migrant women in the United Arab Emirates

e applied for women; the percentage of illiterate national women decreased with 11 per
cent while in the case of non-national women this was only 1.6 per cent. A similar image
could be seen in the case of those who only read and write. The category of read and write
represent the very low educated which is still much higher among non-nationals, and is
decreasing very slowly, contrary to the case of nationals.
If we look at the secondary level of education, we see that it improved by 11.5 per
cent for male nationals while it is only 1 per cent for non-national men. Another obvious
increase in education is seen among United Arab Emirates women in the graduate level
where the increase have reached 17 per cent while for the non-national women this was
only 2 per cent.
1.3. Population polemics and security issues
At the turn of the century, the population of the United Arab Emirates was around
80’000. Almost all were citizens of the region and the population growth rate was slow:
over the next sixty years the number of inhabitants increased by a mere 6’000. Most of
them were nationals (Ministry of Planning, General Population Census; Faris 1996;
Taryam 1986). But in less than five years after the first export of oil, the number of
expatriates in United Arab Emirates rose to 66’000, accounting for 37 per cent of the
whole population during the year 1968 (Ministry of Planning 1994). In 1975, only four
years after the establishment of the United Arab Emirates federation, 356’000 foreign
workers were in the country, representing an average of 64 per cent of the population.
Today, the expatriate community comprises more than 80% of the population, a per
centage unmatched anywhere else in the world. Nationals make up less than one-quarter of
the whole population 2 (Ministry of Planning, 2000, Faris 1996; Taryam 1987; al-Hamad
1994). Table 5 below is a reflection of this reality and the continuous decrease of Nationals
in the United Arab Emirates population.
Table 5:
Population changes in the United Arab Emirates
Year
Total
population
Nationals % Expatriates %
1968 180’425 114’607 63.5 65’818 36.5
1975 557’887 201’544 36.1 356’343 63.9
1980 1’042’099 290’544 27.9 751’555 72.1
1985 1'379’303 396’114 28.7 983’189 71.3
1995 2'411’041 587’330 24.4 1’823’711 75.6
Source: Ministry of Planning, Central Department of Statistics, 1986, 1997.
The demographic gap in the United Arab Emirates between nationals and migrant
workers has many social, political and even security implications. When policy makers
designed the migration policies in 1970, they were not fully aware of the implications.
Labour, semi-skilled and unskilled workers, was imported under temporary contracts and
these people were denied political, civ il and naturalization rights, but granted education
and medical benefits (MERIP Report 1985).
2 The topic is of great concern to all political figures in the country. The issue is very sensitive and relative
statistics are top-secret. Officials in United Arab Emirates stopped carrying out the five-year census in1985.
Most official numbers today are based on speculation.
UAE Working Paper_1 7