Question and Key Argument
Recent spur in economic development of the UAE was followed by a rapid increase in the rates of cultural diversity within the state;
Though affecting the local culture negatively, cultural diversity allows for a positive change in the UAE society due to enhancement of cultural understanding and improved social ideas, concepts and values.
Question: Can the diversity observed in the UAE be used as a positive factor in developing the state’s economy and relationships with other states?
Because of the increasing amount of job opportunities and a comparatively high standard of living in the state, the UAE have recently witnessed a major increase in immigration rates. According to the nationwide statistics, only 11% of the UAE residents are native, whereas the rest belong to other cultures.
Demographic Imbalance
- UAE Vision 2021: creating a business hub and a tourist destination by using natural resources (oil) as the key financial asset;
- Increase in foreign workers is going to exacerbate the cultural issue;
- Foreign labor increase affects job opportunities for the local people.
Table 1: Native-Born and Foreign-Born Populations in GCC Countries
The increase in the number of foreign workers affects the UAE economy rather negatively. Because of the availability of cheap labor, the local entrepreneurs are not interested in the native labor market. Thus, unemployment rates among the local population are likely to increase with the rise in immigration to the UAE.
Security Issues
- Human rights abuses are a frequent occurrence among the UAE migrant workers;
- Threats of terrorism are increased with the rise in migrant labor;
- Demographic imbalance leads to demise of the UAE cultural traditions;
- Popular culture is altered to satisfy the tastes of migrant workers.
As the chart above says, the integration of multicultural elements into the realm of the relatively homogenous UAE setting has triggered major security issues. Moreover, crime rates seem to have grown significantly over the past few decades in the state. Therefore, there is a necessity to manage the changes that immigrant labor brings to the UAE.
Foreign Workers in UAE
Positive Impacts:
- Boost for the tourism industry (Forstenlechner et al., 2014);
- local SMEs development;
- New sociocultural ideas (Khraim, 2010).
Negative Impacts:
- Cultural assimilation;
- Unemployment among locals;
- Possible deterioration of public companies.
Despite the fact that changes in the cultural landscape of the UAE might pose a threat to the cultural values and traditions of the state residents, they open new opportunities for the state economy to evolve. Therefore, avenues for addressing negative impacts of cultural fusion need to be designed.
Conclusion
Summary
- Changes in the economic landscape of the UAE are related directly to the cultural ones.
- In order to succeed in promoting economic development, the UAE residents need to accept the idea of cultures fusion within the state.
Recommendations
- A more elaborate approach towards introducing cultural diversity into the state is required;
- Development of the UAE tourism sector should be prompted;
- Intellectual capital must be used for enhancing social citizenry.
It is imperative that the UAE government should focus on the development of the tourist sector, as well as the enhancement of the principles of multiculturalism. Particularly, cultural sustainability, where balance should exist between the UAE culture and the one of the foreign workers, needs to be introduced into the UAE society.
Reference List
Croucher, M 2014, ‘UAE authorities dispute UN statistics that UAE has highest murder rate in GCC,’ The National UAE, Web.
Forstenlechner, I, Selim, H, Baruch, Y & Madi, M 2014, ‘Career exploration and perceived employability within an emerging economy context,’ Human Resource Management, vol. 53, no. 1, p. 45.