAE’s working permit. Importantly, some of the skills being offered by foreign workers cannot be found among UAE nationals (Awad, 2010).
This means that affected companies can only satisfy their labor needs by outsourcing from other countries around the world. Furthermore, foreign skilled workers may not require expensive training to perform most of the tasks, thus reducing the government’s budget training of employees (Gorgenländer, 2011).
In other words, the country’s economy continues to rely on foreign workers, whose immediate exit or termination of future hiring is likely to affect the county’s economy directly.
Besides the oil industry, foreign workers are also concentrated in non-oil sector, where they have played a significant role in advancing the sector. In fact, most of the foreign workers are absorbed in this sector, since it requires less specialized skills.
This therefore justifies the fact that foreign workers are still needed in UAE, to meet labor demands in the oil and non-oil sectors (Awad, 2010). The country’s attractive economic status ought not to be the basis upon which the government should lock out foreigners.
Besides helping to meet the labor needs of the country, foreign workers are cheap compared to UAE nationals who demand high salaries. By the fact that most employers in UAE do not need high-skilled employees, foreign workers are economical sources of labor, capable of meeting the demands of the market.
In this line of thought, it is paramount to note that Asia remains a major source of cheap and affordable labor for UAE companies because of the huge labor supply in the subcontinent (Yousef, 2010). In other words, most of these workers can easily be managed without protesting for better wages, thus allowing companies to reduce their expenditure on salaries and remuneration.
Besides being cheap and affordable, UAE has largely benefited from the hardy nature of most foreign workers as compared to its nationals. Most foreign workers are known to survive in poor working conditions even though no worker is supposed to be exposed to working hazards (Esveld, 2009).
In addition, most workers in the private sector are known to be capable of working for longer hours, which is advantageous to many employers. This is because of low compensation against good results realized through hard work. It therefore follows that foreign workers are highly productive and easy to manage compared to Emirates.
Counterarguments
While foreign workers may have contributed to the tremendous growth of UAE’s economy, it is essential to note that their influx has equally impacted the country negatively in several ways. As mentioned above, approximately 11% of laborers in UAE are Emirates while the rest are foreigners (Schoepp, 2011).
This implies that most of the job opportunities are occupied by skilled and semi-skilled foreigners. The negative implication of this trend is that UAE is likely to register rising cases of unemployment because most of the potential opportunities around the country are occupied by foreigners.
Secondly, cheap labor from foreign workers has led to low production in some sectors. In general, the non-oil sector has continuously registered declining productivity, a pattern, which is likely to affect the country’s economy in future (Awad, 2010). For example, there are sectors, which have directly suffered from the impact of cheap labor from other countries.
The construction industry has registered reduced activities. In terms of ranking based on performance, construction is by far the poorest performer as compared to others like wholesale trade sector, which equally has low labor productivity. This low production has sometimes been blamed on the dominance of foreign and unskilled workers.
Even though foreign laborers are cheap and affordable by most employers, they have contributed to poor competition of jobs and remuneration. For instance, most employers offer low salaries because the unskilled workers from foreign countries quickly accept them without bargaining (Schoepp, 2011). This means that most of the workers are likely to suffer due to the desperate state of some laborers.
Additionally, some of the skilled workers are hired at a fee, yet the country can invest in training its own citizens so that they can work in different segments of the country’s economy.
In other words, the government and other private employers spent most of their resources hiring manpower when they can develop their own. These resources could be channeled to other sectors of the economy, which need expansion and advancement.
The last reason why UAE should ban foreign workers is that it promotes lose of foreign exchange. Since more than 70% of laborers are foreigners, most of the resources accumulated in form of salaries are taken back to their mother countries.
In other words, majority foreigners invest at home more than abroad (Abed & Hellyer, 2001). As a result, the mother country enjoys the fruits of job opportunities offered by UAE to its citizens. While this is the case, UAE may lack new investment projects and entrepreneurship, since the money earned is taken to other countries around the world.
Refutations of Counterarguments
Even though foreigners have competed for most of the job opportunities in UAE, it is important to note that UAE’s labor supply has been deficient for years. This is to say that Emirates could not meet the demands of the labor market, thus attracting foreign workers. Additionally, some of the services and skills offered by skilled workers from other countries might not be common in UAE (Gorgenländer, 2011).
This means that if these workers are to be denied working permits, the country might experience an economic crisis triggered by insufficient manpower and a weak labor sector. This would significantly affect the oil-sector since it hires the highest number of skilled people in the country.
On the other hand, production standards are usually set by the company, depending on the kind of products, which it intends to produce. In other words, a worker is supposed to perform his or her tasks depending on the standards and directions given by the employer (Annabelkantaria, 2011).
Better production within non-oil sector can be achieved through proper management and adoption of standardized procedures and guidelines. Poor productivity cannot therefore be solely blamed on foreign workers.
Similarly, UAE government is mandated to regulate salaries and wages of employees in the country. Through proper structures, it would be simple for the government to regulate working conditions and terms instead of blaming foreign workers. In fact, better contract terms are likely to attract more skilled workers than it is today, where the system attracts a huge percentage of unskilled foreigners.
The government should also guard the interests of foreign workers by setting wages, depending on their job groups and qualifications (Federal Research Division, 2004). Lastly, foreign workers contribute to economic development of UAE despite the fact that they invest in their mother countries. In essence, the two countries relate mutually, and UAE has a role in improving the terms and conditions of the association
Conclusion
Foreign workers play a major role in promoting the economy of UAE. In recent years, the attractive economic conditions have attracted a host of foreign workers who have remained relevant in the labor industry.
For a very long time, this group of workers has augmented efforts to meet the demands of UAE’s labor market. Through skilled and unskilled workers, mainly from Asia, UAE’s oil and the private sectors continue to thrive because of their efforts. Even though there are disadvantages of the influx, the merits outweigh them by far. Therefore, UAE should not ban foreign workers.
References
Abed, I., & Hellyer, P. (2001). United Arab Emirates, a New Perspective. Cronulla NSW: Trident Press Ltd.
AFP. (2011). 3.8 million expats working in UAE. Emirates 247. Web.
Annabelkantaria. (2011). Will the UAE cap foreign workers? My Telegraph. Web.
Awad, M. (2010). The Cost of Foreign Labor in the United Arab Emirates. Institute for Social & Economic Research. Web.
Esveld, B. (2009). “The Island of Happiness”: Exploitation of Migrant Workers on Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi. New York: Human Rights Watch.
Federal Research Division. (2004). United Arab Emirates: A Country Study. Montana: Kessinger Publishing.
Gorgenländer, V. (2011). A Strategic Analysis of the Construction Industry in the United Arab Emirates: Opportunities and Threats in the Construction Business. Berlin: Diplomica Verlag.
International Organization for Migration. (2006). World Migration 2005 Costs and Benefits of International Migration. New Delhi: Academic Foundation.
Schoepp, K. W. (2011). The Path to Development: Expatriate Faculty Retention in the UAE. International Education, 40(2), 58-75.
Yousef, D. (2010). Hiring foreign workers still an advantage. Gulf News. Web.