Social Science: UAE the global village - Assignment Example

Globalization in United Arab Emirates The essay aims to address a two-fold objective to wit to describe how globalization has impacted the culture of UAE; and (2) to focus on issues such as multiculturalism, education, health, social stratification, crime, violence, human rights, technology, poverty, conflicts, economic boom/economic down turn, etc. Globalization in United Arab Emirates Globalization has been defined as the increased in interdependency and integration to improve trade flows, capital flows, and investment (Held, 2000, 94).

It has been a phenomenon that is in existence for some time and a key player for a genuinely international economy. Almost all countries in the world are experiencing globalization and one these countries is the United Arab Emirates. Back then, UAE was just a Persian Gulf nation with unforgiving landscape. Its gift of oil has transformed UAE’s image from desert into a glamorous and innovative society and has known as the world’s most economic powerhouses, along with United States, Singapore and Hong Kong.

From a traditional and modest people, UAE citizens have gained courage and took the risks of entering the global marketplace which later leads to the diversity of the population – one of the impacts of rapid globalization to culture. Other effects of globalization include the unprecedented growth of economy and infrastructure, influx of foreign labor and losing local labor, improvement of communication, education and technology, intermingling of cultures (sophisticated colonization), social degeneration, increased competition among labor sectors or countries, and gender role.

Because of economic boom, people around the world migrate or went to UAE for job opportunities and better amenities. This has resulted to the diversity of population in UAE and/or social degeneration. In fact, UAE nationals comprise only 10% of the population (The Levin Institute, 2013, n.p.) – an unbalanced proportion of the population that has to be corrected in favor of the citizens due to possible effects in natural historical and political phenomenon. Questions of logic and reality-check also arise as to how the current demographic structure could reverse the shift of population.

Globalization has made the UAE’s economic aspects really high. Industries have gained worldwide production markets, broader access to foreign business, and provisions of financial markets. With these, UAE has been coined as the country with the second largest and fastest growing economy in the region (The Levin Institute, 2013, n.p.) which offers opportunities for investment, employment, wealth creation, and developmental projects. The construction of continental hotels and other tourism and travel infrastructures have also contributed to the economic growth brought by globalization.

Despite economic growth and industrialization, unemployment of its local citizens seems to be one of the major problems of UAE. While 10% only of the population is UAE nationals, the employment of UAE citizens in the private sector workforce is approximately 1% (The Levin Institute, 2013, n.p.). There seems to have no problem in job opportunities; in fact, thousands of jobs are being offered yearly. It is the suitability of the nature of employment that UAE citizens cannot find work. Besides, company owners find it more sustainable to hire foreign workers due to low compensation.

In this situation, it is not surprising that foreign labor increases while local labor decreases as a result of globalization. The UAE government is currently making amendments on its human resourcing process of foreign nationals in order to prioritize employment of UAE graduates. Globalization has also made impact on UAE’s aspect of communication, education, and culture. Due to migration and economic relations from other countries, UAE has able to increase its information of geographically remote locations.

It has developed global telecommunications structure and global standards using modern technologies. Through also modern technologies and migration, worldwide fads and pop culture has been adopted such as YouTube, Facebook, and MySpace. Others assimilate imported culture such as Hollywood movies and products to their everyday living which have resulted in a multicultural UAE. Indeed, communication, education, and technology impacted UAE culture in their daily lives, in the concept of materialism, the importance of environment, and life and society in general.

Globalization has also made a significant impact on achieving gender parity among women in UAE. Because of historical foundation, the role of the women in UAE is limited on raising children. Due to the emergence of globalization in the 21st century, the society has changed the role of the women. They have proved their competence and excellence in terms of education and wage parity; however, some forms of gender discrimination among women were still observed in aiming top positions or ranks and participating in the decision-making process and policy-formulation.

Thanks to the globalization, it has paved a way for women to attain education and right to be heard and treated equally even in a marginalized way. With all these impacts that globalization had brought to UAE, one can summarized that globalization affects UAE culture both positively and negatively. It is better that countries are participating in the international economy in order to achieve improvement but UAE nationals have to bear in mind the probable impact it may cause to its own citizen.

Simultaneous to economic growth must have been the increase of employment opportunities for its people but the reverse happened to UAE as they hire foreign nationals. UAE own their country but a greater number of the population are foreign nationals. With this number, effort to preserve cultural identity becomes a challenge as the emergence of other cultures has led nationals to appreciate foreign products and adopt their culture. Voices of the women were heard and roles were not only limited to raising a child or a family but it is not enough to be with the same phase of rapid globalization.

If UAE would not address issues related to employment, nationality, and cultural diversity, they will soon wake up in a country that is no longer theirs to develop. References Held, D. (2000). Economic Globalization? In G. Thompson, A Globalizing World? Culture, Economics, Politics (pp. 85-126). New York: The Open University Press. The Levin Institute. (2013). What the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Thinks About Globalization. New York: Silicon Valley. Retrieved from http://www.globalization101.org/ on April 25, 2013.