A UAE Reader--Part 1 (Long and Dry)

["Linda B. Merims" <lbm@naisp.net>]

I'm going to claim that this is endurance-related and
would be legitimate even without the WTC uncertainty.
The UAE are now a major force in International endurance
riding/racing, and their influence in FEI Endurance circles,
particularly the desire for Olympic standing for Endurance,
is going to have trickle down (if not flood down) effects
on FEI competition in the US and the conduct of AERC
competitions.  The question naturally arises, "Who *are*
these guys?!"

If Steph disagrees, she can shush me and I'll go quietly.


Once upon a time I was a Near Eastern Studies major for
my first two years at UCLA.  We never did anything that
I can recall on the United Arab Emirates--they were
just sort of footnotes to everything else going on
in the region throughout history.  However, I've been
digging through some of my old textbooks to learn more
about the UAE.  Here's a slightly edited-down version
of one interesting article, apropos to Angie's question.

The book, _Populations of the Middle East and North Africa_,
was published in 1972.  The article "The Gulf States:  petroleum
and population growth--The Trucial States" (the old western
name for the UAE) is based upon data from their 1968 census.
Now clearly this information is *way* out of date.  But it
does provide an interesting snapshot of where this
"country" was just 32 years ago, and if what it has
to say about the percentage of immigrants living and
working in the country--and particularly their major
countries of origin:  Iran, India, and Pakistan--still
holds even partially true, one can appreciate the tightrope
these sheiks are walking.
-------------------------------------------------------

The Trucial States

The seven Shaikhdoms of Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ras
al-Khaimah, Fujairah, Ajman, and Umm al-Quaiwain, known
collectively as the Trucial States, held their first census
of population early in 1968.  Of the 180,184 people
enumerated, 58 percent were concentrated in the two states
of Abu Dhabi and Dubai.  Both states are substantial oil
producers, but Abu Dhabi's earlier start (production
began in 1962 and reached almost 30 million tons in
1969) has enabled the state to embark on an ambitious
programme of construction and development.  Dubai's
role as the major commercial port for all seven states
has ensured that the Shaikhdom has shared in its neighbour's
sudden rise in prosperity.  While not directly involved
in the production of oil [I wonder if this is still true],
the other five states have been strongly influenced by
the emergence of Dubai and Abu Dhabi as the two principal
growth points of the Trucial States.  Public investment
in communicatinos and in medical and educational services
is transforming the traditional society of the area and
creating a gradient of modernization between the urban
areas and the rural hinterland.  Immigration is introducing
strong demographic contrasts into the Trucial States:
in 1968, 37 per cent of the total population were foreigners.
Thus the 1968 census provides the first quantitative
measure of the impact of the modern oil industry on a
previously small and unsophisticated population in eastern
Arabia.


Population Distribution

By 1968 the bulk of the Trucial States population had become
urban dwellers.  Fifty-five per cent of the population lived
in the three towns of Dubai (57,469), Sharjah (20,621) and
Abu Dhabi (20,352), while the remainder were widely scattered
in small towns and villages located principally along the two
coasts, with the important exception of the Buraimi oasis [about
70 miles inland, heading toward Oman.  Is this where the WEC
was held?].  This oasis in the Shaikhdom of Abu Dhabi contained
a total of 12,898 people clustered mainly in the town of Al-'ain.
Only 1,153 people lived at the tanker terminal or on the onshore
oilfield of Abu Dhabi, indicating a striking parallel with
developments elsewhere in the Gulf where the major concentrations
of poulation are generally removed from the zone of oil production.

With more prolific supplies of groundwater and the relatively
late start of the oil industry, almost 18 percent of the
economically active population were still engaged in agriculture
and fishing.  Few were true desert-dwellers.  There are
indications in the sex ratios of the outlying districts that
internal migration to the cities is occurring...[i.e.,
lots more females than males, indicating that the men had
left for the city]

Most of the foreign arrivals are concentrated in the three
major cities of the west coast, although 5,864 non-Abu
Dhabians were recorded at Buraimi.  Almost 40 percent of
all the foreigners recorded in the Trucial States in
1968 (66,193) lived in the state of Abu Dhabi.  From
the sex ratios, it is apparent that most of the remainder
live in Dubai town where the proportin of males approaches
60 per cent of the total population...three-quarters of
the population of Abu Dhabi island were not nationals of
the Shaikhdom.


Population Composition

Overall, the population of the Trucial States is not as
youthful as in several other Gulf states (26 per cent are
aged under 16)...Over two-thirds of the foreign population
are aged 16-40 compared with just 42 per cent of the
nationals in the same age group.  Similarly 111,864
or 62 per cent of the total population, are males, but 51,360
of these are foreigners.

Of the national population, 53 per cent are males...

The foreign population, 78 per cent of whom are males...
**
Details of the source areas of the present immigrants are
available only for Abu Dhabi, but the sources of the migrants
in the six northern states are likely to be similar.  In
Abu Dhabi, 42 per cent of the foreigners were Iranians,
and further 34 per cent stemmed from India and Pakistan.
[I wonder if this is still true, particularly the Iranians.]
Over three-quarters of the incomers were Asians compared
with the predominantly Arab influx to Kuwait.  Long
association with Iran coupled with the demands of the
construction industry for manual labour have determined the
countries of origin of the migrants.  As the economy evolves,
the proportion of Arabs may be expected to rise from the
present figure of 15 per cent of the immigrant total.

Some idea of the demographic diversity within a single
Shaikhdom can be illustrated by the example of Abu Dhabi,
where 56 percent of the state's population are foreigners
comprising 23,505 males and only 2,518 females...
**

Employment and Education

There is as much variation in occupation and educational
status between immigrant groups such as the Iranians and
the Europeans as there is between citizens of the Trucial
States and new arrivals as a whole.  A similar contrast
is apparent between Abu Dhabi and the other six Shaikhdoms.
In general, however, 43 per cent of the total Trucial
States' population were economically active in 1968,
of whom 18 per cent were employed in agriculture and
fishing [In the 19th century, the major export industry
of Trucial Oman, indeed the entire Persian Gulf, was
natural pearls.  That industry suffered greatly when
the Japanese invented cultured pearls in the 1930s].
The largest employer was the construction industry,
largely centered in Abu Dhabi but employing 19,874
people overall.  With 11,625 involved in government
services and a further 8,590 in other services,
it is plain that the tertiary sector of the Trucial
States' economy outweighs all others in significance.
Altogether, 49 per cent of the economically active
population were involved in wholesale and retail trade,
banking, transport and communications, and government
and other services in 1968.

Table xx illustrates the notable contrast between Abu
Dhabi, Dubai, and the other Trucial States in employment
structure.  The emergence of Dubai as a centre providing
commercial, banking and transport services is apparent
in comparison with the more rudimentary infrastructure
currently available in Abu Dhabi.  Elsewhere the traditional
occupations (agriculture and fishing) are still prominent.
**
About 46 per cent of the total labour force had never
received any formal education and of the population
as a whole over the age of 15, only 22 percent were able
to read and write.  In Abu Dhabi, only 634 nationals
had received a primary education or above, while as much
as 74 per cent of the immigrants were in a similar
position.  Less than half of the total Trucial States'
population aged 5-19 were attending school in 1968,
although this figure varied from one-ninth in Fujairah
to over 50 per cent in in Dubai.  [I wonder if, since
the national population is now probably well-educated,
if there is more of a difference between the education
levels of the nationals and the immigrants.]
**
The demographic and ethnic diversity introduced by the
oil industry into the Trucial States providees a new
slant on development problems in eastern Arabia.

--------------------------

That's it.  Remember the strange situation in Kuwait
with the huge population of immigrant Arab workers always
denied citizenship?  Remember how Hussein of Jordan
walked a weird tightrope between outright condemning
Iraq because so many of his own Jordanian nationals
were workers in Kuwait City happy to see the rich
Kuwaitis get their comeuppance?  How would you like
to be shaikh of a country where nearly half of your
population is young foreign men without their families,
about a third probably from the poorer strata of Iranian
and Pakistani society?  [Again, I wonder if this is as
true as it was 30 years ago.]

One difference existing in 1968 appears to be even more
magnified now:  according to Wolfgang, Dubai's oil reserves
are now projected to last only 30 years, while Abu Dhabi's
are projected to last for 700 years.  Thus, Dubai has
to pay more attention to deriving its position from its
greater business infrastructure.

Linda B. Merims
lbm@naisp.net
Massachusetts, USA