The dignity of Labour: Misconceptions and misuse of this term. “Bada hondey hii mein taxi chalaawaangaa,” a popular and typical Punjabi line.

Misconception No. 1: Many jobs like taxi bus or truck driving, waiter/waitresses in hotel and restaurants, cash-counter employees in supermarkets/ groceries are considered to be comparatively high paying jobs in western countries like USA, UK, Canada, Australia, etc. The comparison is drawn when you convert the dollars to rupees and therefore, these are considered highly paid jobs.

But, is it a high paying job wherein you can afford a good standard of living in those countries? The answer is NO.

Misconception No. 2: No job is considered to be high or low in these countries. Then how come salaries for these type of workers is so less when compared to highly skilled and technical workers? Everyone drinks/parties in the same club/pub irrespective of the labour class.

But do you think the class of the friend circle of these types of workers is the same as any other highly skilled technical worker doing an office job? The answer is again NO.

Misconception No. 3: Everyone can afford to buy a house for themselves, thanks to the concept of home loan in these countries. But can these types of workers afford to live in a high class/posh suburb as the other highly skilled/professional workers? The answer is again NO.

Misuse: The two most commonly used types of immigration are skilled immigration and student visa which can then be converted into ‘Permanent Residency’ once the course has been completed. There are many such individuals who complete their IT, accounting or any such professional courses or vocational courses like cookery, etc. and then turn towards performing labour class jobs like taxi, bus or truck driving, or working in factories. The probable reasons for this are their English language barrier, lack of professional skills/brains to ever be a professional for which they had invested few years of their education and on the basis of which they had entered the country. In short, they eventually become a burden on the society and form a major part of the trash of our community.

They are the ones who mainly depend on Centrelink and unemployment benefits since they have migrated to another country for a better lifestyle without having changed their attitude for the betterment of their lives.

I was born and brought up in Dubai which shares almost the same culture as that of any other Asian country where there is no concept known as dignity of labour and all the labour class people live below the poverty line. As a result, there is always a segregation of the professional and labour class. The labour class believes that in the ‘so-called’ First World countries they would be paid their dues. But it’s a wrong thinking since they are always paid way lesser than any other professional employee and as such, they settle down in those pockets of the city where they can afford to live with their low income. Such pockets turn out to be known as ‘blue-collar’ suburbs which tends to have the highest crime rate which is committed by these labour class people and their kin who turn towards such acts because their families cannot afford to provide them with all these luxuries.

Conclusion: There is no such concept actually known as ‘dignity of labour’. This is always proved either directly (in Asian countries like India, U.A.E., etc) or indirectly (in countries like Australia, U.K., U.S.A.) on the basis of the suburbs where they reside in and the friend circle who they mingle around with. Even the professionally qualified locals/natives of these western countries never tend to mix around with these labour class people because even they understand that it is well below their dignity to keep any kind of relationship with such people. Unfortunately, this is the mindset of people irrespective of whichever part of the world they belong to and no amount of boasting about for the dignity of labour will bring about a change in this mindset. As they say ‘no pain no gain’. If you have to earn respect and money then you have to go through the pain of achieving this and there are no shortcuts towards such achievements.

The dignity of labour is a false concept which can never ever be adopted as a fact because the truth is stranger than fiction.

This story is mainly applicable to the Punjabi community of all the First World nations because they form the majority of the labour class society of these nations.

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