Jobs
“In the U.A.E. they take jobs as day laborers, taxi drivers, bread bakers, construction workers, gardners and truck drivers. Many of them work alone in the U.A.E. going home for a month to see their families ever 6-12 months.” 1
“The Pashtun speak Pakhtu and Urdu or Dari (and some of the taxi drivers know a little English or Arabic).” (2)
Population
According to Ethnologue website Pashtuns population on 1986 was 100,000 (3).
And according to a Christian missionary site!:
“The Afghan people groups represented in the United Arab Emirates are primarily from among the Baluch (240,000), Hazara (100,000), and Pashtun (200,000)…Many of the Hazara and Baluch have their families living with them, but the Pashtun tend to be single men, coming and going for periods of work.” (2)
And according to Wikipedia, Pashtun population is estimated to be 126,000 (4). However, I believe that today the numbers are much higher, and to get the exact numbers, I have to do some calls…maybe the Ministry of Labor to get a number of the taxi drivers here, or call the Pakistani & Afghani Embassies to get the exact number of Pashtun population in the UAE…
A Quote from a blogger
“…I spent lots of time being driven around by guys with a really long series of names one of which was inevitably "Khan." All of them talk really fast, and were extremely friendly - if I spoke Pashtun, I would know lots of stuff about them and the surrounding countryside. Unfortunately, most had picked up only a seemingly rudimentary colloquial to go with their Pashtun and at least enough Urdu to watch the Pakistani news, which made communication difficult, even at the level of, "Stop here!" 5
I'm sure there's more resources, but these are the result of a simple search...
1. http://centralasia.imb.org/people/PashtunUAE.html
2. http://centralasia.imb.org/people/AfghanDiaspora.html
3. http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=pbu
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pashtun_people
5. http://bjulrich.blogspot.com/search/label/Travel
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