This is one of several pages linking to information about the immigration and emigration laws of specific countries, and implications for discussions of open borders.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is one of the Gulf States. It has a population of 9.2 million. Its largest, most famous, and most commercially important city is Dubai, but the capital city Abu Dhabi is also well-known. For more, see the Wikipedia pages on United Arab Emirates and Dubai.
The UAE is an interesting case for the following reasons:
- About 85% of the population is foreign-born. This is one of the highest in the world and the highest for a country with a nontrivial population.
- The UAE exemplifies keyhole solutions (including guest worker programs) that are designed to maximize benefits for relatively rich native citizenry, with minimal direct concern for the welfare of migrants. For instance, migrants to the UAE are denied a path to citizenship.
Discussions of the UAE in the context of open borders and migration liberalization:
- What does migration to the United Arab Emirates tell us about labor mobility? by Carl Shulman, May 14, 2014. This references Clemens’ paper linked below and also discusses many other aspects of migration to the UAE and its implications.
- Seize the Spotlight: A Case for Gulf Cooperation Council Engagement in Research on the Effects of Labor Migration by Michael Clemens, July 2013.
- Conversation (PDF) between Michael Clemens and GiveWell, February 20, 2013. Some relevant parts of the conversation are excerpted in the blog post Conversation between Michael Clemens and GiveWell by Vipul Naik, Open Borders: The Case, March 2, 2013.