User:AreJay/Indians in the UAE

Indians in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) constitute a large part of population of the country. At least 1 million Indian workers are estimated to be living in the UAE (2000), who form over 40% of the total population of the UAE A majority of Indians live in the three largest cities of the UAE — Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah.

History

About 85% of Dubai's population consists of foreign migrants, a majority of whom are from India.

The Persian Gulf has had a long established economic and political link with India. Trucial Oman, of which the modern emirates were part, was nominal ly independent in the nineteenth century but was administered by the British Raj; trade and banking sectors in the territory were administered by Khoja and Kutchi  communities of India. In 1853, the rulers of the emirates signed a Perpetual Maritime Truce with the British, effectively bringing the region under their sphere of influence. Administered from British India, the emirates developed commonalities with South Asia. Indian Rupees were used as currency, along Indian stamps (overlaid with the name of the emirate). A fairly homogenous society at the advent of the twentieth century, the emirates experienced an economic boom as a result of the pearling industry; the few Indian traders emigrating to the emirates moved to the coastal towns and remained on the fringes of Emirati society. Similarly, Dubai had traditionally served as an entrepot for trade between the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent and was dominated by Hindu merchants in both gold and textile trade Dubai was also an important trading post for Indians prior to the discovery of petroleum in 1966; the emirate had been at the centre of a smuggling route of gold to India via small boats, where the importation of gold was illegal

Oil was discovered in Dubai in 1966 and with it came an influx of Indians into the emirates. Many came via sea, a trip of about three days from Bombay (now Mumbai) to Dubai. Sometimes they swam ashore to be greeted by taxis waiting at a beach. Most of the shopkeepers were from the state of Kerala, or were Indian Arabs, descendants of Arabs who had previously emirated to India. It was in the late 1960s that the Hindu Temple and first Indian schools were built for expatriat Indian families. Indian migration to the with the expansion of the oil industry and the growth of free trade in Dubai.

Demographics

Shop signs in Dubai in English and Malayalam reflecting the large population of migrants from Kerala, India.

By 1999, the population of Indian migrants in the UAE, which stood at 170,000 in 1975, was at 750,000 The estimated population of Indians in the UAE as of 2008 is over one million. A majority of Indians in the UAE (approximately 35%) are from the southern state of Kerala, followed by migrants from Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa. The majority of Indians were Sunni Muslims (56%), followed by Christians (26%) and Hindus (16%). Naturalisation and citizenship laws in the UAE effectively make it impossible for a path to perminant residency or citizenship. A vast majority of Indian migrants are on employment based visas, while others are on buisness or trade visas. Approximately 26% of Indian migrants lived in apartments or villas in the large cities of Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah, while 15% lived in rented rooms in cities. The remaining migrants (about one-third) lived in collective labour accomodations (referred to as labour camps), such as those in Mussafah (Abu Dhabi) or Sonapur (Dubai). Approximately 88% of those living in collective labour accomodations lived in rooms with an average occupancy ranging from four to eight. Recently, Human Rights Watch criticized the living conditions in labour accomodations, calling them less than human

Economic contribution

Foreigners constitute 99% of the UAE's labour force, of which Indians are a sizable majority. In addition to employment-based migrants from India, many Indian entepreneurs have established successful national franchises such as Jashanmal, Jumbo Electronics, Choitram's, the Varkey Group, Alukkas, Lal's and New Medical Center in the country. Over 35% of Indian workers in the UAE were engaged in manufacturing, transport and related professions, while 20% were engaged in professional and technical fields. A study conducted in 2004 found the median salary range of Indian migrants to be between Dh. 1,001-1,500 (between US$ 270-408) per month (or US$ 3,240-4,896 per year), considerably below the national per capita income of US$ 55,200. Only 9% of those surveyed earned a salary of Dh. 5,000 (US$ 1,360) or more per month. However, a 2005 Merill Lynch report estimated that there were approximately 33,000 Indian millionaires living in the UAE. Indian works typically save most of their earnings through employment benefits on accomodation and transport, and income tax free provisions of the UAE. As a result, a majority of the money is remitted for the maintenance of migrants' households in India. In 2005, an estimated US$ 7 billion was remitted, about have of which was sent through informal hawala channels. About 70% of all remittances from the UAE (or US$ 5 billion) was sent to India, with 60% alone being remitted to Kerala

A small number of Indian migrants have been involved in criminal activities in the Middle East, including smuggling, trade in narcotics, extortions and other activities. Dubai, in particular, has been associated with the smuggling of gold, precious metals and electronics. Dawood Ibrahim, head of the organized crime syndicate D-Company, is estimated to have smuggled 20 to 30 tons of gold to India annually.

Indo-Emirati relations

India and the UAE have generally enjoyed cordial relations, partly due to their shared history with the British presence in Asia, and partly due to the pre-colonial history of trade, commerce and settlement between the two nations. In 1999, the UAE government secured the release of 25 civilian passengers aboard Indian Airlines flight IC-814 that had been hijacked and forced to land in Dubai en route from Katmandu, Nepal to New Delhi. However, several incidents, mainly concerning India's expatriot workforce in the UAE, have caused friction in Indo-Emirati relations. The destruction of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, India in December 1992, provoked demonstrations in the UAE on a scale not seen before since the formation of the country. Protests conducted mainly by Pakistani migrants at the Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi were controlled by UAE police. Riot police in Dubai were required to restore order in the Hindu dominated Gold Souk area of Deira. Indian shops in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah were closed, while Pashtun labourers from Pakistan staged demonstrations in Al Ain and were consequently deported. Indian consuls are consulted over disputes over wages and working conditions. On March 21, 2006, construction workers, many of whom were Indian, rioted at the construction site of Burj Dubai, upset over bus timings, poor wages and living conditions.