Dubai portrayed

Dubai portrayed

migrant workers Dubai

The emirate’s population surpassed 3.5 million in 2022 but, with a major expansion of the city planned, the government’s goal is a target of 5.8 million people by 2040.
With almost 90 percent of its population consisting of foreigners, the United Arab Emirates are viewed by potential migrant workers as a “land of hope”.
Migrants are the people who literally built the city up from its humble origins as a small town in the 1970s, and the people who keep the city functioning on a daily basis. Most of the city’s construction workers are from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, while domestic and care services are provided mainly by women from countries such as the Philippines and Sri Lanka. . They provide the backbone of society and labor to provide the Gulf with its iconic infrastructure.          migrant workers Dubai
International coverage of Dubai has mostly focused on the skyscrapers and the luxury hotels of Dubai., but what has been left largely unseen are the living conditions of many of the UAE’s migrant workers.
Since the 1970s, as in other Gulf states, the relationship between employers and migrant workers has been regulated by the kafala system of sponsorship.                    migrant workers Dubai
A 2019 US State Department report noted that the Emirati government “rarely investigated” violations of the Emirati law governing the Kafala system, which occur in the form of frequent passport confiscations and irregular or no payment of wages. This lack of regulation allows employers to often confiscate employees’ passports, forces them to reside in crowded labor camps, and restricts the financial independence of the employees through imposing recruitment fees.
In addition to the lack of regulation, the UAE has no minimum wage set for migrant workers, does not allow workers to join unions, and forces them to receive the “permission” of their employer before changing or quitting a job. These restrictions lead to a view of the Kafala system and the Emirati employment procedures as an example of “modern slavery.”
Dubai is a city of dualities and divides, and is home to many political, social, and spatial boundaries and dichotomies. All of the above mentioned legal and social mechanisms have played out in a way that has created rigid boundaries between different social classes, races, nationalities, and religions.      migrant workers Dubai
There is no doubt that the UAE has to make significant progress towards protecting the basic rights of migrant workers that migrate there in hopes of building a better, more prosperous future.

Pablo Munini © Dubai September 2023

migrant workers Dubai