When I got to my hotel today after a tour of Abu Dhabi, I checked my BlackBerry. Yes, even halfway around the world, my world still revolves around Washington—and I have to know what’s going on.

One of the first messages that popped up was an announcement from the U.S. Customs and Immigration Service. USCIS stated it was still accepting H-1B visa applications a week after the April 1 deadline.

As heavy H-1B users predicted, the take-up rate slowed this year thanks to the recession. In previous years, all of the 85,000 visas were snapped up within a couple days of the application deadline.

It’s easy to understand why it’s galling to many members of Congress as well as laid-off programmers that many top U.S. technology companies are still seeking H-1B visas to employ highly skilled immigrants in computer science and other positions.

But my trip this week to the United Arab Emirates has given me a new perspective on the H-1B numbers. U.S. companies want to raise the H-1B cap, but even at 195,000—which it was earlier in the decade—you’re talking about a relative handful of jobs across the entire U.S. economy.

It’s not as if foreign programmers are about to usurp the technology sector. If you want to see an expatriate workforce, come to the UAE. Of the 4.7 million people who live in the seven countries that compose the federation, only about 20 percent are native born, according to Gulf Business magazine.

This fact is immediately evident when you’re here. The construction boom in Dubai, where I was earlier this week, has lured thousands of Indian and South Asian workers to the country. I saw dozens of them every day on projects less than a block from my hotel. Perhaps one day someone will publish a coffee-table book called Cranes of the UAE.

During my stay, I’ve met hotel workers, cab drivers, shopkeepers and tour guides from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Egypt, Kenya, Syria, India—everywhere but the UAE. In fact, I’m not certain I’ll meet an actual Emirati while I’m here.

Of course, Emiratis are not necessarily clamoring for jobs. Many young people in the country want to cruise around in Mercedes SUVs financed by family wealth based on oil or real estate. Or they want to work in cushy federal jobs.

But the government of the UAE is putting an emphasis on developing its workforce through a process called Emiratization. It is apparent by following news coverage and billboard advertising for e-learning that the UAE wants to invigorate the economy by improving the skills of its labor market.

The UAE is teaming with U.S. higher education institutions such as Purdue University and New York University for MBA and other programs. One with George Mason University recently collapsed, but I’m sure that the country will continue to look for other U.S. academic partners.

This week, I have seen news stories about the launch of a research and education network that will connect UAE schools to “rich multimedia teaching content through high-definition videoconferencing, inter-library success, grid computer and e-learning,” according to an April 6 story in Gulf News.

On the front page the same day, there was a story about the establishment of the Emirates National Competitiveness Council that will coordinate development efforts between the public and private sectors.

Yes, the UAE is a high-wage area that is not conducive to U.S. outsourcing. But even the world’s rich are focusing on the critical role of workforce development in a sustainable economy. It’s the same kind of trend that was apparent in India when I visited last year.

We had a tour guide the past couple days who just graduated from a high school curriculum that emphasizes science and math. After earning money for a while, he hopes to study aerospace engineering in college and eventually work for Emirates airlines. The draw is the company’s rich benefits offerings. Some job attractions are universal.

This young man is from Sri Lanka. The UAE has started a process of trying to develop homegrown talent—a desire that is shared across the world.