Diary of an Economic Migrant: A Middle Eastern Perspective on Immigration

In a summer when debates about immigration have never been far from the headlines, it is at least topical that it is this year that we should choose to leave Britain to head out to work in the Middle East. The lure of excellent jobs and new challenges, combined with the promise of a better standard of living in tax-free sunshine eventually became irresistible. After interviews in London and Dubai, I accepted the post of Director of Jumeirah English Speaking School (JESS) and my wife, Samantha, was appointed Principal of Ranches Primary School (only a mile from JESS!) in May.
There is no getting around it, we are economic migrants - we are moving abroad in hope of a better life and we are willing to work hard to achieve it. However, the stand out thing for me in this whole process is the difference between the way in which the UK and the UAE approach the thorny issue of immigration and economic migration. 

The UAE welcomes migrants - indeed 93% of Dubai's population are from overseas. It has had a lot of practice at immigration and it has got the whole process taped. The UAE's approach is based on a simple principle that so long as you are economically viable you are most welcome. We (or rather our employers) are responsible for providing Health Insurance, and all schools here are fee-paying.
UAE do not offer Citizenship, but they they do allow foreign nationals to apply for Residency. This blogpost outlines the UAE immigration process and you can form your own opinion on whether or not there are lessons here from which the UK can learn.

Friday 14th. August Arrived Dubai International Airport (DXB) and, before passing through immigration, collected my work visa, which has been sponsored by my employer. My passport and work visa are stamped on entry. I'm now in a limbo: I'm neither a tourist nor a UAE resident. UAE law only allows those who have Residency to take out a rental lease on a property or a car; indeed, without Residency, you can't get a driving licence or open a bank account. My transitional status means that my employer has rented an apartment and a hire car for 30 days on my behalf - it has made life possible.

Sunday 16th August
I begin the process of applying for Residency by presenting myself at Al Safa Community Health Centre for two medical checks:

1. A blood test to ensure that I don't have AIDS
2. A chest X-ray to ensure that I don't have TB.

Assuming all is in order, I will be granted Residency for two years in the first instance, after which I will need to reapply (which I understand is a formality and doesn't entail the medical checks).

I then applied for my UAE ID Card, which I shall be required to carry at all times.  This entailed paying a fee (270 AED = £46) and reporting to the Emirates Identity Authority to have my biometric data collected:

• Finger prints
• Headshot photograph
• Signature

Monday 17th August 
I am now officially a UAE Resident with a Residency Visa in my passport. I am now able to apply for a driving licence, to open a bank account and to rent a property.

Thursday 20th August
Reported to the Optician's to have formal eye test so that I can apply for my driving licence.

Thursday 3rd September
My Emirates ID has arrived. I now am able to apply for a Driving Licence, register to be able to have an account for Water and Electricity, and to arrange for a TV/Telephone for my house.

There is a lot of paperwork to be done on arrival in the UAE, but one of the great things about Dubai is that the Dubai Municipality building has customer service centres for a whole range of organisations: the RTA (Transport), Ejari, (Property Registration), DEWA (Water and Electricity), Immigration and so on. The end result is that you can go to one building and deal with a whole range of issues at one hit. Inside there people providing typing and photocopying services, so, if you happen to forget to photocopy a key document, it can be done in a minute.

I applied for my Driving Licence - the Municipality were unbelievably efficient and I receive my new driving licence over the counter 10 minutes after walking into the building - the DVLA has much to learn.

Monday 7th September
I am now registered with DEWA (Dubai Electricity and Water Authority) - the bills are now on my tab, but I now can register the Tenancy for the villa in my name.


All of this would not have been possible to achieve so smoothly without the expertise of Azeez, the JESS Administration Assistant and School Driver.

The UK Citizenship Test - e-Assessment at its worst

A close family friend is presently going through the process of applying for UK citizenship and thus has to pass the UK Citizenship Test. The Test is held up alongside the Driving Theory test as one of the triumphs of e-Assessment. I am not so sure.

The "curriculum" for the UK Citizenship test is broad-ranging and is intended to ensure that a potential citizen has "the knowledge of English and of UK life that you need for citizenship" UKBA website. Assessment is an online test consisting of 24 questions with a passmark of 18/24 [75%].

Topics include:

• Migration to Britain
• The changing role of women
• Children, family and young people
• Population
• The regions of Britain
• Religion and tolerance
• Customs and traditions
• How the UK is governed
• Housing
• Services in and for the home
• Money and credit
• Health
• Education
• Leisure
• Travel and Transport
• Identity documents
• Looking for work
• Equal rights and discrimination
• At work
• Working for yourself
• Childcare and Children at work

[Before reading on you may like to do a sample UK Citizenship Test - you will probably complete it in under 10 minutes, although officially you have up to 45 minutes]

I have a huge sympathy with the idea that all UK citizens should have a knowledge and understanding of how British society works. I am comforatable with any measure that encourages those who want to live and work in this country to have a greater understanding of, and respect for, our traditions and culture. Indeed, I am often surprised at the widespread ignorance of what used to be called "British Constitution". Some of the questions in the UK Citizenship test fulfil this function, for example,

• A By-election is held
  A halfway through a Parliament,
  B every two years,
  C when an MP dies or resigns,
  D when the Prime Minister chooses to call one

• Which TWO of the following can vote in all UK public elections?
  A Citizens of the Irish Republic resident in the UK
  B Citizens of EU states resident in the UK
  C Citizens of Commonwealth resident in the UK
  D Anyone resident in the UK
  

or more obscurely

• The official report of the proceedings of Parliament is called
  A the Speaker's Notes,
  B Hansard,
  C the Electoral Register,
  D the Constitution

• How many parliamentary constituencies are there?
  A 464,
  B 564,
  C 646,
  D 664

Some of the questions test knowledge of Britain and some of its important institutions, for example,

• Which TWO of these are names for the Church of England?
  A Methodist,
  B Episcopal,
  C Anglican,
  D Presbyterian

• 'Ulster Scots is a dialect which is spoken in Northern Ireland.' True or False?

But other questions stretch the limits of what any citizen might be expected to know:

• 'In the 1980s, the largest immigrant groups were from the West Indies, Ireland, India and Pakistan.' True or False?

• In which year did married women get the right to divorce their husband?
  A 1837,
  B 1857,
  C 1875,
  D 1882

• The number of children and young people up to the age of 19 in the UK is
  A 13 million,
  B 14 million,
  C 15 million,
  D 16 million

[Do the sample test if you want to check your answers]

I like to think that, as a paid up Today Programme listener, I have a reasonable general knowledge, but I must confess that many of the questions were beyond me. Indeed I suspect that most people living in this country would fail the test.

Did you [honestly] know that

• Information in the Census is kept secret for 100 years?
• Schools must be open 190 days a year?
• Children aged 13-16 cannot work more for more than 12 hours in any school week?
• The percentage of Muslims in the UK in 2001 who said they were Muslim was 2.7%.
  

I have no problem with this "curriculum" in general terms, although is does suffer at times from the left-wing political correctness that was endemic in the Blair-Brown Governments. However, I do find it surprising that we are setting a significantly higher bar for all potential citizens than we do for our own school-leavers.

My main gripe is with the nature of the examination. I can see that it makes good financial sense for the test to be online, but this sort of test does not really examine citizenship and gives a bad name to e-Assessment. Remember this is no pub quiz - the stakes here are high. The prize for passing the test is a British Passport and the right to vote in National elections. Sadly, the fantastic developments in e-Assessment over the past few years [See my previous blogpost Can e-Assessment maintain the Gold Standard?], have been ignored. The UKBA have reduced the assessment of citizenship to rote learning of, what must appear to most of those sitting it, random trivia. If the team at AQA were given the remit of producing a test for the same material, I believe that they would have come up with a much more meaningful process that would incorporates components of testing of understanding how our society works, rather than just knowledge of randomised decontextualised facts. The end result of the present vehicle is that the nature of the assessment undermines the good intention of having a Citizenship test and does little to inform those wishing to live in this country of the true way in which British society operates.

If you have got the bug for random trivia about Britain - try some more practice tests here