Asians, mostly from the Indian subcontinent, increasingly see the UAE as “home is where the job is, not just where the heart is,” according to a political analyst from India, Dr N. Janardhan.
Though workers’ stay here is limited to their job contract, many reside long enough to regard themselves as “Dubai-ites” — Indian head to toe but with a strong sense of love for Dubai at heart, he said.
In fact, Dr Janardhan added, this “permanent state of impermanence” has led to a sort of a dual personality development of third-culture and second-generation Asian expats.
He said: “[For instance] my nine-year-old son is familiar with the adhan (Muslim prayer call), some verses of the Quran and some Arabic.”
And still, non-Muslim Asians have their own places of worship in the UAE, their own customs and traditions, and a thriving social network here.
Another benefit is economic — with 33,000 Indian dollar-millionaires in the UAE in 2005, according to research cited by Dr Janardhan. They are also a leading investor group in the local property scene.
He quipped that the social growth of the diaspora means they have gone from being “NRIs-Non Resident Indians to NRI-Not Really Indians.”
However, his paper noted that though a vast majority of Indians are happy in the UAE, they sense that Emiratis can do even more to accept them in a socialising sense context.
