Advantages and Disadvantages of the Immigration Policy of the United Arab Emirates - Case Study Example

The advantages and disadvantages of the immigration policy of the United Arab Emirates for her local economy Introduction United Arab Emirates (UAE)is a country consisting of seven different emirates; Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm al-Quwain, Ras al-Khaimah and Fujairah. Abu Dhabi is the largest emirate in UAE. The discovery of oil resources across the Gulf region has attracted many people from all over the world to gulf countries in general and UAE in particular. UAE, especially Dubai is mainly depending on business rather than oil for its economic growth. Huge constructions are going on across UAE and the latest in this list is the World’s highest skyscraper, Burj Dubai (later named as Burj Khalifa) in Dubai. UAE is mainly depending on the overseas workers especially from countries like India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Philippines etc fro its infrastructure development. Arabs generally not much interested in hard works and hence the opportunities for skilled labors are immense in this region. But the uncontrolled immigration has brought advantages and disadvantages to the UAE social life. The major advantage of immigration to UAE was that UAE was able to utilize the expertise of overseas workers for its development. On the other hand the major disadvantage of immigration is the demographic imbalances in UAE. The number of immigrants already exceeded the number of locals in UAE which brought long term fiscal problems also. Many economists believe that the GDP of may drop considerably as soon as the natural resources like oil decreases or exhausts. This paper briefly analyzes the advantages and disadvantages, UAE may experience because of immigration Literature review Corbett, (1951) has argued that for the last two centuries economic and population growth have taken place rapidly. For some economists population growth is a passive reflection of economic growth (Corbett, 1951, p.360). In other words, population growth was perceived as the symbol of economic growth by many economists earlier. But now many countries like to reduce the population growth rate in order to ensure economic progress. Countries like China and India are the best examples. In China, only one child per family is allowed whereas in India, the family planning policies encourages one or two children maximum per family. Japan on the other hand, concentrated fully on economic development accumulating the efforts of both males and females after their destruction due to World War 2. Japanese females postponed conceiving from males in order to concentrate more on the rebuild up of Japan after war. From all the above examples it is clear that current economic principles are connected with decreasing the population growth rates rather than increasing it. It is difficult for a country like UAE which is very small in size compared to some other Gulf countries like Saudi or Iran to find resources to cater the needs of their local population as well as the immigrant population. So they cannot allow the immigration beyond certain limits. Zacharia et al, (2002 has also mentioned that changes in the immigration policy of the UAE government, completion of major infrastructure projects and economic recession in the region have reduced substantially the demand for unskilled and semi-skilled labourers in the UAE. These new policies are part of the demographic balancing or the emiratization process in which UAE has taken steps to ban visas for unskilled Asian workers (Zacharia et al, 2002). UAE government is in a dilemma of how to control the immigration problem. At one side if they put restrictions on immigration it will affect he ongoing construction works in UAE. On the other side it is impossible for them to allow uncontrollable immigration because of the demographic imbalances it can cause in UAE. Already the immigrant population in UAE is more than the locals. No sovereign state may like to have such situation. Unavailability of cheap and skilled labour forced UAE to encourage immigration earlier in order to boost the infrastructure development. Arabs were uneducated and unskilled people before the discovery of oil resources in the gulf region. Most of the Arabs were fishermen at that time. But the discovery of oil has revolutionized this region. Gulf countries were in need of imported technologies and manpower for the effective utilization of the oil resources. Thus, Americans, Europeans, Asians and Africans started to immigrate to gulf region for the exploration of fortunes. Oil resources made the gulf countries richer and infrastructure started to develop. Advantages of Immigration John and Keith (1998) have argued that immigrants may expand trade with their country of origin, owing to superior knowledge of, or preferential access to, market opportunities They also pointed out that a 10 per cent increase in immigrants is associated with a 1 per cent increase in Canadian exports to the immigrants home country and a 3 per cent increase in imports (John and Keith 1998). Thus immigration can increase the trades between countries and mutual benefits can be ensured through immigration. It is an accepted fact that one of the biggest trade partners of UAE is India. This is because of the historical relationships India has with UAE. Indian immigrants are large number in UAE which contributed to the increased economic cooperation between these two countries. Dubai world, Dubai media city like big companies are currently investing in India as part of their business expansion. “In 2004 Cochin Port granted DP World the permission to operate the existing Rajiv Gandhi Container Terminal and to develop the International Container Transhipment Terminal (ICTT) at Vallarpadam” Kerala, India (India, Vallarpadom, n. d) Zacharia et al, (2002) has mentioned the role of Indian immigrants especially those from Kerala in the development of UAE. He has pointed out that while the average annual estimate of the total remittances from all countries to India was of Rs 13,815 crores for the period 1998-2000 remittances from the Gulf countries alone would be about Rs 12,640 crores (Zacharia et al, 2002). From the above statistics itself it is clear that the outflow of resources from UAE like countries is too large compared to the inflow. In other words, the foreigners were able to exploit the resources of UAE to their own advantages. At the same timeimmigration helped UAE immensely in developing the infrastructure. Indians, Pakistanis and Sri Lankans contributed heavily to the infrastructure build up of UAE and it was not possible for UAE to attain its current status without the sweats of this immigrant community. Immigration also helped people of UAE to know more about the external world and culture which influenced their social life also. The influence of western culture is evident in UAE. Even though the influence of western culture is not much evident in counties like Saudi Arabia or Kuwait, it influenced UAE very much. Lots of UAE youths are now studying in western countries and the educational level of UAE has increased a lot in recent times, all because of the influence of immigrant community. Disadvantages of Immigration Demographic imbalances are the major problems faced by UAE because of immigration. Abdullah (2007) has written on Gulf Today dated April 14, 2007 that 8 out of 10 people living in the UAE were born abroad as per the statistics available in 2005. Moreover, if the current double digit annual economic growth continues, the percentage of non-citizen will reach 90 per cent by 2015 and by 2025 the citizens of the UAE will constitute zero per cent of the population (Abdullah, 2007). Diversified population may cause lot of social problems in UAE. For example the locals of UAE are Muslims whereas most of the immigrants are Hindus and Christians. It is impossible for UAE to think in terms of a population which is dominated by religions other than Muslims. Problems related to national identity, citizenship, residency etc can also raise immense problems in UAE because of uncontrolled immigration. Arabs mainly speak Arabic language whereas the intrusion of immigrants may destroy the local language and culture. Multiculturalism at the work place may cause social and linguistic problems. Lazaridis (2003), has mentioned that a country may benefit from foreign immigration because of the increased unavailability of cheap labor, but encounter problems from xenophobia and social unrest and the end result depends on demographic characteristics, qualifications and immigrant skills and the capacity of the host country to absorb foreign labor and benefit from it (Lazaridis, 2003, p.1). In UAE most of the immigrants are uneducated labours from neighbouring countries like India and Pakistan. Even though these people are ready to engage in any type of works, such unskilled or uneducated population is not good for the future growth prospects of UAE. Social unrests due to conflicts between immigrants and locals, increased robbery, environmental problems etc can arise in future if the population growth increases beyond the limits. Increased danger of terrorism is another disadvantage of immigration. “Some argue that the continued ability of illegal immigrants to enter the country increases the threat of domestic terrorism. In reality, the threat is minimal. The known dangers associated with terrorism all involve Islamic individuals” (Immigration policy issues, 2007). A Palestinian leader has been assassinated in a hotel in Dubai few days before and Dubai police has claimed that some Israelis are behind this crime. These Israelis were believed to be visited in Dubai on European passports. Dahi Khalfan Tamim, Dubais police chief, said he believed Israeli agents, using British, French, German and Irish passports, were behind the killing on January 19 (Israeli Intelligence Assassinates Palestinian Leader in Dubai, 2010). From the above example it is clear that immigrants can engage in terrorist activities also. Nowadays most of the terrorists use fake passports in order to hide their identity. Israeli criminals also did exactly that, but the vigilance of Dubai police has unveiled the misery behind this killing and almost succeeded in establishing the Israeli hand in the assassination of the Palestinian/Hamas leader. Immigration is the main reason for U.S. population growth. Based on the current rate of immigration, U.S. population will increase substantially increase by 2050 and 65% of this growth will be either the direct or indirect effect of immigration (Immigration policy issues, 2007).Same way, UAE population growth also related to immigration. Population growth is not a desirable phenomenon for a country as far the economic growth is concerned. For small country like UAE, uncontrolled population growth may create lot of social and environmental problems. UAE is already struggling to give proper education and healthcares to the public. Moreover, transportation depending on road alone is not enough for UAE at present and they have recently constructed a rail path from Dubai to UAE in order to tackle the transportation problems. Because immigrants occupy low income employment, their wages are low and they are more affected by downturns in the economy (Immigration policy issues, 2007). Low income immigrant community cannot survive in UAE. The food expenses, water electricity expenses, house rents all gone up drastically in recent times, nut the wages did not increase proportionally. This increase in living expenses and decrease in income may force the immigrant community to engage in antisocial behaviours like theft to find money for their survival in UAE Conclusions Immigration has brought many advantages and disadvantages to UAE. The major advantages of immigration are that it helped UAE to utilize their immobile resources to boost the economy. It was impossible for UAE to develop to its present status without the services of the expatriate community. Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans, Pilipinos etc were the major contributors in the development of UAE. Immigration also helped UAE to get about the different cultures and moreover it helped them to get proper education especially from western universities. Another advantage immigration brought to UAE was the increased trades between the immigrant’s countries. On the other hand immigration also brought many challenges to UAE. The major disadvantage of immigration is the demographic imbalances in UAE. Currently the immigrant population is much more in number in UAE compared to locals. Immigrant population may have different culture and languages which may destroy the local language and culture and can constitute social unrest. References 1. Abdullah Abdulkhaleq, (2007), UAEs demographic imbalance, Gulf News, April 14, 2007, Retrieved on 27 February 2010 from http://gulfnews.com/opinions/columnists/uae-s-demographic-imbalance-1.172314 2. Corbett D. C. (1951), Immigration and Economic Development, The Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science, Vol. 17, No. 3; Retrieved on 27 February 2010 from http://www.jstor.org/pss/137692 3. India, Vallarpadom, (n. d), Retrieved on 27 February 2010 from http://portal.pohub.com/portal/page?_pageid=761,248793&_dad=pogprtl&_schema=POGPRTL 4. Immigration policy issues, (2007), Retrieved on 27 February 2010 from http://newsbatch.com/immigration.htm 5. Israeli Intelligence Assassinates Palestinian Leader in Dubai, (2010), Retrieved on 27 February 2010 from http://www.sompost.com/?p=2717 6. Lazaridis G, (2003), Foreign immigration and economic development in Greece; International Journal of Economic Development,  Retrieved on 27 February 2010 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa5479/is_2_5/ai_n29064779/ 7. Riess John and Head Keith (1998), Immigration and Trade Creation: Econometric Evidence from Canada, Retrieved on 27 February 2010 from http://www.jstor.org/pss/136376 8. Zachariah K C, Prakash B A and Irudaya Rajan S (2002), Gulf migration study: Employment, wages and working conditions of Kerala emigrants in the United Arab Emirates, Centre for Development Studies, India, Retrieved on 27 February 2010 from http://ideas.repec.org/p/ind/cdswpp/326.html  Read More