Glossary entry

Arabic term or phrase:

أجير

English translation:

EMPLOYEE/wage-earner

Added to glossary by algtranslator
Mar 21, 2006 21:41
18 yrs ago
21 viewers *
Arabic term

أجير

Arabic to English Other Human Resources Morocco
it appears in a passport issued by the Moroccan authorities at the profession field. The French mentioned equivalent is "salarie" . My final target is Romanian and I need to understand the meaning of أجير .
ما هو الأجير في اللغة العربية ؟ أ هو الصانع ؟
Any person who is employed and is paid on a regular basis can be called "Salarie" , however this word doesn't tell what his profession is.

Proposed translations

+2
1 hr
Selected

EMPLOYEE

in Maghreb( Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco)...

It is salarié in french = employee!

Peer comment(s):

agree atef Sharia : أجير in Maghreb is the same as موظف in eastern arabi countries " refer to the Code du travail, Royaume du Maroc, http://www.emploi.gov.ma/KITA4-99.htm
10 hrs
thank you
agree Abu Arman : the direct translation would be "wage-earner" or "person in work". It can have many connotations though, in Libya they have the famous slogan: "شركاء ولا أجراء"
13 hrs
Thank you
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thank you all"
+2
4 mins

Hired Labourer

This is what the term means in Arabic, although the French equivalent there is a bit confusing. It doesn't look to me like a profession, more like an occupation - he doesn't have any, he just gets hired (a bit like seasonal workers on farms do) when there is a need, but no clue to what he does once he is hired.
Peer comment(s):

agree Sami Khamou : Yes labourer is an occupation. ولكن من الأفضل أن نطلع على رأي الاخوة المغاربة
27 mins
agree Hassan Al-Haifi (wordforword) : I would agree in this context, as it is probably meant for expatriate emigrant laborers.
16 hrs
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+1
30 mins

On professions and occupations

This post is not for grading, since it does not offer any answer. I do not know if the word أجير as used in Moroccan documents is coterminous with the word أجير as used in Middle Eastern countries, so I will leave that issue to the experts.

I merely want to comment on how the field "profession" or "occupation" is filled in forms and documents from many Arab countries. Most of my first-hand information is based on my experience in Saudi Arabia, but I have second-hand information, based on exposure to documents from other Arab countries, especially Egypt.

In Western countries, the field "occupation" or "profession" in most official forms and documents is filled in with a level of specificity that will tell the reader what the person does for a living, giving a fairly good indication of the person's technical training, education, level of expertise, and professional licensing, all summed up in a short phrase: physician, lawyer, architect, translator, cabinet-maker, software developer, etc.

In Arab countries, however, the field is often used merely to classify the source of income of the individual. So a person, for instance, may be a government employee, which in some countries is simply called موظف and is often surprisingly rendered "official" in English (the English used by government bureaucrats in many Arab countries rarely has anything to do with English as we know it). Anther person may be an employee of a private concern. Such a person is often simply called عامل, and is often rendered "employee" or "worker" in English, and so on.

When I was a medical interpreter at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, I often encountered situations where the doctor would ask about the line of work that the patient had practiced (which may be etiologically relevant), but the patient would simply identify himself as موظف, or متسبب, or whatever the source of income was, with no specificity regarding the actual work. This would typically prompt a refining of the question, like, "what kind of work did you do daily in your employment?"

There is a social history behind this. To explain adequately, it would require a lengthier discussion, which may not be appropriate here, but I thought this much may be relevant to your inquiry.
Note from asker:
Thank you Mr. Yahya. I'd love to know "the rest of the story" :)
Peer comment(s):

agree Hassan Al-Haifi (wordforword) : In Saudi Arabia, most of the Yemeni expats that go ther go as "عامل". thus I would think this would mean the same implication, only it si more polite.
16 hrs
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9 hrs

Seasonal Labourer /seasonal worker(عامل موسمي / متسبب/ أو ارزقي/ أجير يومي

this man has no profession but he would be hired on daily basis whatever the Job Is it makes for him no difference those called in many arabic countries espicially Egypt ( عامل يومي) and in saudi arabia ( متسبب) and in Moroco& Algeria ( عامل تراحيل)
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+1
14 hrs

wage earner

wage earner

I am sure
Peer comment(s):

agree Abu Arman : yes, it's the very direct translation
1 min
Thank you Abu Arman
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