Indians in the United Arab Emirates constitute the largest part of the population of the country. Over 4.3 million Indian expats are estimated to be living in the United Arab Emirates, with over 35% of the country's total population and the second highest number of overseas Indians in the world after the United States, ahead of Saudi Arabia and Malaysia.Profile - Embassy of India, Abu Dhabi UAE Indian contact with the emirates that now constitute the UAE dates back several centuries, as a result of trade and commerce between the emirates and India. The UAE has experienced a tremendous increase in the population of resident Indians who initially migrated to the country as a result of opportunities in petroleum. Now, Indians are key to the UAE's construction, retail, financial services, healthcare, manufacturing and transport sectors. A sizeable minority of Indian migrants are involved in professional services and entrepreneurship. Relations between India and the UAE have traditionally been very friendly.India-UAE Bilateral Relations
History
Countries in the Persian Gulf region have had a long-established economic and political link with India. The Trucial Oman (now the UAE) was nominally independent in the 19th century but was administered by the British Raj; trade and banking sectors in the territory were administered by the Khoja and Kutchi communities of India. In 1853, the rulers of the emirates signed a Perpetual Maritime Truce with the British, effectively bringing the region under Britain's sphere of influence. Administered from British India, the emirates developed commonalities with South Asia. Indian Rupees were used as currency, as were Indian stamps (overlaid with the name of the emirate) for postal correspondence.R Perry, B Maurer. Globalization Under Construction: Governmentality, Law, and Identity (page 142). University of Minnesota Press. 2003 A fairly homogeneous society at the turn of the 20th century, the region that now comprises the UAE experienced an economic boom as a result of the pearling industry; the few Indian traders emigrating to the emirates moved to the coastal towns and remained on the fringes of Emirati society.Abed, Hellyer. United Arab Emirates: A New Perspective (page 114). Trident Press. 2001 Dubai had traditionally served as an entrepôt for trade between the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent and was dominated by Indian merchants in gold and textile trades.King, Russel. Return Migration and Regional Economic Problems (page 245). Routledge. 1986 Dubai was also an important trading post for Indians prior to the discovery of oil (in commercial quantities) in the UAE in 1959; the emirate had been at the centre of a smuggling route of gold via small boats to India, where the importation of gold was illegal.Brenchley, Frank. Britain and the Middle East: An Economic History 1945–87 (page 279). I.B.Tauris. 1989
Indian footprint on UAE economy
Businesses in the largest sheikhdoms in the UAE, Dubai and Abu Dhabi continued to use the Indian Rupee even after India's independence in 1947. But its popularity strained India's foreign reserves, and so in 1959 the Indian government created the Gulf rupee, initially at par with the Indian rupee. It was introduced as a replacement for the Indian rupee for circulation exclusively outside the country, which included apart from the states making up the UAE, the nations of Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain.Reserve Bank of India (Amendment) Act, 1 May 1959
On 6 June 1966, India devalued the Gulf rupee against the Indian rupee. Following the devaluation, several of the states still using the Gulf rupee adopted their own currencies.
Immigration boom The discovery of oil brought with it an influx of workers from India from the mid-1960s onward. Many came via sea, a trip of about three days from Bombay (now Mumbai) to Dubai. Most of the shopkeepers were from the state of Kerala, or were Indian Arabs, descendants of Arabs who had previously emigrated to India. Indian migration to the UAE drastically increased in the 1970s and 1980s, with the expansion of the oil industry and the growth of free trade in Dubai. Annual migration of Indians to the UAE, which stood at 4,600 in 1975, rose to over 125,000 by 1985, and stood at nearly 200,000 in 1999.G Singh, B Parekh, et al. Culture and Economy in the Indian Diaspora. Routledge. 2003
Demographics
Of the 3.4 million migrants, 1 million are from Kerala and 450,000 from Tamil Nadu, form the majority in Indian community living in UAE. By 1999, the population of Indian migrants in the UAE, which stood at 170,000 in 1975, was at 750,000. The estimated population of Indians in the UAE as of 2009 is near 2 million. Indians constitute 42% of the total UAE population. A vast majority of Indian migrants are on employment based visas, while others are on business or trade visas. Some are also sponsored by their spouse or parents.
In addition, over 300,000 undocumented migrants, many of whom are Indian, are said to be living in the UAE.Kapiszewski, Andrzej. Nationals and Expatriates: Population and Labour Dilemmas of the Gulf. Garnet & Ithaca Press. 2001 Undocumented migrants, if caught, are jailed and then deported to their home countries. A federal law enacted in 1996 in the U.A.E imposed sanctions against undocumented migrants and their employers. The UAE government offers amnesty programs where foreign undocumented workers can voluntarily leave the country without facing imprisonment or having to pay fines. One such three month amnesty program in 2007 benefited 110,000 illegal Indian migrants, all of whom were either legally reabsorbed into the UAE workforce or were allowed to return to India without sanctions or imprisonment.70,000 Indian workers benefited from UAE amnesty scheme. The Economic Times. The Times Group. 5 November 2007
There is also a sizable population of second or third generation U.A.E-born Indians. They share characteristics with other third culture kids, forming a cultural identity that blends their heritage culture and the myriad of foreign cultures they encounter growing up in the U.A.E, and a more fluid sense of home. Those who grow up in western compounds tend to be well-assimilated into western culture, whereas those who stay in Indian neighborhoods tend to be more in touch with India. Many U.A.E-born Indians further migrate to countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand both for greater economic and lifestyle opportunities, and due to the U.A.E's restrictive citizenship practices; many are forced to leave when no longer deemed valuable by the government, and citizenship is only given to descendants of local Emiratis.
However, in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic plunged many economies, including the UAE, into a recession. As of September 2020, more than 600,000 Indians applied to be repatriated amid the coronavirus outbreak, of which 400,000 left the country since repatriation flights began in May.
Among Indian migrants in the UAE, the majority of whom originate from the South Indian state of Kerala. Muslims constitute the largest religious group at approximately 50%, with Christians and Hindus each comprising around 25%.
Economic contribution Foreigners comprise 99% of the UAE's labour force, of which Indians are a part.Fearful of Restive Foreign Labor, Dubai Eyes Reforms. The New York Times, 6 August 2007 Some of these foreigners have lived in the country for generations. Around 60% of Indians in the UAE are white collar professionals. In addition to employment-based migrants from India, many Indian entrepreneurs in the UAE have established successful national franchises, the notable ones such as Lulu Group International, Landmark Group, Jashanmal, Ajmal Perfumes, Amber Packaging Industries, Jumbo Electronics, Choithram's, Varkey Group, Alukkas and New Medical Centre.
The Dubai-based Indian billionaires include Micky Jagtiani of the Landmark Group, M. A. Yusuff Ali of LuLu Group International, Ravi Pillai of the RP Group, the Chhabria family of the Jumbo Group, Sunny Varkey of GEMS Education, Prateek Suri of Maser Group,Tony Jashanmal of the Jashanmal Group and Joy Alukkas of Joyalukkas Jewellery.
Rizwan Sajan of Danube Group, Azad Moopen of Aster DM Healthcare, Ramesh S Ramakrishnan of the Transworld Group, and Shamsheer Vayalil of VPS Health Care are also on the list of Indian millionaires living in Dubai.Dubai emerges as new hub for India's super-rich | Business Line
The Gulf Medical University founded by Thumbay Moideen is an Indian contribution to the Higher Education scenario in the UAE. Today students from over 68 countries study in their campus in Ajman and the university is well known in the medical education circles.
Adnan Chilwan, Group CEO of Dubai Islamic Bank, and Kamal Puri, Founder President of Skyline University, an influencer in the UAE Education Ecosystem, Satish Sanpal, chairman and managing director of Anax Holding (Anax Media, Anax Developments, Anax Hospitality), are also some of the few well known Indians in the UAE.
By 1996, at least 150 Indian companies were operating in the Jebel Ali Free Zone Area (JAFZA), and even today, more than 50% of the work force are Indian, in one of the most successful and model Free Trade Zones of the world. Over 25% of Indian workers in the UAE were engaged in manufacturing, transport and related professions, while 20% were engaged in professional and technical fields.K Zachariah, B Rakash, et al. Indian Workers in the UAE: Employment, Wages, and Working Conditions. Economic and Political Weekly. 29 May 2004 The 2005 Merrill Lynch report estimated that there were approximately 33,000 Indian millionaires living in the UAE.ICICI Bank: The Indian diaspora in Dubai and DIFC. Khaleej Times. 25 December 2005 Indian expats typically save most of their earnings through employment benefits on accommodation and transport, and income tax free provisions of the UAE. As a result, a majority of the money is remitted for the maintenance of migrants' households in India. In 2005, an estimated US billion was remitted, about half of which was sent through informal hawala channels. About 70% of all remittances from the UAE (or US billion) was sent to India.UAE Exchange is now authorised dealer. The Hindu BusinessLine. 10 October 2006
A small number of Indian migrants have been involved in criminal activities in the Middle East, including smuggling, trade in narcotics, extortions and other activities. Dubai, in particular has been associated with the smuggling of gold and precious metals. Dawood Ibrahim, head of the organised crime syndicate D-Company, is estimated to have smuggled 20 to 30 tonnes of gold to India.
Indo-Emirati relations