Dubai’s post-oil economy structurally depends on exploited migrant construction labor

Evidence

Dubai has entered a post-oil economy that depends on capital accumulation via a finite amount of foreign investment and speculation in real estate. In the 1980s and early 1990s, before speculation boomed, construction companies operated with low revenue margins, often paying workers four to six months after projects were completed.∞∂ When demand began to exceed supply in the 2000s, profit margins increased exponentially, eliminating the cash-flow problems, but employers continued to use the tactic of delaying wage payment to reinvest profits in new projects and to move capital around to leverage assets. The result of nonpayment by employers is the dramatic upward distribution of resources acquired from exploited migrant workers. — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 711

Categorization

• CANDY: The counterintuitive fact that wage withholding continued even after cash-flow problems disappeared makes a punchy conversational point about profit motive.