who you are determines what you get

The Emirates primary objective is growth through attraction of foreign investment and skills that are lacking locally. In order to enhance this, they open their economy as much as possible hence sacrificing environmental or social regulations and investments. After visiting Abu Dhabi and Dubai for the last ten days I have noticed an apparent breakdown of the social classes. At the top, with the most power and wealth are the Emiratis followed by an upper class of expatriates from Europe, India and other Middle Eastern countries. They are usually educated and hold respectable jobs with high, tax free salaries. And at the bottom a lower working class also constituted of expats but from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Philippines, Africa and India. University educated in their home country or not; they are usually construction workers, taxi drivers, fast food employees or in other service industries. Coming from the management faculty of our university; the objective of our trip was obviously oriented towards discovering the business opportunities, and the corporate life style in the Emirates. Very little focus on the underprivileged portion of the population.

I hence dedicated a portion of my free time to talk with some of these people. While the general census was that life is better here than at home with better working opportunities and conditions, many were disillusioned shortly after their arrival here. They work hard long hours for very little income for jobs often undermining their skill level. Although this is slowly changing, the lower class has difficult access to education and healthcare and are not always treated the best of ways. However, as said previously, they wouldn't be here if they had nothing to gain.

The image that was described to us by the managers of the companies we have visited was that Dubai and Abu Dhabi are going to be amongst the most important economic and cultural hubs in the future. I must admit that they had some very good arguments and I wouldn't be surprised if they are proven right in the future. However I just wanted to note the contrast between the opportunities for the upper class and those for the lower class, although both positive, are greatly disproportionate, significantly advantaging the few privileged. This is necessary to a certain extent in order to attract investment, although quite excessive here in my point of view. Given that the UAE is completely new, hence allowing incredible flexibility in its policies, I believe that it can seize this chance to not make the mistakes of others and get things right from the start.

If the United Arab Emirates is to be a leading figure in the future, I would just hope for it to not also be an example of inequality.