Impressions...One

Impressions…one
Life in the UAE is good. The people are friendly, the environment is safe and you are within easy travelling of some great history and geography. With the exception of housing, life is cheap. Indeed even housing is passably cheap if you don’t insist on living in the expat ghettos.
We have a rather odd multi-racial society. Less than 20% of the population is local. The rest are expats of one hue or another. In fact in Dubai only around 10% of the workforce is local and most of them even now work in Government or Government related business. Not many in the Real World.
About 60% of the population is from the Sub-continent making Indian the dominant culture here – not Emirati. Mostly this is a good thing though it falls apart when it comes to driving (think Mumbai but with bigger and faster cars). Racism is rife but visible tension is non-existent. I think this is because everyone is here voluntarily and however unfair the treatment they are better off than at home.
But as a liberal European it galls to see the treatment that is dished out by race. There is a hierarchy with Emiratis at the top, Europeans (well white skinned as it includes Aussies and South Africans for example) next, other Arabs, Filipinos and then Indians. People doing the same job can have a five or six fold difference in salary depending on race. And as for women…well recently I saw a job advert for “Attractive young European female stewardess to accompany Arab Executive around the world on business trips in his executive jet. Must be unmarried.”
Yet as I said you have no tension on the streets – little fighting and insignificant amounts of protest. And every year till the crash more and more people flocking here. The corporate racism seems not to extend much into daily life though this may well be that different ethnic groups tend to stick together. As true for Brits & Germans as it is for Keralans or Nepalis.
You do occasionally get problems caused by cultural differences. Most Indian cultures are quite passive and hate any kind of conflict or confrontation. Arab culture seems to thrive on a kind of friendly confrontation. Put them together sometimes and it can get out of hand. But rarely seriously so - some yelling and hand waving.