More jobs waiting for Filipinos in UAE

THE UNITED Arab Emirates does not want to live on oil alone.

Realizing that it is inevitable that demand for crude oil would wane as new energy sources are developed, the oil-rich nation ranked as one of the most dynamic in the Middle East made a deliberate effort to wean its economy away from the easy revenues from crude oil and petroleum products over the past 20 years.

This dogged determination to carve a new economic landscape has literally paid dividends.

Today, only about a third of the UAE's gross domestic product comes from oil revenues from a high of 75 percent in 1980. And as the share of petroleum revenues went down, the contribution of property development, tourism, retail, financial services, mining and manufacturing went up and still rising.

The UAE government has every intention of staying on the diversification path, thus the emirates will continue to rely on the help of Filipino professionals and skilled laborers to make its economic plans happen, according to UAE Labor Minister Saqr Ghobash.

No fear

Ghobash sat down recently with the Philippine Daily Inquirer on the sidelines of the recently concluded Global Forum on Migration and Development and he dispelled fears that the doors to Filipino migrant workers would close given the economic crisis roiling the world's major economies.

He said that on the contrary, demand for labor would grow, especially in the fields of health care, construction and hospitality, especially as the UAE is positioning itself to be the leisure and financial center of the gulf region.

"I do not think that the UAE faces as much difficulties with the financial crisis," Ghobash said, "The emotional effect would of course be there but the government is investing over 120 billion Dirhams ($32.66 billion) so there will be more need for labor."

The UAE, which is recognized as one of the most tolerant of other religions and cultures in the Middle East, is home to over 350,000 documented Filipino workers in the seven emirates that comprise the federation, with the bulk staying in cosmopolitan Dubai and the government center of Abu Dhabi.

This is the second largest concentration of Filipino migrant workers after Saudi Arabia, where over a million are employed, mainly in the oil and gas and construction sectors.

Leading source

The Philippines, meanwhile, is just the fourth biggest source of migrant workers of the UAE. India still tops the list, followed by Pakistan and Bangladesh.

"The need will be there for more workers but the question is, have we reached the peak of our economic development? But then Abu Dhabi is also coming up, so the demand will be as it is if not more," Ghobash said.

He also noted that many employers prefer Filipinos over migrants from other nations because they have been proven to be "more skilled" and "more disciplined" in their work.

"We have had an extremely good experience with Filipinos," Ghobash said. "According to reports, Filipinos have one of the lowest crime rates. So they are most welcome and most respected."

The UAE, however, recognizes that Filipino workers have to overcome many challenges before they actually land on UAE soil to work for their families back home.

Precisely what those hardships are will be the subject of a pioneering survey to document best practices in the management of migrant workers. The two-year project detailing the experience of 3,000 workers from the Philippines and India will kick off in January next year.

The UAE is spearheading the project in collaboration with the governments of India and the Philippines with inputs from the Arab Labor Organization, International Labor Organization and International Organization on Migration.

"We will be able to draw a lot of lessons from the results of the survey. We want to know what the workers face, what they have to go through from the time they leave their country to the time they go back," Ghobash said.

"The overall goal of the project is, to put it simply, to test a range of practical measures that will serve to improve the quality of life and work of contractual workers," he added.

UAE is looking to make it worthwhile for workers to stay in the emirates because it has to compete for talent with other countries.

It also hopes that by making workers "happy" they would become more productive, which should redound to continued growth for the gulf state, where four of five residents come from other countries. - Tina Arceo-Dumlao, Philippine Daily Inquirer, November 11, 2008