garbage in India. This is the closest thing they've got to a leg up.

We are not talking about Filipinos here--that's a completely different mentality. Filipino people in the Middle East, or Africans for that matter, of all walks of life, tend to have hope.

These subcontinent workers have had generations of "you're a different, subservient species" driven into them. While not the American Dream, an opportunity to escape India or Bangladesh and make actual cash, no matter how small, is much better than what they knew back home. Unless you've spent time there or in India/Bangladesh interacting with these people, it's very hard to understand.

Our Patriarch had a maid from one of these lower castes. It took YEARS of coaching from his wife for this person to even understand that the possibility of education even applied to her. She still would only agree to the very basics (reading/writing). They have been born into a situation where their existence has been predestined to serve higher castes, not to aspire to anything.

The construction opportunity ain't much at all, but it is something to them.