Impact of Immigration on the United Arab Emirates Ability to Achieve its Vision 2030 Goals - Case Study Example

Impact of Immigration on United Arab Emirates’ Ability to achieve its vision 2030 Goals Student: Institutional Affiliation: Date: Impact of Immigration on United Arab Emirates’ Ability to achieve its vision 2030 Goals Since the discovery and commercialization of oil in the United Arab Emirates in the 1950s, the country has experienced unprecedented flow of immigrant workers and traders from all over the world particularly from India, Philippines and Pakistan. As of 2013, the United Arab Emirates had an immigrant population of 7.8 million out of the country’s total population of 9.2 million at the time. As can be seen from the demographics, the most striking aspect of the UAE’s society is that immigrants actually outnumber the native population of the country [Bel15]. While the expatriate population has played a significant role in developing the Emirates by offering labour, skills, expertise and experience across all sectors, immigration remains to be a strategic concern issue in the UAE’s vision 2030 due to its impact on the social, political and economic spheres of the society. This means the UAE’s leadership must develop immigration policies that take into account the goals of the vision 2030 and the best interests of its citizens. If UAE fails to develop and implement sound immigration policies, the country may not be able to achieve its goal of promoting an inclusive social environment that integrates all segments of society while preserving the countries culture, heritage and traditions. The economic effect of Immigration on UAE’s society and its vision 2030 In order to ensure that UAE has an immigration policy framework that supports its growth and development goals, it will be important for the government to engage economic experts and local political leadership to come up with strategies that will attract highly skilled workforce to work with its native population in various sectors. Such a policy should aim to build cohesion and harmony in a multicultural society such as UAE as envisioned in its vision 2030 [The168]. This means that it will be important to enforce policies that promote the participation of native workers in the growth of economy to facilitate knowledge sharing and cooperation between immigrant populations and UAE citizens. Already, the UAE government has had to reform its migration policies to employ more of its citizens in its government agencies and institutions [TFr13]. However, expatriates made up more than 99.5 percent of people employed in private sector in industries such as tourism, finance, manufacturing and other services in 2013 [Bel15]. The UAE government is currently focused on diversifying the economy to reduce future reliance on hydrocarbons as the primary source of revenue for the economy. This has seen significant investment in research and development, education, establishment of industries and human capital. It is important to note that the UAE relies to a large extent on the skills, expertise and knowledge of expatriate workers in various sectors of the economy (Baldwin-Edwards, 2011). According to Shah (2006), the UAE government has had to reform its immigration policies to offer more protection for such workers rights after accusations of hostility from the natives and oppressive labour laws. To affect such reforms, UAE may have to foster closer diplomatic and working relations with the various countries with significant numbers of expatriate workers in UAE to sustain flow of skilled workers and knowledge from advanced economies and countries with such abundant resources. This will also ensure emirates such as Dubai continue to attract key foreign direct investment (FDI) to spur economic growth. Currently, Dubai is reliant on Abu Dhabi for financial support [Bel15]. For Dubai to achieve FDI-induced growth, it has to promote immigration policies that ensure foreigners feel safe and secure working and investing in the UAE. Sound immigration policies that protect both immigrants and natives will also ensure Dubai and Abu Dhabi remain as regional hubs for trade, financial services and knowledge exchange. This will be achieved through a diversified economy supported by entrepreneurship and a truly global focus of the country’s private sector. Such an undertaking will require the effort of both nationals and foreigners in the UAE society. Clearly, building an inclusive economic environment through appropriate policies will be an effective way of ensuring UAE benefits from the contribution of both nationals and expatriates in different sectors of a diversified economy. The political effects of UAE immigration trends and policies on the current and future growth as envisioned in the country’s vision 2030 UAE’s demographic figures paint a rather uncommon feature in most countries, judging from the high numbers of expatriates compared to Emiratis. As of 2013, 92.6 percent of the the population that made up the labour force in Dubai comprised of expatriate workers [Bel15]. At the start of the 21st century, the UAE government has consistently reviewed its immigration policies to limit the nationals’ exposure to unemployment caused by increased supply of skilled and cheap immigrant labour. This was a hot political issue that remains to be a key policy consideration for the government. The government has to give priority of employment to Emiratis in most of its agencies and commercial concerns to prevent a local uprising of the nationals against expatriate workers (Shah, 2006). Moreover, it is important to note that in its vision 2030, the UAE strives to achieve a cohesive society that preserves its cultural identity and heritage. Apart from local political pressure, immigration imbalance in the UAE may affect the country’s vision 2030 aim of preserving a safe environment for every Emirati to live a dignified life protected by an effective justice system and a stable government [The168]. After the 2011 Arab spring, the UAE government has shown deliberate concern towards admitting immigrants from Arab countries such as Syria and Egypt. Some undocumented Lebanese immigrants were also expelled in 2009 on suspicion of links with Hezbollah, a national security threat to UAE [Bel15]. Yemeni immigrants are also closely monitored due to UAE’s involvement in the ongoing Yemen civil war that has Iran and UAE supporting different factions of the fighting groups. UAE rationale for military intervention in Yemen is to stabilise the region to prevent growth of terrorist groups that may destabilise stable countries such as UAE due to lapses in immigration control measures [Hen16]. In 2013, UAE issued a two-month amnesty that saw the exit of more than 60,000 illegal immigrants from the country. The government has in the recent past adopted a stricter requirement for employers in relation to employing undocumented workers. In 2013, the UAE government established the Emirates Identity Authority with the key objective of registering all its residents including immigrants. By the start of 2014, Emirates Identity Authority had documented 95.22% of the nationals and 95.33 of the expatriates in the country [Bel15]. Evidently, the government has to rely on its institutional capacity and intelligence gathering to avert possible political and security threats that may result from uncontrolled immigration. Such threats may affect UAE’s ability to achieve its goal for a robust economy supported by a stable domestic political environment. The social, environmental and developmental effects of immigration on the UAE’s vision 2030 agenda. In its vision 2030, the UAE commits to providing its population with decent housing, clean water and air, access to goods transport systems, healthcare and all other essential services. The government hopes to have working policies in place to preserve water resources, to ensure production of more clean energy and limit constraints on available resources, infrastructure and resources [Bel15]. In 2015, the UAE government cut its spending by 4.2% for the first time in 13 years to ease the funding pressure on the government [Bou15]. This is a very strong indicator that the government may in future consider limiting its social support budget spending. Government spending on infrastructure development, healthcare, social support and wages play a significant role in improving the living standards of UAE residents [Bel15]. Given the highly imbalanced demographic situation in UAE, it is clear that expatriates benefit to a large extent from government spending in areas such as infrastructure development. A growth in immigrant numbers may be putting a strain on existing infrastructure and resources such as water much to the disadvantage of the small population of the Emiratis. Such constrains on the infrastructure may affect the government ability to offer decent services to its nationals. In order to offer its citizenry access to basic needs and conditions for high standards of living, it will be important for the government to control immigrant population in full awareness of the available resources and existing infrastructure. It is fair to note that the expatriate community continues to contribute significantly to the development of UAE through establishment of institutions that can help the economy competes globally. For instance, due to partnerships between UAE and foreign universities, the country recorded an enrolment of 50,000 foreign students in its higher education institutions such as the American University of Sharjah and Dubai Harvard Foundation for Medical Research [Bel15]. Such developments in education and research have been made possible by friendly immigration policies that promote FDI and expatriate collaboration with the nationals. Apparently, the UAE government can achieve its vision 2030 aim of being among the best in world in the human development index by instituting immigration policies that do not discriminate against foreigners. The government can also forge collaboration with United Nations agencies, internationally reputed organisations and friendly foreign governments to collectively improve global living standards. From the analysis and arguments in this paper, it is evident that immigration has a profound effect on the ability of UAE to actualise its vision 2030. A sound immigration policy will ensure UAE has adequate and skilled workforce that can be relied upon in the future economic diversification agenda of the government. Such a policy should also ensure cohesion, political stability and uniform improvement in standards of living among all the residents of the UAE. The choice of an immigration policy and implementation methodology should also take into consideration the social, environmental and developmental aspect of the UAE society given the continued strain on resources such as water in the world. The government’s ability to offer its citizens a decent and productive life cannot ignore the effect of immigration policies in the country considering foreigner make up 88.5% of the population. Therefore, immigration policies in UAE should be aligned with the UAE vision 2030 agenda in order for the vision to be achieved successfully. References Bel15: , (Bel-Air, 2015), The168: , (The United Arab Emirates, 2016), TFr13: , (T, Malit, & Youha, 2013), Hen16: , (Henriksen & Larssen, 2016), Bou15: , (Bouyamourn, 2015), Read More