"Slave" Revolt in the UAE

[Kriegdämmerung]

There's been a lot of talk about the use of "slave labor" (I use the quotes for any potential debate over the nature of these laborers, I consider it slave labor) in the UAE, particularly in the city of Dubai. I assume that these imported laborers are found in the other emirates, and probably in the other Gulf States, liek Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, etc.

My question is, however unlikely, what if these collected laborers were to lead a revolt, or even stage a revolution in the UAE? This leaves a couple of questions to be answered...

1) Are there enough laborers to offset the population set against them?

2) Do enough natives/expatriates in the UAE have ideals that would support such a revolution?

3) What would the response to such an uprising be? Can the Western world, which has shown in the past to turn a blind eye to human rights abuses in her allies, be able to deny that this slave revolt was a slave revolt?

 

[Flocculencio]

There's been a lot of talk about the use of "slave labor" (I use the quotes for any potential debate over the nature of these laborers, I consider it slave labor) in the UAE, particularly in the city of Dubai. I assume that these imported laborers are found in the other emirates, and probably in the other Gulf States, liek Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, etc.

My question is, however unlikely, what if these collected laborers were to lead a revolt, or even stage a revolution in the UAE? This leaves a couple of questions to be answered...

1) Are there enough laborers to offset the population set against them?

2) Do enough natives/expatriates in the UAE have ideals that would support such a revolution?

3) What would the response to such an uprising be? Can the Western world, which has shown in the past to turn a blind eye to human rights abuses in her allies, be able to deny that this slave revolt was a slave revolt?

1) Yes

2) No. The labourers are more downtrodden than angry- troublemakers are identified early on and weeded out by various means.

#) Unfortunately the first World would probably try to turn a blind eye. It needs Gulf oil.

 

[mowque]

Wait, slaves, what?

 

[Cook]

Slave is a bit extreme.
You can make the case for referring to them as indentured labourers but not slaves.
Remember that while a Bangladeshi working in Dubai gets payed a pittance, works in dangerous conditions and sleeps in a sea container without air-conditioning in over 40C temperatures he’s still doing better then a lot of his countrymen back home.

While they certainly have the numbers they definitely don’t have anything else required for a Spartacus revolt. No equipment, organisation or motivation. An expat in the UAE doesn’t want to take over the country; he’d just like better pay and conditions.

And industrial action is out of the question. Anyone organising such industrial action will be deported and there is no shortage of low skilled labour to replace anyone striking.

And rest assured that the only weapons available in the UAE are in the hands of very loyal citizens.

 

[The Kiat]

Aren't the natives in Dubai already outnumbered by the foreign workers? And why did they import them; was there a labor shortage or did Dubai's subjects want too much pay?

 

[Cook]

Aren't the natives in Dubai already outnumbered by the foreign workers? And why did they import them; was there a labor shortage or did Dubai's subjects want too much pay?

All low skilled labour in the Persian Gulf Oil industry is done by expatriates. Most are Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Indian and Philippino.

The skilled labour comes mostly from Europe, America, Australia.

As to why?
The locals don’t want to do the work because it’s poor paying, dirty and dangerous.
Plus they’d still need more people.

 

[The Kiat]

All low skilled labour in the Persian Gulf Oil industry is done by expatriates. Most are Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Indian and Philippino.

The skilled labour comes mostly from Europe, America, Australia.

As to why?
The locals don’t want to do the work because it’s poor paying, dirty and dangerous.
Plus they’d still need more people.

So the Arabs don't work? How do they support themselves? What do they do all day?

 

[Plumber]

Aww, I read this as "Slave Revolt in the USA"...

1) Yes

2) No. The labourers are more downtrodden than angry- troublemakers are identified early on and weeded out by various means.

3) Unfortunately the first World would probably try to turn a blind eye. It needs Gulf oil.

This.

 

[Cook]

So the Arabs don't work? How do they support themselves? What do they do all day?

It’s not that the locals don’t work.

They don’t do labour intensive, low paying and dangerous work.

This isn’t so surprising; the construction industry in the US relies heavily on Mexican workers.

 

[Doraemon]

Wait, slaves, what?

Apparently Dubai is mistreating its contract workers to an extent that they're being called "slaves" by others. There's claims of the government taking their passports, threatening with jail-time, kidnapping, etc.

 

[Sachyriel]

Apparently Dubai is mistreating its contract workers to an extent that they're being called "slaves" by others. There's claims of the government taking their passports, threatening with jail-time, kidnapping, etc.

And not only the Brown one either. They sometimes try to throw white people in prison. :sarcastically alarmed smiley:

However I don't expect a slave revolt soon. At least not one that lasts more than 3 hours in the CNN new reports about it.

 

[Cook]

Apparently Dubai is mistreating its contract workers to an extent that they're being called "slaves" by others.

The others being mostly international trade unionists.

The brutal reality is that there are jobs in The Gulf and cheap labour in the Indian Subcontinent (Pak, Ind, Bengl.) and Philippines.
None of the above governments have raised objections about conditions because they need the hard currency sent back by expat workers and their people need work, any work.

 

[Slowpoke]

and their people need work, any work.

Actually, the main reason why their respective governments are all too happy to see them far away is that they don't want lots of angry unemployed people at home. Better for their citizens to toil away in grueling squalor in some other place than start questioning the government's usage of funds, labour policies etc. Revolutions are born out of stuff like that.

 

[The Kiat]

It’s not that the locals don’t work.

They don’t do labour intensive, low paying and dangerous work.

This isn’t so surprising; the construction industry in the US relies heavily on Mexican workers.

You sure the contractors aren't just greedy and drop the prices so low that nobody from Dubai would take them? And since when is construction in America low paying? Don't know anything about the legal situation in Dubai, but in America, construction crews are often unionized. Just look at the ones who work for the DoTs.

I can't speak for other Americans, but I have no adversion to hard work (which I do, and that makes that slow days where I hardly work all the more enjoyable).

 

[carlton_bach]

You sure the contractors aren't just greedy and drop the prices so low that nobody from Dubai would take them? And since when is construction in America low paying? Don't know anything about the legal situation in Dubai, but in America, construction crews are often unionized. Just look at the ones who work for the DoTs.

I can't speak for other Americans, but I have no adversion to hard work (which I do, and that makes that slow days where I hardly work all the more enjoyable).

It's not only that they don't want to do it - there aren't enough UAEeans around to do the massive amount of work that their modernisation/industrialisation/urbanisation project needs. But at the same time, they are happily using the cheapest labour they can get, so their guest worker regime is set up to make construction jobs desperately unattractive to natives.

I don't think any kind of 'slave revolt' is in the cards, though, because the controls are fairly fierce and there really isn't much of a goal to unite for. What are they going to do, take over the government? Exterminate all the natives? Go home with the loot? It's not Spartacus' days any more. But the labour practices in the Gulf (and increasingly in other parts of South and East Asia) are going to be an increasingly bigger issue as time progresses, I suspect. It's not just the poor pay - on paper, the pay isn't bad by Philippine or Indian standards - it's the abuses and the institutionalised racism. But I don't think the Gulf is the first place where it's liable to erupt. The imported labour is too divided and too strongly under control. Chinese companies in other Asian and Oceanian countries are already having trouble (as in rioting, burning buildings and shooting people trouble). As to the world's response - well, there was an article in Time magazine...

 

[eschaton]

So the Arabs don't work? How do they support themselves? What do they do all day?

Actually, most Arab citizens of Gulf states don't work, the UAE is just an extreme version of that because it started out with such a low population base. Citizens live off oil proceeds, go to school for free and study Islamic philosophy, maybe take a government job if they want to do something for a living.

It's interesting to note, actually, that most international Islamic terrorists actually come from wealthy backgrounds. It's been hypothesized that this is no accident, that being rich and idle means they end up looking for something to fill their time and give their lives meaning, and some thus turn to Islamic radicalism.

Edit: as to the slave question, many employers in Dubai confiscate passports, and many workers find out once they get there they are either paid less than promised or their debt to the headhunter was larger than was previously said. I think it's essentially fair to call them a slave, because they essentially have no choice of quitting their job and finding a new one in the UAE, and even if they are deported back home, they owe so much money they'll never pay their debt off there.

 

[The Kiat]

Actually, most Arab citizens of Gulf states don't work, the UAE is just an extreme version of that because it started out with such a low population base. Citizens live off oil proceeds, go to school for free and study Islamic philosophy, maybe take a government job if they want to do something for a living.

It's interesting to note, actually, that most international Islamic terrorists actually come from wealthy backgrounds. It's been hypothesized that this is no accident, that being rich and idle means they end up looking for something to fill their time and give their lives meaning, and some thus turn to Islamic radicalism.

Edit: as to the slave question, many employers in Dubai confiscate passports, and many workers find out once they get there they are either paid less than promised or their debt to the headhunter was larger than was previously said. I think it's essentially fair to call them a slave, because they essentially have no choice of quitting their job and finding a new one in the UAE, and even if they are deported back home, they owe so much money they'll never pay their debt off there.

So they live in some sort of Startrek-like, money doesn't exist, everything is free world... and then some go off to become terrorists? (Yes, that was a big exxageration) If they want to give their lives some meaning, why not do charity work? After all, charity is one of the pillars of Islam. Or better yet; make them work for their money, earn their way through college (maybe then they'd pick a more useful subject, like engineering). If nothing else, working will keep them out of trouble, maybe even give them a little bit of professional pride too.

This sounds like a good reason not to have free college.

 

[eschaton]

So they live in some sort of Startrek-like, money doesn't exist, everything is free world... and then some go off to become terrorists? (Yes, that was a big exxageration) If they want to give their lives some meaning, why not do charity work? After all, charity is one of the pillars of Islam. Or better yet; make them work for their money, earn their way through college (maybe then they'd pick a more useful subject, like engineering). If nothing else, working will keep them out of trouble, maybe even give them a little bit of professional pride too.

This sounds like a good reason not to have free college.

Things are slowly changing on this front. Essentially, the way the gulf states worked is there was an annual profit the oil industry made, which was distributed to each citizen. Even though oil has remained profitable, since the Muslim world hasn't been big on contraception, the number of citizens has climbed rapidly upward, meaning the slice of the oil profits for each citizen is shrinking.

So the gulf states have embarked on campaigns, like "Saudization" and Emiratization," to incentivize citizens to get private sector jobs. Unfortunately, citizens don't want to work in the gulf states. They turned overnight from subsistence farming and herding societies to idle rich, and don't have any real cultural experience with work. Oman and Qatar have been more successful with getting their citizens to take jobs, Saudi Arabia and the UAE less so.

 

[The Kiat]

Things are slowly changing on this front. Essentially, the way the gulf states worked is there was an annual profit the oil industry made, which was distributed to each citizen. Even though oil has remained profitable, since the Muslim world hasn't been big on contraception, the number of citizens has climbed rapidly upward, meaning the slice of the oil profits for each citizen is shrinking.

So the gulf states have embarked on campaigns, like "Saudization" and Emiratization," to incentivize citizens to get private sector jobs. Unfortunately, citizens don't want to work in the gulf states. They turned overnight from subsistence farming and herding societies to idle rich, and don't have any real cultural experience with work. Oman and Qatar have been more successful with getting their citizens to take jobs, Saudi Arabia and the UAE less so.

Then I guess when the oil runs dry, the will go back to herding. But with such a larger population to feed, the quality of life might plunge even further to the same level as some of the African nations that were recently ripped apart by civil war.

This might sound crazy, but I would have thought "no work, no food" would have been all the incentive anybody would need to work. I know that some places simply have no jobs, but Dubai looks to have plenty in the tourist and financle sectors alone. I just don't understand them.

 

[eschaton]

This might sound crazy, but I would have thought "no work, no food" would have been all the incentive anybody would need to work. I know that some places simply have no jobs, but Dubai looks to have plenty in the tourist and financial sectors alone. I just don't understand them.

You're missing something central here. The handouts to all citizens are the "gimmes" which help keep the absolute monarchs in control. Sure, you might not be free to speak your mind, but being able, not only to have a welfare state as good as any in Western Europe, but essentially provided a salary regardless of whether or not you work, means practically speaking citizens of Arab countries are a lot more "free" than we are. If these were scaled back dramatically, it would mean the overthrow of the government.

Anyway, the job incentives are all carrots, no sticks. Too politically risky to force people to get jobs. Hell, if I made say $70,000 for doing nothing, I'd sure as hell not work myself.