Increasing expatriates leads unemployment

At present one of the challenging issues facing the Maldivian society is the enlarging in expatriate workers and the difficulty in maintaining local employees in jobs. Communities in Maldives argue about the issue of increasing expatriates. One of the causes is that Maldivians avoid doing blue collar jobs, because of communal believes. A further reason is not preparing the Maldivian students to fulfill the opportunities in the job market. Both rising expatriates and increasing jobless youths in the Maldives, cause many social and cultural problems. Many people disagree about the main issues, blaming Maldivians as rich" Maldivians increasingly give up various jobs (going lazy?) and replaced it with imported labour from nearby countries. However, this is not the time to argue but, to solve the problems. In this assignment included, the main stem of the issue that, the reason why Maldivians avoid doing such jobs, social beliefs in working in these jobs, ways on how to support the youths and ways to deal with these types of beliefs to do the blue collar jobs. And also how to prepare Maldivians to the job market is mentioned in this assignment. Lets talk about both blue collar jobs and white collar jobs. According to (Johnson, 2000) blue collar workers are the workers whose work is primarily manual, such as construction sites and factories. A blue-collar employee is a member of the working class who typically performs manual labor and earns an hourly wage. Blue-collar workers are distinguished from those in the service sector and from white-collar workers, whose jobs are not considered manual labor. Blue-collar work may be skilled or unskilled, and may involve manufacturing, mining,building and construction trades, mechanical work, maintenan ce, repair and operations maintenance or technical installations. The term white-collar worker refers to a salaried professional or an educated worker who performs semiprofessional office, administrative, and sales coordination tasks, as opposed to a blue-collar worker, whose job requires manual labour. If we switch to the main issue, Most of the Maldivians avoid doing the blue collar jobs and there are no requirements to do the white collar jobs. Consequently we can say that, most of the Maldivians youths are in between blue and white. It is very important to recognize that why Maldivians avoid doing such jobs. . At early days Maldivians used to do the hard works such as fishing, planting, making toddy etc and there was no special label for any specific work. They did what they have faced. Although, due to the altering of technology and communication these categories of works are labeled as

dirty job, especially by the youths. As we know, there are limited white collar jobs in the Maldives, because of the following troubles. Firstly, the attitudes towards the blue-collar job are the one of the major problems. This habit is widely spreading throughout the nation. Most of the youth believes that, all the mechanical works should be done by bangaalhis. The word bangaalhi formed as, the majority of the mechanical works done by the Bangladeshis in the Maldives. So, the skillful youths do not want label as Bangalhi. And in other hand, the Maldivians believes that, they do not want become a member of uneducated society, even if they do not have the enough requirements to do the white collar jobs. Due to increasing living cost, is another fact that Maldivians avoid doing the low salaried jobs. Another belief is most of the jobs; especially jobs requiring manual labour in the construction industry are not suitable for females. Secondly, as we know that, the remarkable economic growth of the past three decades created multiple job opportunities in the Maldives. The government was unable to guide Maldivians to match the needs of the growing industries, such as tourism and construction. The demand for service personnel outpaced the ability of the country to train workers for such needs. The relative affluence created by the economic growth made the educated reluctant to work at jobs of certain categories. These factors together with the cost of living and consequent demand for higher wages by Maldivians resulted in an unmanageable and socially undesirable migrant work force, stretching the public services and threatening new problems.

From the issue of growing number of expatriates and increasing unemployment rates, causes lots of social, cultural and religious problems to the Maldives. Firstly, increasing unemployed infancy and increasing the expatriates are the issues that each and every stake holder should be concerned. Economically Maldives losses lot of money paying to them. (Inaz, 2011) said that the country loses a hefty MRF 90 million of visa fees and 87 dollars revert back from each 100 dollars which comes in to the Maldives. Moreover an estimated minimum of 44,000 illegal expat workers are in the Maldives. Average daily income of such worker is MRF 200 which amounts to MRF3.1 billion (US$ 205 million) a year. According to the statistics by the police services of the Maldives, there are 598 reported crimes created by the foreigners, most of the crimes are from the Bangladeshis (MPS, 2011). Here it is important to highlight that most of the problems are created by the illegal expatriates. Additionally, there are lots of human trafficking in Maldives due to the over population of expatriates. According to the Ministry of human Resources there are more than 500 problems

involving to the human trafficking; such problems include not giving the salary, accommodation and food. There are many criticisms to the Maldives according to the human trafficking. (Hameed, 2007) sadly, there are lots of criminals against the foreigners the workers are often made run personal errands and chores for their employer - they really are slaves to the whims and desires of their "master". Thirdly, the jobless youths create lot and lots of unlawful troubles that citizen questioned about the safety of their lives. Surly we can say that the weird youth doesnt have any work to do so, they decide go in the terrible ways such as drugs, fights and other criminals. The rise in expatriate workers population has led to the rapid increase in contract marriages, child molestation, and sexual abuse directly linked to foreigners and prostitution.

So the most significant obsession is to find a solution for the problem. As we discern, this is a very risky issue that we may not able to handle complexities we face if it becomes worsen. So we have to care the youth before going them worse. This is a concern for the entire citizen. We cant point the finger to any one for this issue. We together can change the situation in a long term. As far as my concern, firstly we need to aware the citizen; we should be aware for every thing happening in the country. Encouraging the youths to do whatever they faced as our forefather did, is the most important. Both the employers and employees need to be thinking positive against the youths. We have to identify the economical and social benefits if we recruite the Maldivians. Secondly, we should take the examples from the developed countries they have the attitudes towards the blue collar jobs. Encourage them to take the advantages being the blue collar worker, but not the negative side. Thirdly, the employers should offer the high salary as much as they can. Fourthly, all the stake holders need to identify the needs of the youths and train them for their needs. Psychologically, each and every student has their ambitions, so the parents should prepare the students based on their needs. Fifthly, Maldives as a developing country need to increase the national production such as fishing, agriculture as a civilized society like Japan. Sixthly, changing the educational systems in the Maldives is very significant. For the reason that, the curriculum, that is structured in the Maldives does not include any types of vocational trainings. I signify that, the government of the Maldives to be supposed to show them a way to go for the job market. Opportunities for obtaining career oriented vocational and technical education need to be increased. At present it is unclear as to whose responsibility it is to provide such training

Maldives has been fighting for the issue for several years. According to (HRCM, 2009) with the commencement of 1980s and the growth of tourism and connected industries, including the construction industry, wage earning workers became a regular feature in the economic activities of the country. In order to meet the demands of the mechanization of fishing vessels and the newly begun tourism industry, a vocational training institute named Vocational Training Center (VTC) was established in 1975 and a tourism sector training institute named School of Hotel and Catering Services was established in 1987 which were to become the first ever centers for skills training in the country. a good action taken by the government. Government of the Maldives tries to give chances to the Maldivians. There are some steps towards the issue taken by the government of Maldives. One of the recent actions taken by the government is opening around 1800 jobs with training. Sadly, there is no authority to work to change the beliefs of Maldivian youths against the blue collar jobs. Deporting the illegal immigrants in the Maldives is also a solution for the problem of increasing the expatriates. Hence, most of the criminals created from the foreigners are by them. So it is very important to take actions against them. If we switch to Seychelles, where depends on tourism and fishing. In Seychelles the unemployment rate is very low. According to (Seychelles, 2004) There is also the problem of stigma attached to certain types of available jobs. Such jobs are often menial or dirty and do not require a high level of education; however, even if there is unemployment they remain vacant or are being done by non-Seychellois. The government of the Seychelles also having the same problems but, to persuade, they also have the vocational schools. So that Maldives needed to increase the ways of training the students in all the ways. Seychelles did different campaign to encourage youth named leve debrouye campaign officially launched in 2009 (employment). That was a campaign to boost the output; employees can still adopt better attitudes at work and become more productive. According to the ministry of education, employment and human resources of Seychelles, in this campaign the students who has no skills in any area can be specified by participating, and most of the private organization provides job to them. And this was a successful program that encouraged by the youth to do all types of jobs. Maldives also can take the specimen of the same idea, such as apprenticeship programs and can solve the problem.

In conclusion, all the parts of the world have the same issue of unemployment. But the dissimilarities from countries are the stem that cause for the problems and how they treat the problems. If we abscond the issue without taking action, the social, cultural and religious

tribulations would bang day by day. Maldives is facing the problems because of the social attitudes and also the government policies. As we know, there are many other origins of unemployment which contain; lack of effective aggregate demand of labor is one of the principal reasons for unemployment. In the less developed economies a substantial portion of the total workforce works as surplus labor. This problem is particularly prevalent in the agricultural sector. Due to excess labor, the marginal productivity of the workforce may be zero or even negative. This excess pool of labor is the first to become unemployed during the period of economic or social crisis. Our concern is not to reduce the expatriates, but the Maldivians should get the jobs to decrease the criminals from them. As Maldivians are having the belief of not doing the blue collar jobs, I dont think it is easy to erase from the society. Because, psychologically the government couldnt change the behaviour. But it could be changed indirectly like providing the better jobs to the youth, training the youth, and deporting over increased illegal expatriates. The society of Maldives should be more civilize than present. Blue collar jobs will always be a secondary option for the majority of the society. But I regard blue collar jobs some kind of curse, and when God cursed Adam out of Eden, he gave him a blue collar job. Go till the land, and through your sweat, you will earn get food, quotes Genesis. So why should a blessed person pass through lots of hassles to earn a living? All the stake holders should think like this way and all the types should be relevant for all.

Bibliography
employment, D. o. (n.d.). Leve Debourye: a new work culture. Retrieved October 23, 2011, from Ministry of education, employment and human resources: http://www.employment.gov.sc/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=69&catid=69 Hameed, J. (2007, August 21). Maldives: Hell for expatriate workers? Retrieved August 21, 2011, from Jaa's Blog: MaldivesHellforexpatriateworkers-Jaa'sBlog.htm HRCM. (2009). Rapid assessment of the employment situation in the Maldives. Male': Human Rights Comminssion of Maldives. Inaz. (2011, August 21). Increasing expatriates. (Hameen, Interviewer) Johnson, A. G. (2000). The Blackwell dictionary of sociology: a user's guide to sociological language. Malden, USA: Blackwell publishers Inc. Latheef, A. (2011, September 15). more-than-44000-illegal-expatriates-more-than-99369-legalexpatriates-in-maldives-immigration. Retrieved August 22, 2011, from Miadhu News:

http://www.miadhu.com/2011/09/local-news/more-than-44000-illegal-expatriates-more-than99369-legal-expatriates-in-maldives-immigration/ MPS. (2011). Crime statistics of foeigners 2008-2010. Male' : Maldives Police Service. Seychelles, R. o. (2004). Seychelles - National Assessment of the Barbados Programme of Action+10 Review. Barbados : Republic of Seychelles. Tribune, A. (2011, January 28). Maldives worried over increasing expats. Retrieved October 21, 2011, from Asian Tribune: MaldivesworriedoverincreasingexpatsAsianTribune.htm