In today’s globalized world, working in a foreign country has become a more feasible opportunity to the global population in general and to degree holders in particular. Job markets around the world are accommodating an international workforce for a wide range of positions. However, what strikes the most about such promising borderless opportunities is the lack of a genuine equality when it comes to payment and benefits, which rather contradicts the true concept of globalization by applying what we may call racist salaries.

Such case is quite evident in the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf, an area that continues to draw people from all backgrounds and nationalities. The growing employment opportunities in these wealthy Arab countries are pursued by many, yet what few people notice is that the nationality of the employee in most cases is what defines their salary and what they deserve. Instead of being paid for their qualifications regardless of their backgrounds, employees from Asia and Africa and even Arabs are much less paid than their counterparts that come from the western world, such as the US, UK, Australia and so on. The notable irony here is that both parties would be on the same position, doing the same duties and offering the same if not better qualifications, the only difference is that they are from two different parts of the world. And the even funnier irony is when you read the surprising note in a job description saying that if you are not from few developed countries, please do not apply.

This of course is also evident in many other areas around the world, and the reason the reference is being pointed at the Persian Gulf countries is a personal experience that led to such observation. The point here is not to create a polarization between the people of the developed world and those belonging to the developing world, of course according to a capitalist system that pretty much sustains this hierarchy. The purpose of this comparison in employment and salaries is to place this discrepancy in the frame of globalization and notice the inconsistency between such discriminating practices and the values that should characterize globalization.

Why should a Lebanese, Egyptian, Syrian, Palestinian, Jordanian, Pilipino, Indian, or Pakistani engineer, doctor, teacher, laborer, architect, or artist be underpaid and treated based on their nationality rather than their qualifications, that is if they succeed in getting the job in the first place. Doesn’t globalization stand for a borderless world, or does it only subliminally feed the growth of capitalism under the pretext of one world?

So the question that one urgently must ask is whether globalization is really drawing people closer towards an equal world or just widening the gap between the rich or first world and the poor or third world. It goes without saying that the latter is the true answer. The obvious failure of globalization manifests itself through the unfair distribution of wealth and the usurpation of the world’s natural resources by particular few entities, which unintentionally happen to be the first world countries. It is quite a bitter irony, especially when we witness the daily misfortunes and struggles of the populations belonging to the developing world, who still hope or believe that the creation of a global community does serve their wellbeing and contribute to their growth.

From job markets to the drinking water we need to survive, it is all manipulated by this globalization fallacy that is so synonymous with a thriving capitalism. And the most poignant in all this is the growing number of people seeking western citizenships for the sake of the superiority attributed to these nationalities, while instead they should be preserving and standing for what belongs to them by nature including their histories, cultures, and values.

Authentic globalization is when all people are treated the same, when imperial hierarchies become obsolete, when education is offered to each and every child on the basis of simply belonging to the human race, when each culture and ethnicity is unconditionally respected, when jobs are granted based on merely relevant qualifications, when natural resources and wealth are fairly distributed among the indigenous people, when histories are preserved rather than destroyed, and so on. Until then, globalization remains an e-fallacy virtually connecting us, while in reality it is just drawing nations and peoples further and further apart and strengthening capitalist hierarchies.