We Built This City

     Am I a New Yorker or a Jersey Girl?  My childhood was on Long Island and my family is still there; however, I have made a life for myself in New Jersey over the past (gulp!) twenty years.  In fact, I have lived in NJ longer than I lived in New York!

   The question is rhetorical. Truth is, I am neither, or I am both, and I don't have to choose loyalties. There are no border checks between my two homes, only a few costly bridges and a lot of traffic. 

    The Gulf countries, however, have many residents for whom this kind of question is crucial.  They are called ex-pats and migrant workers, and they are all temporary immigrants who left their home countries for employment and a better life in these growing nations.

   A critical reader will find a few words blaring out in that last paragraph. Ex-pat? Migrant worker? Is there a difference? And above all: temporary immigrant. Hmmmm.

   In Qatar, Bahrain and the Emirates, "nationals" (their term for citizens) are a privileged minority. In fact, I don't think I met a single Qatari in my time in Doha! Abu Dhabi is made up of about 18% nationals and the rest all come from elsewhere.

    Why do they come? Same reasons I came to New Jersey: opportunity.

    I moved to NJ because I was offered a job there. Sure, I was offered several jobs on Long Island too, but it seemed like a great growing opportunity for me to move to a new state. There were a couple of practical issues about switching my teacher certification to NJ, but it was an easy move and one that I knew would help me become more independent while still staying close to my family.

  

    I have never seen such booming wealth and futuristic architecture as there was in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha. I can imagine the lure of being part of this excitement...not to mention the pull of possible funding.  This is the land of mega-bucks.  Consequently, westerners leave their homes to advise new companies and to lead their own entrepreneurial adventures.  They join the 3% of the world who is now considered "ex-pats". Often, they come with families and are given contracts which include private schooling for their children.   

     On the other hand, individuals from the east (often Nepal, India and the Phillipines) venture to the Gulf in search of better living conditions. They take the jobs of window cleaners, taxi drivers, nannies, waitresses and construction workers.  Often, they make barely a living wage, but it is still more than they would earn back in their home countries. One worker I spoke with said that he makes about six hundred dollars a month and sends two thirds of it back to his family.  Just behind our elegant hotel in Abu Dhabi was a construction site, and just past that was a temporary housing community for these migrants.

    Implicit in the gap between ex-pats and migrants is an unspoken racism. Ask anyone in these countries and they will confidently tell you how splendidly diverse the environment is. However, if you peel the onion a little deeper, you will see that ex-pats are basically white and migrants are darker skinned. One of my new friends spoke of her British/Filipina mother who was an ex-pat, but was mistaken for a maid when gardening outside of her house. 

    I am not claiming that American culture is void of these discrepancies. Au contraire! Look at Ferguson and Baltimore to see there are race issues in the US today. But also look back to the Chinese who built our railroads in the west coast and the Irish who built the canals in New Jersey.  Also, heed the migrant workers who provide us grapes and oranges, while enduring daily conditions most people I know would not tolerate. The US, too, was a land of opportunity, and an opportunity that came at a cost.

    The difference, then, is that in the US there is a path to citizenship. Ex-pats and migrants maintain that status...for generations.  They need a local to be their business sponsor, and every two or three years, their visas must be renewed. At retirement, they are expected to return to their home country. And for many, that home country has never been "home". Children born in Gulf countries maintain the ex-pat status, and at eighteen need to have a college or job sponsorship to stay in the country where they grew up. I was surprised how many students and colleagues told me that they were, say, Lebanese or Jordanian, but had never been to Lebanon or Jordan.

    At first I wondered why citizenship would be so hard to come by. Then I learned about the privileges of citizenship: free education, free health care, free land, free housing (if you aren't a millionaire), guaranteed jobs that pay about $120,000 a year regardless of your productivity. These subsidies can only extend so far. Therefore, citizenship remains limited.

    Peeling the onion just one layer deeper, I want to add the Palestinian situation. There are many individuals with Palestinian heritage who are working in the Gulf on visas. It seems that many of the people I met had parents who were born in Lebanon with Palestinian credentials. As Palestine was no longer recognized in its former status, these children grew up stateless. They could not become citizens of their homeland, and their land of heritage no longer offered a passport. To make things worse, their credentials are handwritten and are no longer valid for travel with the new security measures.

   The Declaration of Human Rights said that everyone was entitled to a nationality, and I remember discussing this last year with students who were mind-boggled that this would need to be written down.  And yet, two of the people I became closest to on the trip may end up without a place to retire.  It is so complicated.

     Most people I met on my trip spoke proudly of their new home, regardless of their status. Their main message is that head countries have very little crime (some say no crime) because "we are here at will." Expats and migrants know their situation and status before arriving.

      As for me, I was grateful for the visit, and excited to see cities being built.  It was beautiful to see children from all over the world learning together in harmony. I learned so much, too!

    However, when I get back to NJ, I am going to walk along the Raritan and Delaware canal and think about the people who built our cities and on whose sweat and tears our comfort of today rests.