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The Filipino Community in Abu Dhabi: ‘New National Heroes’
Date Issued
2018
Author(s)
Al Kindi, Maimoona
Abstract
The Philippine government’s economic policies of the 1970’s namely its Labor Code of
the Philippines of 1974, which included provision for overseas employment, has led to the
country becoming the ninth largest country of origin for international migrants today. The policy
coincided with a huge demand for foreign workers by Gulf countries, benefiting from the surge
in oil prices in 1973 to fund massive infrastructure development projects. The need for these
migrants continues today and so the Filipino community in Abu Dhabi established in the 1970’s
still remains strong. The UAE provides an interesting environment to study this community,
where this paper sets out to understand the motives for migrating to the UAE and to shed light on
how members of this community live, spend their income, how much remittances they send
home and to whom. Looking at and trying to assess their sense of community and levels of
engagement. This was done through the discussion of officially published statistics, conducting a
descriptive survey, semi-structure interviews and analysis of media content about, and directed
towards, the Filipino community in the emirate.
the Philippines of 1974, which included provision for overseas employment, has led to the
country becoming the ninth largest country of origin for international migrants today. The policy
coincided with a huge demand for foreign workers by Gulf countries, benefiting from the surge
in oil prices in 1973 to fund massive infrastructure development projects. The need for these
migrants continues today and so the Filipino community in Abu Dhabi established in the 1970’s
still remains strong. The UAE provides an interesting environment to study this community,
where this paper sets out to understand the motives for migrating to the UAE and to shed light on
how members of this community live, spend their income, how much remittances they send
home and to whom. Looking at and trying to assess their sense of community and levels of
engagement. This was done through the discussion of officially published statistics, conducting a
descriptive survey, semi-structure interviews and analysis of media content about, and directed
towards, the Filipino community in the emirate.
