Contending with demographic imbalance

The imbalance in the demographic situation in the UAE has been one of the potential challenges to the national security of the country. Hence, the government has embarked upon a series of strategic actions to meet the challenge. Besides, the Ministry of Interior has announced the formation of a high-level committee, which will be responsible for registering all people who hold UAE passports and those who have presidential decrees to be citizens of the country but have not got their passports yet.

As is known to many of us, the reasons for the demographic situation go back to the 1970s, when the country started to build its infrastructure by employing millions of skilled and unskilled foreign workers, due to the very small number of nationals. This development has led to a society where expatriates constitute the vast majority, and nationals are a minority.

Census

According to the last official census, which was carried out in 2005, the UAE had a population of 4,104,695, which included about 824,921 nationals (20.1 per cent of the population) and 3,279,774 foreigners (79.9 per cent of the population) (Ministry of Economy, UAE, 2006).

In the past three years, there has been a significant increase in the number of expatriates in the country. This situation has resulted in several developments, including the decrease in use of Arabic, a negative impact on the Arab culture of nationals and difficulty in recruiting national graduates, particularly in the private sector.

Since the late 1990s, the government has recognised the threat that demographic imbalance poses, and many organisations have tried to come up with strategic plans aimed at dealing with the situation.

The Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR) in Abu Dhabi was one of the institutions that suggested practical solutions to the challenge of imbalance.

ECSSR conducted a comprehensive, scientific survey nationwide. A detailed analysis of demographic developments was done and strategic recommendations were presented.

However, the recent initiatives by the Cabinet reflect the strategic vision of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to face the threats with realistic and gradual actions.

The initiatives include four major steps. First, giving permission to the children of expatriates to work in the local labour market, in accordance with a system controlled by the Ministry of Labour.

Second, modifying the fees and quotas in the system of classifying private corporations, in order to guarantee the commitment of employers towards recruiting employees from different nationalities.

Third, forming a national committee consisting of a member from the Cabinet in addition to two representatives from large property development companies.

Practical policies

The objective of that committee is twofold - identifying alternative ways of construction that do not require massive numbers of foreign workers and suggesting practical policies to decrease the number of foreign employees in the construction business (which employs about 1.5 million expatriates).

The fourth step is to be implemented by the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Energy. Both ministries will work to introduce the "self-service" process at petrol stations, in order to eliminate the need for the growing number of helpers. The Committee of the Demographic Structure has confirmed that many other initiatives are being investigated and they will be presented before the Cabinet when they are ready for implementation.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Interior has announced a two-month programme to register all individuals who do not have full nationality status. The committee in-charge of this programme will study the actual conditions of those people and then recommend solutions.

From my perspective as a UAE citizen, I believe that the new policy of the Cabinet to deal with the twin challenges of demographic imbalance and the "people without UAE nationality" will succeed to a considerable extent.

This is the first time the country will be seeing a practical and well-planned nation-wide campaign to tackle these problems.

Also, I certainly believe the Cabinet will not adopt a policy that leads to halting the recruitment of skilled workers and experts in many fields, where we still encounter an obvious shortage in national graduates.

The country will always need employees with knowledge and skills to contribute to our development plans. However, an appropriate strategy will be implemented, which aims at creating the right balance between what we need in terms of foreign workers and what we have within the country in terms of national graduates.

I foresee a society of with a strong social fabric.

There is no doubt that dealing with these two major challenges will lead to more stability in the social, economic, political and cultural arenas in the UAE. Therefore, we should all help the Cabinet in achieving the goals of its national strategy.

Abdullah Al Shaiba is a UAE national academic and thinker.