I am unaffected by the “US/UK/SA educated” requirement in recruitment ads, which despite being against UAE Labour Law, continues unabated. Not because I am one. After all, it is easy to circumvent the clause if you spend a few hundred dollars and get a US qualification on-line. However, there would still remain existential issues you cannot so easily overcome unless you decide to try out beauty treatments and name-change ads.
My biggest regret in the UAE job market is that I am not known as say, Roy Nystrom or Roger Norman. I envy some girls. They marry dashing Frenchmen or thoroughbred British gentlemen and assume impressive surnames that you would die for: Auden, Chatwin, Baeauvoir, Proust, Mackintosh-Smith… Like fusion music, their Vidya, Lakshmi, Nirmala first names would then exude an air of enigma that they can employ to impress HR consultants.
The other option before the ordinary mortals would be to twist their name to sound exotic. I return to the importance of having the “right name” because I spotted a recruitment ad which said the firm was looking for sales personnel – “from Bombay or Delhi.”
I can understand the discriminatory fixations sunken deep in the US/UK education clause. At least, the criterion – if only in the surface – is still education. But to start segregating job candidates on the basis of their geographic roots comes as a stunner that shocks.
This HR manager who penned the line; the HR consultant who went to press with the copy; and the client who uttered the brief have all side-stepped what should be the essential considerations in job recruitment: Educational qualification, work experience, orientation, attitude…
Whatever be the demographic balance they seek to achieve with this lopsided recruitment drive, they have compromised on the most vital consideration: Is this man fit for the job? Do you recruit him simply because he belongs to Delhi, Mumbai or for that matter Manila, London, Sydney or Johannesburg?
The accent that lay on education in the US/UK educated tag has thus been replaced by utterly parochial concerns. That hurts not only the company in question but also the society which is ever ready to attribute stereotypical notions on communities.
I think people from the south Indian states have taken the brunt of such ridicule the most. Perhaps that explains why there are at least three distinct genres of south Indians in the UAE:
One: The thoroughbreds, who are happy to eat with their fingers, love their regional songs and speak their language without effort.
Two: The Mumbai/Gulf-bred-south Indians, who prefer to speak Hindi or Hinglish, eat doshas with a fork and drown it with spoon-fed sambhar, and generally look down on the rest of their creed with contempt.
Three: Oh, these have assimilated into different global communities or are perpetually eyeing US and Canada immigration. You won’t get an “aiyo” (the regional equivalent of ouch) from them, even in their sleep.
Sadly, none of the three can respond to the said ad. And there are no quick-fix solutions in sight…
