Dubai: Gilded Cage

by Syed Ameer Ali

In less than two decades, Dubai has transformed itself from an obscure Gulf emirate into a global center for business, tourism, and luxury living. It is a fascinating case study in light-speed urban development, hyperconsumerism, massive immigration, and vertiginous inequality. Its rulers have succeeded in making Dubai into a worldwide brand, publicizing its astonishing hotels and leisure opportunities while at the same time successfully downplaying its complex policies towards guest workers and suppression of dissent.

In this enormously readable book, Syed Ali delves beneath the dazzling surface to analyze how—and at what cost—Dubai has achieved such success. Ali brings alive a society rigidly divided between expatriate Westerners living self-indulgent lifestyles on short-term work visas, native Emiratis who are largely passive observers and beneficiaries of what Dubai has become, and workers from the developing world who provide the manual labor and domestic service needed to keep the emirate running, often at great personal cost.

Genres: Nonfiction, Middle East, History

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Syed Ameer Ali Order of the Star of India[3] (1849 – 1928) was an Indian/British Indian jurist hailing from the state of Oudh from where his father moved and settled down at Orissa. He was a prominent political leader, and author of a number of influential books on Muslim history and the modern development of Islam, who is credited for his contributions to the Law of India, particularly Muslim Personal Law, as well as the development of political philosophy for Muslims, during the British Raj. He was a signatory to the 1906 Petition to the Viceroy and was thus a founding-member of the All India Muslim League.

(wikipedia)

Reviews

[GeoLyceum · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Syed Ali, an associate professor of sociology at LIU Brooklyn and expert in issues of migration and ethnic identity, has written an engaging book about the motley mix of native Emiratis, expats, and neo-serfs who populate the international playground of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. This book is suitable for the general reader: the extensive references are at the end of the book rather than footnotes, and a bibliography is provided for more information. Ali cites Western and Gulf media as well as NGO and scholarly works in addition to the participant observations and interviews he carried out. It is more ethnographic and sociological than the Library of Congress book "Persian Gulf states : country studies," edited by Helen Chapin Metz (1994).

Ali's purpose in writing this book was to answer the question "how does the kafala (sponsorship) system affect living and working conditions for expats and nationals? To answer that question, he takes us on a brief tour of Dubai's history and economy, stressing the paramount importance of trade (always) and now tourism, transshipment, and communications. Trade has always been both legal and illegal, including smuggling, human trafficking (prostitution included), and laundering money for terrorism.

There are two levels of expats: professional and worker. Professionals have more protections, but they are still not citizens. What keeps them in check is the desire not to jeopardize their lifestyles, which are "plastic," "shallow," and "consumerist" and proud of it. The kafala system keeps foreign workforces under control because labor and residency permits are tied to employers. The temporariness leads to a situation where Ali notes that superficiality of interaction is common; everpresent is the implicit threat of deportation. The bargain they make is live nicely, but no political activity and no claims on the state. (He doesn't mention it, but the unspoken draw for these people is the opportunity to live as if they were British East India Company nabobs, something that would not be possible in their homelands.) Art, culture, and higher education are late introductions for this group; it is possible to spend one's entire working life and have and raise children here without ever truly belonging. The second generation is particularly rootless, living "in Dubai but not of Dubai" even if born there. Connections are to family instead of place, and backup countries of residence are preferably in the West.

Nationals are a rare breed (less than 10% of the population), and their bargain gives them one of the most generous welfare states in the world. In return, they give allegiance to the sheik and are strangers in their own land, invisible economically, politically, and culturally. Their culture is mostly hidden, as it is relational and interactional. There's a distinct pecking order: nationals and Western (white) expats, Arab expats, Iranians, Indians, other South Asians and East Asians.

Dubai is a brand, and is managed as such -- crackdowns occur when activities threaten the brand. Labor exploitation is addressed only when it threatens to harm the brand's reputation: construction workers, maids, prostitutes, and camel jockeys are some of the best-known cases. So why do temporary, disposable workers stay? Workers at the lower end of the spectrum are often both in debt and responsible for remittances that keep families back home afloat. Furthermore, in the kafala system, passport seizure by employers is common, and pay is often months in arrears.

Ali ends on a cautionary note: this incredibly stratified instant gratification society is being reproduced in developed countries through their visa systems, and Dubai could be a harbinger of how temporary and migrant workers are treated in the future.

[Alex Goldstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

После поездки в Дубай хотелось понять, каким образом получилось такое удивительное и ни на что не похожее место. Найти книгу, которая бы описывала эту страну - не путеводитель, а именно описание, оказалось совсем непросто. Эта книга написана больше десяти лет назад, во многом, видимо, устарела - в деталях. Но я думаю, что основные мысли по-прежнему релевантны.
Исторически Дубай ещё с 19 века был значительным центром торговли. В самом Дубае ничего интересного не было, но местный шейх привлек персидских и индийских купцов, создав для них благоприятные условия - нулевые налоги, защита, дармовая земля. Дополнительным источником доходов была ловля жемчуга.
Когда Индия и Пакистан получили независимость, торговля между ними во многом шла через Дубай, поскольку напрямую они торговать не могли из-за плохих отношений. В двадцатом веке серьезным занятием была контрабанда золота в Пакистан и Индию - там были ограничения на покупку золота и контрабанда процветала - Дубай был третьим в мире покупателем золота. После революции в Иране, товары из США в Иран шли контрабандой через Дубай.
Как следствие этой торговой деятельности, законной и не очень, в Дубае был построен большой торговый порт, который потом расширялся и достраивался.
Фактически Дубай служил торговым хабом региона, и правительство закрывало глаза на незаконную деятельность типа контрабанды, отмывания денег и т. д. - пока эта деятельность не затрагивала напрямую сам Дубай.
Правители Дубая приняли осознанное решение о развитии Дубая как центра туризма и шоппинга. Центральным инструментом достижения этой цели стала авиакомпания Emirates - используя удачное положение города на полпути между Европой , Азией и Африкой, эта компания быстро выросла в одну из крупнейших.
Была инициирована постройка больших торговых центров - идея была привлечь покупателей из региона, из стран где было непросто найти качественные западные товары.
Ну а вместе с шоппингом началось развитие туризма - с упором на ночную жизнь и всякие развлечения. Ну и морские пляжи в месяцы, когда в Европе холодно.
Ещё мысли/тезисы из книги:
- Абу Даби является богатейшим эмиратом, и в случае необходимости служит подушкой безопасности в плане финансовой поддержки
- значительный поток посетителей (и денег) идёт из саудовской Аравии. То есть хотя Дубай напрямую не сильно зависит от нефти, косвенно его зависимость весьма значительна
- экспаты находятся в перманентно временном статусе
- экспаты из бедных стран зарабатывают деньги и посылают домой - они абсолютно бесправны, но все равно идут на это, потому что дома ещё хуже
- экспаты из богатых стран приезжают за развлечениями, деньгами, продвижением карьеры, комфортной жизнью с домработницей и шофёром
- местные получают деньги от государства, практически не работая, служат номинальными владельцами фирм и т. д. При этом они чувствуют себя чужими и изолированными в своей стране.
- довольно дикие законы, вроде уголовной ответственности за просроченные долги и долговая тюрьма (хотя вроде это постепенно меняется)

[Brigitte · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was recommended to me by a friend before my upcoming visit to the UAE in April. I agree with the reviewer who was surprised that the author is a Yale grad; the book is written really poorly and could probably be 100 pages shorter with the same amount of content. I did enjoy the quotes he gleaned from his interviews, and for a quick read, it's a worthwhile primer for understanding the culture of Dubai.

[Temi Abimbola · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Decent book, written thoroughly by Mr Ali, but doesn't have anything new that we haven't heard on the media or documentaries. It's great Mr Syed Ali began writing about the fast-growth in dubai, but other scholars and journalists have covered these stories on dubai on a general sense.

I've only gotten what I already know about Dubai from watching the news and several documentaries recently shown.

[Cold · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another book about the Arabian Gulf.

The author wants to understand how the temporary visa situation shapes the lives of expatriates in Dubai, particularly 2nd generation who were born there but have no permanent rights. The problem he runs into is that the expatriates he can speak to, professionals, are largely indifferent. Few identify with the city/country, and instead continue to live in Dubai because of the lifestyle.

It is well researched. The first chapter on the history of Dubai was particularly good and worth reading for anyone who wants a primer on the city. The next chapter describes the contemporary work relations within Dubai, which was fine although lower quality than the chapter on history. He then tries to understand the perspectives of expatriates and nationals, and also the social relations between them. By this stage, the book is falling apart because the data he has collected doesn't fit the narrative he wants to tell. I really appreciated how he persevered with presenting the analysis and acknowledge that it didn't quite fit his expectations.

For what is worth, my main takeaway from the book is that Dubai has prospered on the back of regulatory arbitrage for going on 70 years. In the 1970s, this was importing gold into India when it was banned. Then it was import/export with Iran post-sanctions. Then it was allowing social sins while the rest of the region maintained social conservatism. More recently, its allowing Russians to park wealth and consume luxury goods. There is also ongoing tax arbitrage with many expatriates mentioning they don't pay income tax. Then there's also labour rights, human rights arbitrage etc etc. Basically, if you want to open a business but can't because of social/legal rules, then open it in Dubai.

However, Dubai's saving grace is that although the employer-sponsored visa system has many dark sides related to different forms of human trafficking, it does allow individuals to earn more than their home countries and remit a good chunk of their wages, improving living standards of their families. I struggle to criticise Dubai for this, meanwhile countries maintain spotless records by preventing anyone from arriving (e.g. Norway). As much as Westerners find labour conditions abhorrent, the reality is many workers prefer this to the situation they came from. I just don't see how we are morally absolved and the UAE is somehow wrong?

I was struck by how infrequently Dubai is brought up by libertarians given it puts their ideals into practice...

[Rob Gee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a frustrated, and frustrating, account of a city its author is at pains to properly understand – to dig beneath the surface and hyperbolic headlines he knows cloud the truth of – yet never quite succeeds in doing so.
His premise, as a sociologist, is that all migrant workers have signed an unwritten contract with a totalitarian-ruled state, stripping them of many human rights and all freedom of speech, in exchange for higher salaries and/or better living conditions. Why so readily? He almost seems disappointed to report this compromise is happily made in most cases, whether indentured labourers sending every spare penny home, or boozed-up Western brunchers enjoying a tax-free, poolside life of sun.
All Ali’s research was conducted during a four-month stay, largely from “informal observations” (ie friends, friends of friends, strangers he presumably accosts in a mall), glaringly apparent in the often unnuanced, opinionated accounts he constructs. While some of Ali’s anonymous case studies are instructive, if unsurprisingly, these vague largely surface-level portraits are backed up by a lot of research, most often drawn from the same local media he (rightly) critiques for its rampant self-censorship.
It doesn’t help that Ali is clearly an academic, not a writer, so that the considerable empirical value this book carries – and its somewhat laboured conclusions – are delivered in an unremarkable, often droll tone and repetitive manner. Each chapter feels like a new paper, repeating its aims from the outset, rather than continuing a volume or driving a larger narrative.
For the casual reader, though, its greatest hurdle to finding value in this book is it’s age – published in 2010, its first-person research was all conducted in 2008, meaning even the author himself would admit his account is by now vastly outdated to a city moving at the breakneck pace he sought to document and understand.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just finished Syed Ali's _Dubai: Gilded Cage_. I spent much of the time nodding my head or chuckling in agreement with Syed Ali's many astute observations. From my perspective in 2020, this book is both a time capsule from a decade before in the Emirates and an enduring work that still sheds considerable light on a myriad of issues in the Emirates.

Ali researched this book while working in Dubai before the 2008 crash and published it right after, which means his research period corresponds to the time we spent at UAEU in Al Ain (pre-crash). We experienced much of what he writes about during that time, albeit not in Dubai rather in the Abu Dhabi Emirate.

Ali's book chronicles the world we entered when we returned to the Emirates, this time to Dubai after the crash. We stayed until 2015 in Dubai and experienced the next act following the time portrayed in the book. We would have done well to read this book then (as a reminder of this past and heads-up on things to come), but what did we know? We were living the expat life in Dubai's Gilded Cage!

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a decade old, which is ancient history by Dubai standards. The book could have gone into a bit more depth and made his interviewees feel more like flesh and blood humans. Generally a solid discussion of a city built “overnight” and the worker exploitation involved in making that happen.

[Paakhi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book - the content won't be surprising to anyone who has lived in or grown up in Dubai. It's still a little jarring to read the reality on paper. A great read for anyone wanting get a glimpse of what it is like living as an expatriate in Dubai.

[Pia Costello · Rating 3 out of 5]

easy to read but suffers from dubai syndrome which when things because obsolete if they are more than a year old. good for contextualizing, but it being 10 years old makes it hard to know when something you are reading is still relevant/applicable. par for the course

[A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating read, and squared very well with my own experiences and what people told me in Dubai in 2022. It was a bit verbose, but otherwise very solid.

[Qweilo216 · Rating 5 out of 5]

In writing Dubai, Gilded Cage Syed Ali covers subjects that could be dry and, for lack of a better word, boring. He has however taken this book and made readable, interesting and enjoyable without "dumbing it down." The subject matter is covered in depth and I enjoyed the book thoroughly. I think this book is much like Marketplace on NPR. With many business reports, unless you are a business professional many people do not understand and may be bored by the content. Marketplace is the one business report that I listen to, understand and enjoy. The book does for Dubai what Marketplace does for business, makes it enjoyable, highly interesting and understandable without having to be a sociologist. This is a must read.

Dan

[Boni · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting breakdown of the unique transience of the Dubai populace, also describing the economies, values, problems, and cultural growth of the city and its philosophical architects, the ruling family. This book is a few years old though, so today's Dubai is likely very different from that hit hard by the fiscal woes of 2008. The capitalistic conundrums of Turkey and China do not seem so angst-ridden in this Gulf state setting. Nice quick background history for an upcoming visit to this fascinating, futuristic city.

[Reem · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing truly new to me as a resident of Dubai, and written in a frankly biased point of view... from a non-resident, so it lost lots of credibility points as someone else mentioned. Definitely not the first book I'd recommend on the subject, but it was one of the few books I found on the city that wasn't a travel guide.

[Trudy · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a strange place! Majority of people living and working there are not allowed to become citizens.

[Rinku · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of information explained in an accessible way.