Culture in the ‘politics of identity’: conceptions of national identity and citizenship among second-generation non-Gulf Arab migrants in Dubai

ABSTRACT

Based on a year-long ethnographic study in Dubai, this article explores the following: How do second-generation Arab migrants articulate and negotiate the legal and social boundaries they are subjected to? I take into consideration the relative cultural proximity this group have to Emirati citizens, as well as the growing anti-Muslim and Arab sentiments in the West, and how these may implicate their experiences and narrations of citizenship and national identity. The majority of respondents did not wish to attempt to emulate ‘Emiratiness’, not only because of their lived experiences of exclusion from the Emirati community, but also because they saw a degree of dissonance between their lifestyles and cultural identities and that of Emiratis. While each participant had a distinct notion of what their ‘Arab culture and traditions’ meant, the umbrella of ‘Arabness’ which typifies the UAE was seen as preferable to the increasingly racialised and exclusionary forms of governance enacted within the West. A central paradox emerged when some second-generation migrants claimed a shared culture to the Emirati community and performed Emiratiness. This was on the basis of their historical and cultural ties to the region and, more importantly, their family connections with the Emirati community.

KEYWORDS:

• Second generation
• Arab migrants
• national identity
• culture
• citizenship
• Dubai
• United Arab Emirates
• migrant integration

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Schooling in Arabic is provided free of charge by the government to all citizens, whereas non-citizens need to opt for a wide range of privatised education options, either nationality, faith-based schools or international schools teaching in Western curriculums (Vora 2013, 147).

2 The citizenship law only considers Muslim Arabs and Arabic speakers, who have been in the UAE at least 30 years for naturalisation (Ali, 2011).