When people employ local staff and abide by local or traditional employment guidelines I can't see much of a problem. I was born abroad in a poor country and I understand that stuff.
I have a problem with employing staff in the Gulf states because the gross inequities in the hiring of staff, the inherently racist ways the national laws are organised and the impunity with which employees are subject is as I have said before, all morally bankrupt.
A few staff benefit generous employers but the majority are living in penury and worse because the laws are shit. It amplifies the injustice of the whole system to me. I don't think any human being should be subject to chance of getting a good employer. The percentage of staff who benefit this way is miniscule.
another poster said taht expats are also victims of having their passports taken off them and having their terms of employment illegally changed when in service. All I can say is the pigeons do come home to roost, don't they. And not all companies do that sort of stuff. Multinationals don't normally for example. Europeans tend to go out there on contracts based on British employment laws and with recourse under British law. It is Arab companies which tend to do keep people's passports and with hold their pay etc. People learn these things after they get out there and cut their jibs accordingly when they find out how the winds blow.
European expats have whole lot less to lose in these situations than the average slave from the Asian subcontinent and south east Asia. Being made redundant for example is a hiccup in our lives but it can be devastating for the worker and the extended family in their home countries.
European Expats are colluding in the abuse of these poor people. last year a large european contractor called in 400 of their migrant asian workers to the canteen for a meeting at 9 am. They told them all to pack their belongings and come back by 11 am. By 3pm they were back on flights to India. One outraged European asked his boss why was it done like that. The response was that some of these men will commit suicide and we don't want that on our hands. many times these men's families have sold the family land or used it as collateral to banks to pay fixers to get them out there and they expect to spend all of their working lives supporting the family to repay the debt. Going home early may sentence the whole family to death.
going out there to benefit from their system means we collude with the intense injustice of the whole system. Despite paying or maid and houseboy well. You can pay your houseboy and maid well because your family is profiting from the virtual enslavement of other people.