The Threats and Risks Foreign Workers Pose to the UAE Community Essay

Introduction

The United Arabs Emirates (UAE) is one of the world’s recognized oil-producing countries. However, the lack of qualified technical and management skills and expertise in the country forces the government to hire expatriate laborers. Moreover, many local Emirati citizens refuse to work in some of the manual and technical fields in the country (Meetha 24). These factors coupled with the need for qualified private management staff led to the high number of expatriates in the UAE. However, the influx of foreign workers has exposed the UAE to social, economic, demographic, and cultural threats even though the benefits are outstanding. This paper will highlight the threats that a large number of expatriate laborers pose to the UAE, particularly how they affect the national security, social, and Emirati cultural practices. Moreover, the paper will recommend the possible strategies that can be applied to control the effects posed by expatriate laborers.

Background

The presence of oil in the UAE has boosted the economic importance of the country (Davidson 191). Due to the rapid growth of the UAE, the demand for a workforce has increased, thus forcing the country to outsource foreign labor. The expatriates have fueled the general growth of the UAE as a country. Nevertheless, the presence of foreign laborers in the UAE has greatly influenced the cultural, political, demographic, and social modifications. Apparently, the expatriates are the majority in the country, thus making the natives the minority (Khondker 92). The threats and challenges posed by the increased number of foreign workers in the UAE with their possible remedies are discussed herein.

National security

For every developing country, national security is a critical aspect in protecting the country’s capabilities and opportunities. The security challenges posed in the UAE by the foreign workers’ influx include the occupational dominance of the Iranians in the Great Tunb, small Tunb, and Abu Musa locations (Malit and You 67). The Iranians create the danger of the infiltration of weapons including long-distance destructive arms and spy satellites. The Iranians’ migration to the UAE poses a great threat to the UAE’s security because they dominate the commercial passage of the Red Sea and the Gulf, which illegally allows the passage of oil against the law. Furthermore, there is an increased organized crime rate, which comprises drug trafficking and money laundering. Drug dealers usually target the UAE since it has ready and financially stable buyers (Suter 19). Ultimately, the expatriate workers promote illegal businesses that economically and socially affect the UAE fraternity.

Cultural threats

Cultural threats are the specific menaces influenced by different ideas and opinions with respect to development. Since foreigners dominate the main sectors of the economic drive, new cultures, lifestyles, languages, and traditions have recently been incorporated into the UAE community. For instance, the traditions of the Arabs and the Iranians like the Muslim society have been on high absorption into the UAE community systems and culture. Moreover, the lifestyles of different communities have affected the way of life of Emirati citizens, as they have to cope with the different conflicting lifestyles and cultures. For instance, the UAE has been identified as a highly recreational and tourist attraction for its magnificent development. This aspect results in different people of diverse languages visiting and occupying the country, which brings language, cultural, and traditions’ disparity

Political threats

Due to the high population growth of expatriate workers, the element of human rights has exerted great pressure on the UAE government. For instance, the foreign workforce, which forms the highest population, demands special rights that favor them over the native citizens. Consequently, this issue results in continued pressure between the citizens and the government. Sometimes, the Emirati citizens claim that the expatriates have better benefits and special power in the country (Sama 48). The government experiences political friction emerging from the conflicting relationship of the expatriates, which creates disunity due to the increased conflict gap between the expatriate workers and the Emirati citizens. For example, from 2003 to 2007, foreign labor frictions arose in the UAE. Similarly, serious foreign labor unrest occurred on 29 October 2007, which was followed by a strike by workers on 3 February 2008.

Foreign workers in Sajaa were on strike demanding higher pay, which was contrary to the agreed contract terms (Sönmez et al. 31). Several reports indicate that the rise of strikes by foreign workers has resulted in escalated work tensions in the UAE. In addition, expatriate workers of the same nationalities form pressure groups to push the governments to implement civic favorable rights for them. This aspect increases citizens’ conflicts coupled with stifling the mutual harmony and growth needed for the UAE development. In addition, the political instability causes decreased governmental focus on the projected national projects.

Economic threats

Reports on economic growth and development indicate a decreasing growth rate in the UAE. The UAE recorded a gross economic growth percentage of as low as 1.8% in 2009.This aspect was due to low foreign and international investments due to national security issues. Moreover, the increased number of foreign workers in the UAE has led to increased unemployment rates. The UAE citizens are the most affected by the unemployment bug since the expatriate workers mostly dominate the job market. The factors that have led to high unemployment rate in UAE citizen include lack of skills and expertise amongst the Emiratis, the willingness of the foreign workers to work for low wages and pays, and the location of the major employing cities, which are far from many Emirati citizens’ residence. Studies show that there is a strong relationship between unemployment and national security. Consequently, unstable national security leads to less investment, hence reduced national income.

Analysis

The presence of the foreign workers in the UAE has led to the general economic growth and development in the country. Nevertheless, the challenges that expatriate workers pose to the UAE needs quick and immediate action. The political, social, cultural, and economic challenges caused require workable strategies to mitigate the risks posed by the influx of foreign workers (Held and Ulrichsen 84). The government of the UAE has embarked on facing and tackling the threats through the localization of jobs whereby foreign jobs are given high qualifications to reduce unskilled work force replacing the Emiratis. The foreign workers are mainly allocated organizational management and administrative roles through selective recruitment only. This move creates a room for the local citizens to secure employment in manual and unskilled jobs. Moreover, the government has taken the full control of the foreign laborers by cutting down the number of hired expatriates. Moreover, the UAE government has focused on improving the individual rights of the local Emirati citizens to ensure that they have the capacity to run their country successfully.

Recommendations and conclusion

Expatriates pose great threats and challenges to the political, social, economic, and cultural sectors in the UAE. The government should embark on proper handling and create strategies to solve these threats. The possible recommendations to help in reducing the threats include

1. The government should create a database program that will capture all the information about the foreign workers in the country. This database will help in monitoring the suspicious ethnic terror groups. The database will help in dealing with individuals who promote crime in the country.
2. The government of the UAE should focus on hiring the technical, management, and administrative personnel. This aspect will leave the other job positions for the Emirati citizens and reduce the unemployment rate, hence reduced number of the foreign workers.
3. The government should focus on creating a national council program on population control in the ministry of labor. The program will identify the work force needed and give the exact of expatriate workers needed to fill such positions. This move will help in the elimination of unskilled labor and control the number of the expatriate workers in the UAE.
4. Moreover, the government should create a work motivation program in the media for the local Emirati citizens. The program will aim at encouraging more local citizens to be employed, hence reducing the number of the foreign workers.
5. Lastly, despite the challenges posed by the foreign workers, the benefits are outstanding. The benefits cannot be ignored since without the outsourced labor, maybe such developments would not be achievable. Therefore, the government should focus on creating controlled working environment to both the local Emirati citizens and the foreigners.

References

Meetha, Al Shamsi. Immigration and the Development of the Workforce, Dubai: Dubai Publishers, 1996. Print.

Davidson, Christopher. “Dubai: The Security Dimensions of the Region’s Premier Free Port.” Middle East Policy 15.2(2008): 189-191. Print.

Held, David, and Kristian Ulrichsen. The transformation of the Gulf: politics, economics, and the global order, Abingdon: Routledge, 2012. Print.

Khondker, Haque. Social Change in the United Arab Emirates: Challenges of Migration and Emiratisation, Singapore: Middle East Institute, 2008. Print.

Malit, Froilan, and Ali Al Youha. Labor Migration in the United Arab Emirates: Challenges and Responses, Washington, D.C: Migration Policy Institute, 2013. Print.

Sama, Sulaiman. Social and Cultural Effects of Foreign Labor. Dubai: Emirates Centre for Strategic Researches and Studies, 2005. Print.

Sönmez, Sevil, Yorghos Apostopoulos, Diane Tran, and Shantyana Rentrope. “Human rights and health disparities for migrant workers in the UAE.” Health and Human Rights 13.2 (2011): 17-35. Print.

Suter, Brigitte 2005, Labor Migration in the United Arab Emirates Field Study on Regular and Irregular Migration in Dubai. PDF file. Web.