About that lack of jobs:
The UAE has foreigners occupying 99 percent of the non-government jobs. The unemployment rate is over 20 percent but only a tenth of those are actually looking for a job. Surveys indicate that most of the unemployed are idle by choice. Kuwait is more entrepreneurial, with only 80 percent of the non-government jobs taken by foreigners. The other Gulf Arab states (which have less oil) have a similar situation.
The UAE employment situation is not unique. In Saudi Arabia the official government attitude is that most (over 80 percent) of the jobs done by the eight million foreign workers in the country are not suitable for Saudis. This includes many sanitation and personal service jobs. But that’s six million jobs and expatriates, especially those from the West, commented (among themselves, not to Saudis) that most of these jobs were done, in the West, by Westerners. Some of the expats noted that Westerners doing their own dirty work were usually well paid for it but in some countries legal or illegal migrants were let in to do the unpleasant jobs for lower wages. This is what the oil rich Gulf Arabs do, and they then take some of the money saved to pay for the generous unemployment benefits for citizens who cannot find suitable work. The resulting high unemployment rate worries government officials, especially in the case of the foreigners doing highly technical jobs in the oil industry, defense, or handling finances.
Apparently, the jihadis are holding out for a management position.
