In America, people are taught that all races are equal and it is never appropriate to discuss someone's race openly. Instead, all of life and business is supposed to proceed without any acknowledgment of a person's ethnicity, nationality, or skin color.
It's different here. People discuss race - openly. People over here say things like - "Whatever you do, don't try to bargain in that shop - he's Lebanese and you'll lose." Or "Be sure to get to the meeting early (but not too early) - they're German." And of course, everyone over here knows that the Brits like to enjoy a pint (or two or three). These are stereotypes, I know, but ones that are openly used here.
Now, the things that I am about to say may sound shocking to you - my mostly-American readers. So please hear this as a description of how things exist in the culture, not as an endorsement of this system. I'm just trying to get you a little understanding of how people here view the world and the people in it. What follows is the social pecking order - from those who feel that they rightly belong at the top, to the ones clearly at the bottom.
Gulf Arabs - this means Emiratis, Qataris, Saudis, Kuwaitis, Omanis, Bahrainis. The Gulf Arabs are proud of their common Bedouin culture, proud that the Arabian peninsula is the birthplace of Islam, and are proud to speak Arabic, the language in which the Quran was revealed. The Gulf Arabs aspire to work as merchants and business-owners. Emiratis generally want government jobs - which are incredibly high-paying and almost exclusively reserved for them [the Emirati guys in the picture below stamping passports at the airport all make six figures]. All of the Gulf Arabs want to work in white-collar jobs. Blue-collar work is beneath them.
Western Expatriates - this group includes Americans, Brits, Aussies, Kiwis, South Africans. Expatriates from these countries generally work in professional roles from banking to healthcare to education. You'll also see them as hotel managers, airline pilots, financiers, and restaurateurs. [There are a few western expats here who are French, German, Spanish, Italian, etc., but most are from the English-speaking countries that I listed]. These expats generally work in white-collar jobs. Blue-collar work is too low-paying for anyone to move here from Western countries. And with literally millions of people in south Asia and southeast Asia who are willing to work for almost nothing, there's no need to hire Westerners for blue-collar jobs.
Expatriate Arabs - this group includes (a) the Levantine Arabs (Jordanians, Lebanese, Palestinians, Syrians), and (b) the North African Arabs (Egyptians, Libyans, Algerians, Tunisians, Moroccans). These are all working-class Arabs. The Gulf Arabs look down on them as not being true, Bedouin, desert Arabs (from the Arabian Peninsula). Some will rise as high as VPs at banks, or hotel mangers, and a few oversee large family-owned conglomerates. But these people almost never hold the top position at any company in the UAE. Many of these people, however, are lower-level managers, clerical workers, or administrative staff.
Indians - Indians are the single largest ethnic group in the UAE - 50% of the population of around 5 million are Indian. Indians can be found at all points on the social scale, from upper management positions, to small business owners, to clerical positions, to blue-collar laborers.
Philippinos - they get an entire category to themselves because they hold most of the service-industry jobs here in the Emirates. They are primarily salespeople at malls, waitstaff at restaurants, and domestic workers (maids/nannies). Some also hold clerical, professional, and or managerial roles - but the vast majority are service industry workers. Most are here working so that they can send money to their families back home in the Philippines - sometimes as much as 80% of their salaries.
The photo below is from the Starbucks on my campus. The English "Starbucks" is just out of the frame to the left of the Arabic text for "Starbucks Coffee" Check out the Emirati guys sipping coffee - and the Philippinos working behind the counter (and also notice the Christmas menu on the wall!).
One other point to make as I get to this part of the list. There are some jobs that people here believe that certain nationalities are suited for. If I looked at the want-ads for jobs cooking at restaurants, it would not be at all unusual for the ad to say "only Philippinos apply". You can't say that in America, but people can and do here. Here's another example. Cindy and I have a friend from America - a fairly recent college grad who was here staying with some friends for a semester after graduation. Our friend wants to eventually start her own catering business. Back in the US, she says, someone wanting to do that would ordinarily work in a restaurant for a while - waitstaff, shift manager, manager - or at a hotel as a waiter, then as a shift manager, and maybe as an events manager. Then, after a few years of experience, you know enough to start your own business. That career path doesn't exist here. Restaurant jobs aren't for Americans. They're for (mostly) Philippinos. She would never be hired here. Ever. Anywhere. It's just not done. She had to move back to the US to start waiting tables.
South Asians and Central Asians - these are the guys who do the vast majority of the manual labor here (and I mean guys - they generally do not get to move here with their families - the men come alone to work and send money back home - the ratio of men to women in the country is 2.74 to 1). The South Asians are the Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, and Sri Lankans. The less-educated, non-English-speaking Indians fit in this category, too. There are smaller numbers of Central Asians - Afghanis, Uzbeks, Turkmen, Tajiks, Kyrgyz, and Khazaks. All of these people are taxi drivers, bus drivers, truck drivers, construction workers, landscapers, and gas station attendants. They live in huge labor camp dormitories and are paid very little (by Western standards). In spite of their apparently low pay, they still manage to send a considerable portion of their salaries back to their home country to their families. And working in Dubai represents a huge financial opportunity for them.
[all photos sourced from Google Images]
