Food Chain

Photo of a cleaner in Dubai, he is covered up to protect from the harsh conditions including sun & sand.

Captain's Log, Stardate 050311.5. We have entered a spectacular multi layered social stratification class system in the United Arab Emirates, during our most critical mission of research into the human species. Our eminent guest, Dr Khan, will attempt to outline the sociological order between the federation and the multi ethnic race of workers.

Thank you captain Kirk, UAE is host to nearly 200 nationalities. With a population of 5 million just under 20% are native Emiratis the rest are expatriates. India tops the table with 1.75 million nationals residing in UAE, then the  1.0 million Pakistani’s, followed by  0.6 million Bangladeshi’s, Other Asians including Phillipines, Iran & Sri Lanka at 1.0 million.

The quality of life in Dubai is all dependent on where you sit on the food chain, this is influenced by your ethnicity & tribe. So typically you will not find native Emirati’s working in the private sector. The colour of your passport is also a very important factor on the status and compensation that you can expect in UAE.

If you’re an unskilled Bangladeshi or Pakistani then your net worth is not a lot, you can labour all day on a building site or clean the streets and receive the equivalent of £140 per month. However if you’re a holder of a Western passport and a professional then Dubai is a nice place to live, tax free earnings, sunshine every day, and you’ll never need to do the cleaning, washing, ironing, pushing the baby buggy etc….just leave it to the domestic help & be a lazy slob.

Beam me up Scotty.