Page 419 - UAE Truncal States

Chapter Nine

foreigner. The nation as a whole has too small a population to
produce enough petroleum engineers to guarantee the flow of oil,
enough doctors to treat the local and expatriate sick, enough
teachers lo teach everybody’s children, enough labourers to do the
hard work, or enough gardeners lo beautify the towns.
The fundamental issue of the population structure has been
recognised by now by shaikhs, government officials and citizens
alike, because it is now quite apparent that the original local
population is outnumbered by the high concentration of expatriates
in the large towns. The issue is complicated by the fact that the
expatriates belong to many different groups, lo some of whom the
local population has a broad degree of affinity and who in turn can
lay a more or less justifiable claim to eventual citizenship. Many are
tribally related brothers from Oman and other Gulf countries or from
across the water on the Iranian coast; others are members of the large
Arab nation, of which the UAE is an integral part; many of the
immigrants from the Indian subcontinent are fellow Muslims, others
such as the Eritreans are persecuted in their home countries.
The burning issue of immigration has not unsurprisingly become a
bone of contention between the Emirates individually and between
federal and local governments. Inseparable from the craving for
economic expansion within one’s own Emirate was the necessity to
adopt a flexible attitude towards the immigration of men to build and
later to operate the new industries, and, in particular, of people with
essential skills. Mutual recriminations between the Emirates have
sometimes resulted. Thus, while Abu Dhabi recruited teachers and
administrators from Egypt and elsewhere in the Arab World, Dubai
was relatively open lo immigrants from India, Pakistan and Iran,
because their labour was needed to complete as quickly as
possible the many projects which were being executed simul­
taneously. Periodic attempts to co-ordinate immigration on a volun­
tary basis were shortlived, as were attempts by the federal autho­
rities to enforce their regulations uniformly at all the points of entry
to the UAE.155 Compliance with the requirements of valid documents
such as passports, residence visas, and working permits needed the
co-operation of the administrative bodies of each Emirate, which was
not always forthcoming. 156
The issue of immigration is associated with the rate of economic
growth and industrialisation157 in the Emirates, but it also has a
bearing on national identity and security. Foreigners may at times be
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