Social Networks in Dubai: Informal Solidarities in an Uncaring State

Abstract

Dubai is a unique location to interrogate the dynamics of multicultural politics, interracial relations and belonging; with 90 per cent of its population made up of resident foreigners across 150 nationalities. The city-state is typical of the Islamic Gulf states in that it draws labour migrants not with the promise of eventual citizenship and access to the state's resources, but with the trappings of a tax-free lifestyle and opportunity for accelerated capital accumulation. In the absence of government policy that creates a sense of inclusion or community, the emirate is a highly stratified space – divided along lines of gender, race, nationality and class. It has been popularly understood as an uncaring place. By contrast, this paper will show that there exist strong informal networks of care within the emirate. These networks cross, but also rely on, ethnic, national, gender and class categories. Based on fieldwork conducted in the city-state in 2008, this paper discusses working-class solidarities, the role of social workers, charities, migrant organisations and religious groups in providing ‘care’. By examining how urban informality functions within a highly controlled space, this paper concludes that these networks are an integral part of migrants’ city life in the absence of legal and moral obligations of care by the state ensured through formal citizenship.