Dubai should introduce a quota system to
keep the size of its expat population in check, the emirate’s chief of police
has said.
Lt Gen Dahi Khalfan
Tamim said that a check on the number of non-Arab foreign
workers is needed to preserve the UAE’s national identity.
“To
keep the balance, I recommended a quota system that would ensure that the
number of other nationalities should not be more than UAE nationals and Arabs,”
Tamim was quoted as saying by Khaleej Times.
“We are concerned about losing our
identity, heritage and language. The new generation of Emiratis feels
increasingly isolated.”
Emiratis are a minority in the UAE, as a result of the country’s ongoing need for foreign workers.
Tamim
suggested that expatriates should only be allowed to reside in the UAE
if they are filling a specific skills shortage.
“If we go to any of other country to reside,
it is considered offensive; they do not allow us easily to reside, work or
invest,” he told the paper. “Each country has its own rules and conditions and we have to
do the same to preserve our national identity.”
In
an interview with Qatar TV on Saturday, Tamim had compared the Emirati
situation to that of Native Americans in the US, the paper said.
Media
reports on the programme, Lakom al-Qarar” (The decision is yours) quoted Tamim
as drawing a line between Arab and non-Arab expatriates.
‘An
Arab national is like the son of the soil,” he was quoted as saying. “It is
easy to interact and have a better rapport with him as against the non-Arab
national.”
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