Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Inexplicable discrimination

A piece in Gulf News today reminds us of another very strange rule that I struggle to understand.

There's a restriction on expat residents sponsoring their spouse based on income. Earn less than Dh4000 a month and you can't sponsor your spouse, which to me makes sense and I understand it.

But there's also a long list of job categories which are barred from sponsoring spouses regardless of their salary. Apparently there are 57 jobs on the list.

It was highlighted again because a Filipina bank cashier earning more than Dh6000 a month and with 'proper' accommodation had her application for her husband to join her rejected.

I suspect my rule about dealing with government counter staff might have applied - if the first person rejects your request you go out, come back in and take another ticket and try a different counter. If necessary repeat the process until you find one who says 'yes'.

Discrimination like this based on the job you do is surely indefensible.

The Gulf News website has the story here but it doesn't include the list of some of the barred categories which appears in the print edition.

As strange as the rule itself, the list includes cook (with the very specific catagories of Arabic cuisine cook, continental cuisine cook - does that include the highly paid Executive Chefs in our five star hotels I wonder? - falafel maker, sweets maker, pastry maker), goldsmith, butcher, waiter, tailor, hairdresser, make-up man (eh?) and, get this, salesman.

Time for a rethink?

4 comments:

Em said...

I thought that was only for Sharjah.

Seems like they want to get rid of singles/bachelors, yet do nothing to encourage people to bring their families.

I guess they're allowing people to have affairs instead of getting their own spouse?

Anonymous said...

I thought that women could only sponsor their husbands in limited circumstances (I think doctors and teachers fall within the permitted categories) so a female cashier, no matter what her income, would likely fall foul of the wife-sponsoring husband rule. That said, I have heard of a couple of (Western) women sponsoring their husbands and it did involve asking at various counters until someone was willing to stamp the right forms.

Reality Check said...

I wonder who sits around and dreams up these arbitrary positions? Who decides what is a "worthy" position and what is not. As far as the taking a new number and getting back in line....works every time! My wife did it with some attested documents. I have some similar posts on my blog regarding other rediculous ideas, including the ID card.

Anonymous said...

The Salesman?
Now I understand why salemen in my industry (Construction Equipment & Earthmoving Machinery) wants to have a visa of Sales Engineer regardless of having an engineering degree or not.

One salesman who is hardly holding a bechlors degree in business administration is hired to start as a trainee but the visa he insisted and received finally was "Sales Engineer".