The impact of oil on urbanisation and population structure of the United Arab Emirates

• Main Author: Juma, M. A. A.
• Published: Swansea University 1996
• Subjects: 910
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.637742

Little has been written about urbanisation in the Gulf in Western literature. This thesis investigates the urbanisation process and population structure in the UAE as an example of the impact of oil on the urbanisation process in the Arab Gulf States. The investigation of this problem is based on indicators, such as urbanisation development, population change, values and religious trends in an attempt to verify' the hypothesis that there are positive and negative impacts of oil and oil wealth on the urbanisation process and the population of the UAE, similar to these in other Arab Gulf States. Two methods were used in this study to measure the impact of oil on urbanisation and population structure. The first was a comparative study between urbanisation before and after oil's discovery, the purpose being to measure the differences in the urbanisation trends that oil wealth has brought. The second, was a field survey to investigate public opinions about the differences between the past and the present. The thesis examines the development following the discovery of oil in 1960 and the oil price jump in 1973. The UAE' urban development has made such huge steps forward that by 1995 about 84% of the total population were urban. The huge oil revenues ($10,945<I> </I>million in 1994) have been invested in infrastructural projects all over the country. The present investigation makes clear that urbanisation in the UAE could have never developed and spread so rapidly without oil wealth, and it warns that the host population's traditional culture is in danger of disappearance with the huge influx of expatriates.