Indians, Pakistanis take lower wages are more productive and obedient.

Society Business and Career
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Indians, Pakistanis lead UAE private sector jobs

DUBAI — Indian and Pakistani expatriates hold more than 70 per cent of private sector jobs in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), compared with just 10 per cent for Arabs, official figures showed yesterday.

“Asian nationals hold 87.1 per cent of jobs in the private sector, with Indians top of the list at 53.7 per cent followed by Pakistanis at 18 per cent,” the daily Al Ittihad said, citing Labour and Social Affairs Ministry figures.

This compared to 10.6 per cent of nationals from various Arab countries working in the private sector.

“The ministry is fully aware of the dominance of some nationalities in the private sector, and is trying to remedy this imbalance,” an unnamed official of the ministry told the paper.

The official said his ministry was hampered by the insistence of private firms on hiring Asians, particularly Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, “on grounds that they are less costly to import, take lower wages and are more productive and obedient.”

However, “the ministry has managed to stem the flood of Asian workers,” the official said, adding that Asian expatriates would have taken up more than 90 per cent of private sector jobs if employers had their way.

The UAE’s population stood at 3.754 million by end-2002, according to official figures.

http://www.timesofoman.com/newsdetails.asp?newsid=49876

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its a double edged sword. Desis get more opportunities because they are cheaper, but then they get exploited more too.

Maybe they should have a system like the labor dept here has which keeps an eye on predatory hiring practices.

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I just think they should have a minimum wage law, all over the world. It's about time man stopped exploiting his fellow beings.

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We exploit our fellow countrymen as maids, housekeepers etc giving them absolutely minimum wages with no holidays.

In general people from India are considered very meek and docile and not aggressive. Maybe because of being ruled by outsiders for so long.

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Humsa yeah like a global COLA adjustment

MM that is true, there were some posts in scoiety section where the issuies of domestic servents in Pakistan were discussed, i am assuming it is a same in India.

I am not sure about meek and docile, when there are street riots either in india or Pakistan ppl dont look meek or docile :)

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I hate the idea of having maids and servants.
People say that having lots of servants is one great thing about the sub-continent but to me it's the most disgusting thing.

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Nothing wrong having domestic servants - only if you mistreat them or be mistreated. In west also there are domestic servants - maid service that come and clean house, lawn service etc. Plus many middle income people also have live in servants, usually from Mexico or South America etc.

Any honest work should be ok. Treatment shoud be good. Things like spoilt rich kids kicking 60 year old servant is the kind of thing that reminds you of slavery.

What do poor people do?

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:-|

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I think we are going on a tangent here discussing whether or not one should have domestic servants.

The issue is that many desis who are in middle-east do not have opportunities which pay them well back home and thus deal with everything and stay meek and docile and dont confront people or complain about work conditions or practices in order to keep their jobs.

I think it applies more to the people referred to as "labour class" even though same could be said about lower level white collar workers.

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‘I was whipped and worked 23-hr a day in Kuwait’

Agencies

Kochi, February 18: After working in Kuwait for nearly eight months as a housemaid, a Keralite woman has returned home, alleging she was constantly whipped, hit with iron rods, scalded by her employer and his wife, and forced to work 23 hours a day with no salary.

The woman, Philomena, who returned here on February 16, has marks of torture all over her body. She has sent notices through her lawyers to the External Affairs Ministry and the Indian embassy in Kuwait, seeking their intervention to get justice.

Philomena, 32, also demanded prosecution proceedings against her former employer, Sala Muhamad Salam.

Extreme poverty had forced the woman to seek greener pastures in the Gulf. When she managed to get the job of a housemaid at Sala’s residence in June 2003, she was happy, hoping she would be a help to her aged mother and brother.

But, on reaching her employer’s house, Philomena was forced to work 23 hours a day, with an hour’s sleep between 5 am and 6 am, and allowed food only once a day.

She had to single handedly clean the four-storeyed house and look after her employer’s three children aged five, three and two respectively.

For any laxity on her part, Sala and his

http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=28576?

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there were some earlier discussions on this topic which also brought up this sad fact, foriegn workers..especially labour and especially domestic workers are exposed to more abuse, people take advantage of teh fact that these poor people would put up with almost anything to be able to feed their families.

but these abusive employers get off scott free from what I know.