Maldives is a small
nation consisting of a population of 350,000 people. Recently, the population
of expatriate workers has increased s to 80,000. This
means 25% of the population is covered by them. Simply, for every 3 Maldivian
there is one expat. Most of this foreign-born population consists of Indians
and Bangladeshi. This increasing rate of expatriate workers in Maldives is much
higher than the rate of some developed countries like Dubai. This hasty
increase in expatriates has got a lot of problems in Maldives including social,
economical and political as well. Before highlighting these problems first we
should know why the expatriates appeared.
Traditionally fishery
was the main occupation in the Maldives. Economy was based on fishing industry.
Transformation to a modern economy was never in our ancestors mind. This is
because Maldives is not blessed with many natural resources other than its
beauty and rich seas. And also there was not much connection with the outside
world. This narrow thinking has kept them in a ‘nut shell’ until the Maldivian
economy started propelling into a modern economy from a fishing economy. This
rapid change has occurred within a generation. This fast transformation of
economy left a serious gap between the skill needed to operate a modern economy
and the amount of nationals trained up to the required skills. In order to fill
this gap expatriate workers turned up.
In addition to this, construction
is one of the most important economic sectors in Maldives now. This sector has
grown rapidly in recent years due to tourism sector and other developments.
Contractors mostly rely on foreign labour markets (India, Bangladesh, Nepal
etc). This is because number of locals engaged in these works was low.
According to the information provided by Ministry of higher education
employment and labour, by the year 2003, 6,502 expatriates have brought to
Maldives for constructions work. Higher education and high
skill levels are not required in this sector. Therefore, this is how less
educated or low skilled expatriates started to appear in Maldivian economy.
Furthermore, Tourism is
the most dynamic economic sector in Maldives. The country mostly depends on
this sector. When tourism sector started in Maldives, there were fewer locals
educated in the same field. Therefore, for this sector also there was a need of
expatriates. Here the only difference compared to the other two sectors is,
expatriates employed in this sector should be highly educated. Ministry of
higher education employment and labour says that, by the year 2003, the amount
of expatriates brought for this sector was 9,420. This is how
expatriates appeared in Maldivian economy through this sector.
Other than economy,
expatriates have appeared in our social life as well. Recently people in Male’
or people in capital islands of atolls use to accommodate children from islands
in order to educate them. These children do almost all the household works. But
from recent years, families are moving to developed islands. Because of this,
those people were not getting locals to do those simple household works. As a
result people started seeking for foreign people who would do these works. For
this works, most number of females was brought. Other than the females, most of
the males engaged in these works are doing it for part time.
Expatriates have
appeared into our politics as well. When the number of expatriates increased rapidly,
there is little percentage of people disobeying the law. Number of illegal
expatriates was increasing day by day. There are around 30,000 illegal expat
workers in Maldives today. These expats are working in
the black market for low prices without informing to their local employer.
To be continued . . . .
