The Experiences of Migrant Laborers in the United Arab Emirates

 

   

            

           I recently read a book titled Temporary People by the author Deepak Unnikrishnan. In this book Unnikrishnan depicts the lives of migrant workers in the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E). Using loosely linked short stories, Unnikrishnan explores the difficult and painful experiences of migrant laborers in connection to language, race, ethnicity and economic status. I highly recommend you read it when you get a chance! This book led me to research the U.A.E and its migrant laborer population.

             The U.A.E comprised of its seven emirates, collectively has a population of 9.991 million people. Of this number only 11% of the UAE's residents are citizens of the country. This means that the remaining 89% of the country's population are in the country on a temporary basis. The economy of the nation is largely reliant on migrant labor. The state uses a private sponsorship system known as kafala to control labor migration to the UAE. The kafala system with its rules and regulations creates a setting where only a fraction of the populace possesses citizenship rights. As such, every migrant employee must have an employer sponsor who is a UAE national or resident. The sponsor must typically hold a majority ownership position in the company. As a result, there is a substantial power gap between the sponsor, who is also the worker's legal employer, and the migrant worker.

        Consequently, migrant workers are often subjected to difficult labor conditions such as the confiscation of passports, excessive work hours, unsanitary living quarters, and wage withholding. All this contributes to the rise in demand for the trafficking of migrants as it offers opportunities for recruiters, exploiters, and brokers. Migrant workers who are trafficked into forced labor are frequently charged hefty recruitment fees by agencies to get work permits and jobs in the UAE. However, once in the UAE, victims are forced to sign contracts that frequently contain terms they do not comprehend and that differ from what they were told. Then they must endure grueling, long hours of labor in overcrowded work camps. They also endure low pay, irregular payments, and subpar living and hygienic conditions. Inevitably, the workers are forced to accept the terms and circumstances imposed on them and are placed in debt-bondage situations. This is especially prevalent among domestic, lower-level service, and construction employees. Additionally, many incidents have been reported of women migrant workers who have become victims of sex trafficking. The kafala system continues to provide employers a lot of power over employees, making them more susceptible to forced labor, human trafficking, and other forms of exploitation.

          It is important to note, the role of U.A.E citizens in all of this. The system has established a social contract between the state and the citizen, whereby the latter is basically promised a ready supply of income and extensive control over migrant labor in exchange for less social and political freedoms. The state provides its residents with a wide range of social benefits, including extensive housing benefits, access to free healthcare and education, preferential treatment in the job market, generally better wages, and more—despite the fact that they are subject to limits on their human rights. This has made citizens comfortable enough in this system, so much so that they enforce the system or simply turn a blind eye to the plight of these migrant laborers.

           The experiences of these migrant workers in the U.A.E reminds me of Trauger and Fluri’s book ‘Engendering Development’ which we read in Week 6. Here, their discussion on migration, labor and the vulnerability of migrants stands out. They highlight migration as integral to some sectors of work and the growth of large economies yet migrants are left susceptible and mostly defenseless against profit driven exploitation. Migrant labor work (particularly informal work) is characterized by inhumane hardship while simultaneously integral to connecting local economies to the global networks of capital. All of this rings true in the case of the U.A.E. It is painfully evident that there is a need for change in such exploitative situations. I see this situation as nothing short of indentured servitude! It is my hope that international bodies and external governments step in to help in this situation. However, considering the political, economic and power dynamics involved in confronting states like the U.A.E, will international bodies and external governments ever effectively address these injustices? Only time will tell.

References

https://carnegieendowment.org/2020/07/07/uae-s-kafala-system-harmless-or-human-trafficking-pub-82188

Trauger, Amy and Jennifer L. Fluri. 2019. Engendering Development: Capitalism and Inequality in the Global Economy. New York: Routledge

Unnikrishnan, Deepak. Temporary people. Penguin Random House India Private Limited, 2017.