"I am Here Only for Working"
Conversations with the petroleum brotherhood in the UAE

http://harpers.org/archive/2017/12/i-am-here-only-for-working/
Publisher:  Harper's Magazine
Year Published:  2017
Resource Type:  Article

A look at the petroleum industry in the United Arab Emirates through conversations with workers and foreign labourers. Many of the labourers come from abroad, work for very low wages, and live in crowded worker's camps designed to service the oil industry.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

The average salary of the men I spent time with worked out to 11,578 dirhams a year, or $3,216. My sample was small, and each man must have made his own decision as to whether to include his overtime pay and food allowance in the number that he gave me. All the same, these salaries lay within a credibly narrow range.

According to the CIA, in 2016 the per capita GDP of the United Arab Emirates was $67,900. What should I make of the fact that the second number is twenty-one times higher than the first? I concluded that the Emiratis were servicing their petrochemical machine at bargain rates.