Temporary labour migration to United Arab Emirates: a complex story

Document Type

Article

Source of Publication

Migration and Development

Publication Date

1-12-2018

Abstract

In this study, we take a point of departure in two recently available large quantitative sources of data from the United Arab Emirates(UAE) in order to analyse social and economic aspects of temporary labour migration to the country. We attempt to present a nuanced and broad-scale description of social and economic situation of labour immigrants in the UAE. The results paint a rather complex picture. On one hand, immigrant workers are often low-paid and harshly treated, on the other there are opportunities for economic advancement for many of them. We conclude that, although far from being a neo-liberal utopia, the UAE does provide better opportunities for millions of immigrants. Life in the country is harsh for many of immigrants but it is less harsh than the alternatives they have in home countries. Regarding the UAE citizens, they surely are or will be facing economic challenges due to massive immigration, but the country has experienced the levels of economic development that would be unimaginable without a large-scale immigration. Thus, the immigration experience of the UAE has so far largely been a win-win situation, for both natives and immigrants.

ISSN

2163-2324

Publisher

Informa UK Limited

Volume

7

First Page

352

Last Page

365

Disciplines

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Indexed in Scopus

no

Open Access

yes

Open Access Type

Green: A manuscript of this publication is openly available in a repository

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS