Before writing about my sightseeing in Dubai, I would like to start talking about what surprised me most in the city, and in the country in general: the amount of non-Arabic people! And I am not talking about the many tourists but about the foreigners living and working there! During my first hours walking through the Marina in Dubai, I don’t reckon I have seen any Emirati! Only Western tourists enjoying the JBR (Jumeirah beach residence) beach or Asian people working in the stores and cafés. The same happened when I walked through the Malls… until the evening hours when suddenly some Emirati and other Arabic people appeared to do their shopping!
After reading some articles about the UAE, the reason for that became clear: about 70/80% of the country’s population is foreigner, with two main communities: the Indian and the Filipino. It’s useless to say that the entire country’s economy completely relies on these people, in particular since they often do the “simplest” jobs. A good example are construction workers. Dubai is still booming and there are construction sites almost anywhere, including some further megalomaniac constructions earning ground on the sea! When you look at the workers, there is not a single Arabic guy!
The same for taxi drivers or waiters at restaurants! I even bumped into a job offer hanging at an Arabic restaurant looking for a Filipino waitress only! Haha!
During discussions with locals, I learned that Filipinos have a great reputation in the service business, being hard-working, reliable and friendly.
Apartment offers discriminate people based on their origin as well!
But this is only fair that foreigners try to support each other because they are really not supported by the UAE government! Unless they buy some apartment or house in the UAE (which you can imagine is unaffordable for most!), foreigners working there are only allowed to stay based on their work permit! They remain foreigners and are not emigrants! This means concretely that they are not allowed to stay in the country if they lose their job, with a tolerance of a few months! This precarity makes it hard for people to build up families there, so that many live alone in the Emirates and send some money back home to their beloved ones. Typical examples are again the construction workers who are living in some worker cities provided by the UAE government, or some Filipino maids living with their “host” families, often reduced to modern slavery. To obtain the work permit, in addition to a job offer, a medical examination needs to be passed successfully, meaning that people with chronicle diseases would be refused.
So why are so many people willing to work there? I think the reason might be for the “simple” jobs that it’s better to be construction worker in Dubai than unemployed in e.g. Kochi/India. For academical people, the motivation seems to be more the career opportunities and the good salaries.
And how did I learn so much about expat life in the UAE? Thanks to my wonderful Couchsurfing hosts of course! I sent many requests to both Arabic people and foreigners, but only got positive responses of foreigners! And what a nice mix of foreigners!
Rabih wasn’t able to host me, but was happy to meet me one evening. On my second night at the hostel, he drove to my place and picked me up by car! It was great to drive on the Dubai highway at night! We went to some shawarma place and he insisted on inviting me, which really made me feel bad but it was impossible to refuse! That is I guess the famous middle-east hospitality! Rabih is Lebanese and Druze (I don’t care at all about people’s religion… unless it’s so unusual!) and has a marketing job in Dubai. After dinner, he took me on a ride through the Burj Al Arab area before driving me back to the hostel! What a nice encounter!
I spent the next evening and night at my first Couchsurfer’s host place. Mark is Filipino from Manilla and also has an office job. By chance, he was living a few walking minutes away from my hostel so the location change was more than easy! He ordered some Chinese (!) food and we chatted for a while with some drinks (including alcohol that you can get in Dubai in some special “insider” places!). It was great to learn more about life in Dubai from his perspective!
The day after, my new host Thomsan picked me up by car in the morning and drew me to his place, in a nice and friendly neighborhood called Discovery Gardens. It was only a 10 minute drive out of the Marina. It felt like a normal place, with smaller buildings and space between them. Thomsan works in the financial branch and is Indian from Goa, although, as he told me, he has a Portuguese passport! I knew Goa was a Portuguese colony but wasn’t aware they would still have a special status! To make me even more confused, he is of catholic faith! I wasn’t aware that there were Catholic Indians and had to go to Dubai to learn that! Thomsan was greatly hospitable and I spent 2 nice days with him. We discussed a lot, cooked for each other (he made some roast chicken and some Indian dhal and I made some crepes for breakfast!) and did a few tours. We drove to the beach next to Burj Al Arab and had a little walk and a tea there. The next evening, we drove to the Palm Jumeirah to the Atlantis Hotel and walked on the Promenade! Thomsan only had a one-person bed and slept on the floor to let me have his bed, pretending that he likes it! I am still not sure if it’s true, but am quite amazed by the generosity of these people welcoming strangers for free and offering them a home away from home!
This article is an homage to all these foreigners who are the soul of the UAE!
Free like a bear 