Identities

Global Studies in Culture and Power

ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/gide20

Emirati expats in social media: A new arena for

involvement and political expression?

Hamdullah Baycar

To cite this article: Hamdullah Baycar (2023): Emirati expats in social media: A new arena for
involvement and political expression?, Identities, DOI: 10.1080/1070289X.2023.2228606
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/1070289X.2023.2228606

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IDENTITIES
https://doi.org/10.1080/1070289X.2023.2228606

Emirati expats in social media: A new arena for

involvement and political expression?
Hamdullah Baycar
Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, university of Exeter, Exeter, UK

ABSTRACT
Citizens’ online participation has gained momentum from voting to activism.
Citizens of the United Arab Emirates actively utilize social media platforms and
online sphere to express themselves, despite the prevalence of state author-
itarianism. This study, however, does not deal with citizens’ participation in
political affairs via online mediums but, rather, focuses upon the migrants – or
expats – who constitute the majority of the UAE population. Despite the
impossibility of acquiring citizenship, migrants have found ways to conduct
some kinds of acts and habitus of citizenship. This study is based on Emirati
expats’ participation in social and political life via different mediums, mainly
YouTube. With citizens’ collaboration, the expats are able to join debates about
Emirati life and challenge the Gulf migrants’ rhetoric.

ARTICLE HISTORY Received 11 January 2022; Accepted 20 June 2023

KEYWORDS Social media; expats and social media; digital participation; the UAE identities

Introduction
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has a high internet penetration rate.
A research conducted in eight Arab countries (the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain,
Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Tunisia) in 2013 showed that
66% of the population used the internet (Dennis, Martin, and Wood 2013).
This rate was considerably higher in the GCC countries (almost 91% for the
UAE, 86% for Qatar, and 82% for Bahrain and Saudi Arabia).
This study examines the involvement of expats living in the UAE in social
media, both in terms of their everyday inclusion and in terms of their status as
an integral part of society.1 Even though the expats have no citizenship link
with the state, social media tools have allowed them to involve themselves in
numerous aspects of UAE life and society, including but not limited to
academic, political, food, fashion, and nostalgic matters.

CONTACT Hamdullah Baycar hb515@exeter.ac.uk Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies,

University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-
NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered,
transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the
Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
2 H. BAYCAR

Considering this phenomenon, this study aims to answer several ques-

tions: Can one consider the expats involvement in social media to be a tool of
political and social participation? Does this involvement mean or contribute
anything in terms of creating a sense of belonging and loyalty? Finally, how
can one place expats social media activities in broader citizenship studies?
This study explores how, through blogging and vlogging, expats stake claims
in the UAE’s public conversation around national identity and belonging to
the country, society, and land. The examples presented in this study will
highlight how expats have been involved in social media content creation
about the UAE (and the Gulf in general), demonstrating that they are integral
to imagining contemporary Gulf societies, even though their status is one of
‘permanent temporariness’ (Vora 2013).
Blogging and vlogging by expats in Gulf are also significant, as was proven
yet again in Malcolm Bidali’s experience in Qatar. A Kenyan security guard
working in Qatar, Bidali writes under the pen name ‘Noah Articulates’, is
active on a range of social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, and
Instagram), and publishes insightful information about the situation for work-
ers in Qatar. When Reuters approached him, he defined his activism in these
terms: ‘It kind of makes me feel like Batman or Superman. You can say the
things you want to say, with your own voice and your own style’ (Gebeily
2021). In 2021, Bidali was arrested on charges of accepting money from
foreign agents (Harding 2021). Bidali was later released when rights advocacy
groups and people worldwide, including 240 Qatar Foundation students,
alums, faculty, and staff, began a petition for his release (AlSharif 2021;
Ibrahim 2021). Even though Bidali’s case is not directly related to the UAE
and is not a case that can be generalized as a norm for the Gulf, it does
demonstrate the power of social media in the Gulf to enable what Isin calls
acts of citizenship in societies where political participation is otherwise highly
restricted.
Not all social media activity by expats operates, as ‘Noah Articulates’ did, to
thrust ‘expat’ life (with all its realities, problems, and challenges) onto the
political agenda. Social media activism sometimes takes the form of webinars
and other times through sarcastic, ironic, and/or satirical blogs and vlogs.
Food, fashion, and cultural and intellectual involvement have also played
a significant role in demonstrating how expats claim belonging to the UAE
society.
Based on this background and questions, this study argues that UAE
expats have an ambivalent relationship with the online sphere. While they
consume state-sponsored online content – such as Gulf News and The
National, both of which are out of the scope of this study – they also
participate in the social sphere as an agent. Their participation challenges
the stereotypical expectation that their presence in the Gulf is only for
remittances, additionally, challenging perspectives that purely focus on
 IDENTITIES: GLOBAL STUDIES IN CULTURE AND POWER 3

human rights abuses in the region (Dakkak 2021; Pattisson 2022; United Arab
Emirates Archives n.d.; Vora and Koch 2015). This study further argues that the
social media involvement of the expats living in the UAE is a way of practising
everyday inclusion despite political limitations on their freedom of
expression.
The cases covered in this study will be analysed through the prism of new
citizenship studies, which argues that the concept of citizenship is no longer
underpinned solely by legal status but has widened and deepened. This new
kind of citizenship goes beyond strict legality and becomes more about
habitus and acts of citizenship (Close 2016; Isin 2008; Isin and Nielsen 2008;
Milani et al. 2021). In the case of the UAE (and in any place where legal status
is hard or impossible to acquire), however, this should not be considered
undermining the benefits of legal status, nor should it be considered down-
playing the cost of not being a legal citizen. In other words, it does not mean
that acquiring a legal status is simply optional or desirable; it remains
a necessity. Still, even without any legal status, many other forms of citizen-
ship exist, such as digital citizenship, ecological citizenship, and consumer
citizenship (Anderson and Hughes 2015).
This study is divided into three parts. The first part introduces methodol-
ogy-related issues such as case selection, terminological discussion, and
ethics. The second part deals with the question of how citizenship has
widened and deepened, especially in recent years, thanks to technological
advancement. This aspect is analysed primarily via the writings of Engin Isin
and Neha Vora. The third part deals with cases, two satirical accounts and two
webinars drawn from social media, mainly YouTube.

Methodology, case selection, data collection, and ethics

This study was conducted as a part of the doctoral thesis about national
identity in the UAE that began in September 2017. Even though I have
conducted several field trips in the UAE, Qatar, and Oman for around seven
months in total, this study is primarily based on the online sphere. While
I have conducted semi-structured interviews and made ethnographic obser-
vations, the main data for this article derives from YouTube, along with, in
some instances, other social media platforms. Even though very limited,
I incorporated some of my observations and interviews from the fieldwork.
All online data used in this article are in the public domain and open to
everyone. When I draw upon other social media channels, I do so only if they
are likewise open to everyone. In other words, I have not used private
Facebook and Twitter accounts, even in cases in which I am individually
able to see the posts and shares. Some of my case studies have already
been discussed in the literature: for example, the decision to use two of the
cases that this study is based on – Akief and Al Kaashekh – was inspired by
4 H. BAYCAR

prior works from Lenze (2019, 2021). Moreover, Al Hussein, the co-organizer
of my two other cases – the Desi-Khaleeji and Muwafed webinars – has stated
on another YouTube channel that she is involved in this kind of online
initiative to open an area for research. She states, ‘They [the webinars, or as
she would address them “inclusive conversations”] are content; they are
supposed to serve us as content. For researchers, actually, that was the
incentive to create these virtual talks or inclusive conversations’ (Al-
Dabbagh 2021, mint. 4.35–5.20).
My selection of cases was both inclusive and exclusive. Among many other
options, I limited my study to four different cases: two satirical videos and two
webinars. The cases are inclusive in that they derive from a wide range of
expats, including Arabs and South Asians. The cases are exclusive, however, in
that most of the people I study are middle and upper-middle-class university
graduates; one of my motivations is also in using the term ‘expat’ inter-
changeably in this study. By diversifying the cases to four, for the sake of
this study, I attempted to show how habitus or acts of citizenship brought
new types of involvement in the UAE’s public sphere.
Despite living nigh segregated lives, expats are aware of local stereotypes.
Segregation, belonging, and bordering have links to each other. For example,
Yuval-Davis, Wemyss, and Cassidy (2018) studied the ‘everyday bordering’ of
the migrants in the UK and found that migration can sometimes be secur-
itized, which also has direct relations to everyday belonging. In this sense,
while the videos show a certain degree of everyday belonging, they also,
paradoxically, show the everyday bordering.
Before going into the cases in detail, a conceptual discussion is necessary.
The terms expats, expatriates, migrants, and guests may not all refer to the
same group in the UAE. From the perspective of the state, all non-nationals
are preferably labelled guest workers. One explanation of this discursive
choice points to the commitment of the UAE’s founding father, Sheikh
Zayed, to the notion of Arab hospitality: The state and its leaders employ
the concept of guest workers to give the impression that non-nationals are
respected, as guests are treated better than family members. Indeed, it is
known that Sheikh Zayed preferred calling the non-national a guest and not
an expat (Ahmad 2016). However, one should be aware that the term ‘guest’
has also come to refer to the precarious situation of the workers. Vora (2009,
19) refers to the state’s aim of maintaining the precarious status of non-
nationals when she points out that ‘Dubai’s . . . South Asian migrants . . . are
tied to temporary work visas and defined by the government as “guest
workers”.’ The UAE is not alone in this regard: The precarious status of most
foreign residents is visible in many other countries, such as Israel, Qatar, and
Japan, and is used as a way of disciplining labour which is an extension of the
capitalist system (Allison 2013; Kaminer 2019, 2022; South Asian Diasporas in
the Gulf, an Interview with Neha Vora 2015).
 IDENTITIES: GLOBAL STUDIES IN CULTURE AND POWER 5

The terminology changes when employed in everyday life. While the term
guest workers is customarily used to refer to lower-class non-nationals, the
term expat or expatriate is used to refer to white and upper-middle-class non-
white non-nationals (Gordon 2012). The term migrant is also used to refer to
lower-class persons. The term resident might be employed to refer to all non-
nationals. Although each of these terms conveys a slightly different meaning,
they are used interchangeably in this study for three reasons; (1) the terms are
ambiguous and lack clear criteria for determining who is in either category:
(2) despite technically referring to different groups, these terms have been
used interchangeably on many occasions, including by the participants in my
video cases: (3) also as mentioned before as the participants in this videos are
mostly middle class and university graduates (regardless their background in
terms of nationality and ethnicity), I did not differentiate between the terms.

Deepening and widening the citizenship: different approaches to

citizenship
Over time, citizenship studies have expanded to account for the myriad facets
that constitute ideas of citizenship in our post-colonial and highly globalized
world. People now can have multiple, legally ratified citizenship statuses
thanks to ‘naturalization’ processes or citizenship derived from parental
identity or place of birth (Weil 2001). On the other hand, the European
Union features supranational citizenship, a legal status that binds to one’s
national citizenship (Seubert 2021). As the EU’s official website explicitly
states: ‘All citizens of an EU country are automatically citizens of the EU.
Being an EU citizen gives you some important extra rights and responsibil-
ities’ (EU Citizenship 2019).
Technological development has created tools which enable all kinds of
new associations. As a result, Isin and Ruppert (2020) argue the use of these
tools can be considered a form of digital citizenship; the immense connective
power of digital engagement – from hashtags like #metoo to initiatives that
reveal state secrets and keep citizens informed (such as Wikileaks and
Anonymous) – has created forms of digital citizenship over which states
have limited control due to the impossibility of effectively policing the inter-
net and social media. Digital citizenship is not limited to enhancing the
traditional tools of classical citizenship (such as voting or joining political
parties) but also brings about new opportunities for civic engagement
(Couldry et al. 2014). Jones (2017), for example, explores how social media
becomes a useful tool during Bahrain uprising by focusing on political satire.
Furthermore, Couldry et al. (2014) examined several different forms of
online engagement in England, including digital storytelling and community
clubs, which, they suggested, contributed to the creation of a civic culture.
Considering digital citizenship in this broader sense enables our cases to be
6 H. BAYCAR

considered as habitus or acts of citizenship, even if the participants lack legal

citizenship in the UAE. Still, it must be recognized that even though digital
developments have created new tools and avenues for civic engagement, the
surveillance ability of the state has also been enhanced by technological
progress (Mann, Nolan, and Wellman 2002). Moreover, due to the digital
data trace that people leave when using any digital device, data brokers,
companies, and states are now capable of monitoring the activities, beha-
viours, and thoughts of people within their purview to the degree that was
not possible until very recently (Hintz, Dencik, and Wahl-Jorgensen 2017).

Citizenship as status, habitus, and act

In theorizing the act of citizenship, Isin (2008) describes a three-fold concept
of citizenship, status, habitus, and act. In its most basic meaning, status refers
to a person’s membership in any nation-state (Milani et al. 2021). Even though
citizenship status deals with rights and duties defined by law, it also contains
majorities’ and minorities’ views of citizenship (Milani et al. 2021).
Isin’s analysis of citizenship as habitus is based on Bourdieu and Foucault’s
concepts (Milani et al. 2021). Isin (2008, 17) defines Bourdieu’s concept of
habitus as ‘internalized or embodied ways of thought and conduct’ or ‘ways
of thought and conduct that are internalized over a relatively long period of
time’. Citizenship as habitus
is not so much the sum of rights and duties, or the status a person is endowed
with by the state, either by birth or through naturalisation, but rather a manner
of conduct that is acquired over time. Such an approach lays bare the multiple
everyday discursive processes in which ‘citizenship regimes and their meanings
materialise through mundane encounters, chance interactions, and routinised
practices’. (Milani et al. 2021, 758)

Isin (2008, 16) suggests that the global movements of people, goods, and
capital have accelerated the changing nature of state-citizen relations, creat-
ing ‘new affinities, identifications, loyalties, animosities and hostilities across
borders’. This movement, moreover, has ‘produce[d] new, if not paradoxical,
subjects of law and action, new subjectivities and identities, new sites of
struggle and new scales of identification’ (Isin 2008, 16). The new creation
challenged the traditional meaning of citizenship, which can be defined as ‘a
legal status of membership in the state’ or as ‘the practices of becoming
claim-making subjects in and through various sites and scales’ (Isin 2008, 16).

Consumer (Neo-liberal) citizenship

Neha Vora’s book Impossible Citizens: Dubai’s Indian Diaspora proved
ground-breaking in its extension of the concept of citizenship beyond
 IDENTITIES: GLOBAL STUDIES IN CULTURE AND POWER 7

the UAE’s legal framework, framing it alternatively as habitus and even

sometimes as an act. Her analyses of the UAE’s middle-class Indian dia-
spora shed light on the problematic habit of calling them ‘migrants’ and
‘expats’, demonstrating this diaspora can and does perform an act as if
they belong to the country, evincing a form of ‘biculturality’ (Vora 2013,
pp. 148–149).
Vora’s analyses of Indian residents in the UAE reveal the challenges inher-
ent between a sense of belonging to a country and a lack of legal citizenship
in that country. Since there is no possibility of citizenship for these residents,
Vora composes the phrase ‘impossible citizens’ to connote the multifaceted
aspects of citizenship beyond mere legal status. Aware of the impossibility of
legal status, Vora suggests several names for the citizenships that the Indian
migrants’ experience, such as ‘quintessential citizens’, ‘impossible citizens’,
‘neoliberal citizenship’, ‘everyday citizenship’, ‘unofficial citizens’, ‘transna-
tional citizenship’, ‘consumer citizenship’, ‘urban belonging’, and ‘urban citi-
zenship’ (Vora 2013, 1, 3, 30, 31, 115, 116, 136, 141). Even though each of
these phrases carries different connotations and slightly different meanings,
they all challenge the dichotomy of the citizen-noncitizen binary. Vora’s
analysis depicts middle-class Indians as consumer citizens, drawing upon
the ways Indian migrants speak about their experiences on social media
and demonstrating the many means by which Indian migrants have created
a sense of belonging and involvement in everyday life. Despite the racial
discrimination they face in their everyday lives, middle-class Indians praise
the UAE leadership for the opportunities they provide to them and consider
Dubai to be part of their Indian identity (Vora 2008).

Blogging and vlogging: a way of identity assertion?

Blogging, vlogging, and other kinds of social media activities are incredibly
popular in the Gulf, as the rate of internet accessibility is high. YouTube is
used by 87.40%, Facebook by 79%, Instagram by 67.10%, Twitter by 52%, and
LinkedIn by 51.50% of the UAE population (UAE Social Media Usage Statistics
2021). Social media influencers in the UAE have created such a niche for
themselves that Dubai has been labelled the ‘planet’s influencer capital’
(Michaelson 2021).
Social media – whether it be in the form of memes, parodies, or viral
videos – has been studied in the context of different countries. Kumar (2015),
for example, examined how online initiatives have been used as a means of
political and social critique in India. Indians have created videos and memes
to bring social and political phenomena, such as India’s patriarchal discourse,
child labour, or the caste system, under critique. Moreover, Dakkak (2022, 12)
studies the production of popular culture (short comedic song videos and
skits) in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain and shows how ‘they challenge authority
8 H. BAYCAR

and national boundaries by centralizing spaces of labour and turning them

into sites of agency and cultural expression’.
With the decline of trust in journalism and the mushrooming of corporate
news media outlets, satirical videos have emerged as a new mode of political
and social engagement (Punathambekar 2015). Similarly, Downing (2021)
examines how social media, via memes and other videos, has affected verna-
cular security.
Moreover, satire can be considered a form of ‘political communication in
itself’ (Brock 2018, 282). Jokes, in general, are ‘social thermometers that
measure, record, and indicate what is going on’ in a particular society
(Davies 1996, 9). In this sense, the satirical videos that this study examines
can be considered as social thermometers for the UAE’s society, giving us an
idea of what is ‘going on’ in the interaction between foreigners and nationals
in the country.
Social media activities in the UAE also reveal the transnational identity of
the region as ‘social media practices serve as ways for first- and second-
generation Gulf migrants from Kerala to express, negotiate and communicate
issues related to transnational identity by making, sharing or commenting on
video and visual images’ (Lenze 2021, pp. 158–159). Therefore, the case
studies covered in this paper can be considered expressions of the transna-
tional identities of expats that have long resided in the UAE and the Gulf.

YouTubing in the Gulf: the case of Akief and Al Kaashekh

For long-term residents in the UAE, including second and third-generation
expatriates, content creation has meant that influencers are now able to
broadcast to the world a narrative about their lives which in significant
parts reflects upon essential components of their identities in the UAE. This
section of the study shall deal with two such young Youtubers, namely Akief
and Al Kaashekh, both of whom come from the state of Kerala in India (Lenze
2019).
Akief’s short satirical video, ‘What happens when foreigners try to be
like Arab’, gives a good, if comedic, indication of how expats read the
behaviours of nationals (Akief 2016). The video showcases many features
of the national identity that the state has attempted to cultivate amongst
its citizens, emphasizing these features to the point of all-too-obvious
stereotypes. The video shows two expats wearing white kandura (Emirati
national dress for males), showing pictures to each other (probably from
Instagram, a popular social media platform in the Gulf), riding in a luxury
car, playing Kashf El Mahabba (a song by Mohamed al Shehhi), dousing
themselves in expensive perfume, drinking Karak tea in their car, and
donning designer sunglasses. The magic, however, is disrupted when
someone stops them and asks for their address in Arabic due to their
 IDENTITIES: GLOBAL STUDIES IN CULTURE AND POWER 9

‘local’ appearance. While whispering to each other about what to do, one
suggests saying ‘Maafi malum’ (‘have no knowledge’, a broken phrase in
Arabic) as he suggests it works all the time. The video ends a few seconds
later (Akief 2016). The video satirically impugns the forever in-between
status of immigrants, who are never able to fully integrate into Emirati
society. Besides stereotyping Emiratis (flashy car, Karak tea, photos, attire
etc.), the video also showcases how the expats are not able to speak very
basic Arabic as a result of their segregated existence in the country. Even
though these satirical videos are not internet memes, they do have
a similar function, as they bring ‘inside jokes or pieces of hip underground
knowledge, that many people are in on’ (Bauckhage 2021). Moreover, from
a nationalism studies perspective, the video shows that despite the fact
that the expats do not speak Arabic and may not be involved in the
Emirati circle, they are aware of national symbols that are used to char-
acterize the imagined Emirati community, this becomes possible thanks to
the banal repetition of the ‘invented traditions’ (Anderson 1983; Billig
1995; Hobsbawm 1983).
In another video, Akief satirizes another Emirati cultural attribute: greeting
by rubbing the nose. In a one-minute and ten seconds video, two Indian
friends (Nihal and Akief) coincidently run into Nihal’s boss (Akief 2017). The
boss and Nihal greet each other with khashmak (bringing noses close to each
other). Akief, however, misunderstands this action, believing them to be
kissing each other on the lips. When Nihal introduces his boss to him, Akief,
hoping to avoid putting his friend in an awkward position, goes to kiss the
boss. Shocked, the boss runs away while firing Nihal from the job.
The nose rubbing as a form of greeting is also the topic of a citizen
YouTuber, Khalid Al Ameri -one of the most famous Emirati social media
influencers – along with Salama, his wife. Al Ameri has a self-proclaimed
mission to introduce UAE and Emirati culture, vision, and values to the
world. Some of the videos he shares include titles such as ‘The Karak driving
challenge’, ‘Nannies of Dubai’, and ‘Dubai’s cheapest sandwich’.
In a video particularly relevant to this study, Khalid Al Ameri goes to
a shopping mall to ask expats whether they know how the Emiratis greet
each other. In the video’s description, he states, People from the United Arab
Emirates greet each other with a nose kiss, but in a country that is made up of
80% expatriates, we wondered how many have tried our traditional greeting,
so we went out to give residents of the UAE their first nose kiss (Al Ameri
2021). He then asked the people if they knew the greeting; if they did not, he
showed them. Regardless of Khalid Al Ameri’s intention, he is involved in
nation-building, not just by promoting a single unique national symbol, such
as kissing by a nose, but also by ‘teaching’ and ‘creating awareness’ of the
UAE’s culture among expats. Both Akief and Al Ameri’s videos thus demon-
strate the successful involvement of expats as digital citizens of the UAE.
10 H. BAYCAR

While satirical, Akief’s videos reinforce important features of the UAE’s

national identity. The fact that Akief, despite being a non-national, is aware
of most of these features, including stereotypes and ‘invented traditions’, is
significant. At the same time, the fact that he shows how non-nationals are
unaware of certain features of UAE culture and society (again satirically)
illustrates the impact of the UAE’s social hierarchy.
However, in both cases, Akief’s content reflects a sense of his everyday
belonging to the UAE within an online sphere, which can be considered
a form of habitus, an act of citizenship, or a form of consumer citizenship.
Al Kaashekh is another YouTuber who lives in the UAE (Sharjah) from
Kerala, India. Like Akief, Al Kaashekh’s videos touch on important topics in
a sarcastic and satirical way. In his one-minute video, ‘Introducing an Indian
friend to Arab friends’, he touches upon many stereotypes that Arabs have
about Indians (Al Kaashekh 2017). The video depicts Omar (an Emirati) driving
a car with his Indian friend before stopping to pick up two Arab friends. One
of the Arab friends opens the front door, only to be surprised to see someone
already sitting in front. Both Arab friends are thus forced to sit in the back,
where they begin to make fun of the Indian in Arabic on the assumption that
he does not understand what they are saying. One of the two asks Omar,
‘Omar, who is this’ using a derogatory expression. The other friend says,
‘Omar, look at your friends’, indicating only to themselves, laughing in the
back seat. The mockery continues: ‘Omar, why are you friends with Indians?’;
‘Did he come in an airplane?’; ‘Looks like he came to work in the cafeteria’
(this later reference to the many Indians working as unskilled labourers).
When the car passes children playing cricket, the first friend says, ‘Drop him
[the Indian] to his friends; let them play cricket’. The other response was, ‘Man,
forget about cricket; let him bring Karak tea for us’. The clip ends with
a sudden interruption by the Indian, now revealing that he does, in fact,
speak Arabic: ‘So you guys want more sugar or less [in the Karak tea]?’ (Al
Kaashekh 2017).
Another video by Al Kaashekh touches upon a stereotypical tendency
for Emiratis to call Indian expats ‘rafeeq’ (friends) (Al Kaashekh 2018). The
video depicts the following: An Emirati approaches a tire centre to have
his car tires checked. While approaching, he calls out to the Indian expat
working there, ‘Salam rafeeq’. He continues to use the phrase repeatedly:
‘Oh rafeeq, you have alignment too’; ‘rafeeq! Are these original?’; ‘Oh
rafeeq, you have A/C refill too?’; ‘Rafeeq, is this rotation work?’; ‘Wow,
lathe works too huh, rafeeq?’! At this point, the Indian expat cannot stand
it anymore. He shouts, ‘Enough! Everybody calling me rafeeq! Rafeeq!
I have a name; my father gave me my name! I have forgotten my name
because of this rafeeq thing!’ Amidst this confrontation, the Indian work-
er’s boss calls out to him, ‘Rafeeq! Your salary is ready’. This time, the
Indian worker does not complain about being called ‘rafeeq’. Overjoyed,
 IDENTITIES: GLOBAL STUDIES IN CULTURE AND POWER 11

he runs to receive his salary (Al Kaashekh 2018). In relation to this, it

should be noted that the use of the term ‘rafeeq’ was mentioned in several
interviews when I conducted fieldwork. Some interviewees brought up
their frustration at being called ‘rafeeq’, while others did not deem it
uncomfortable. Regardless of the intention behind the term and the
perception of the term as negative, the fact that this issue has been
satirized on YouTube is illustrative of social media’s role as a new tool of
citizenship in the UAE.
Considering the topics they have brought to the agenda, from the stereo-
types towards nationals to the issues that non-nationals face, the satirical
video production goes parallel to the broader literature on the effects of
social media and satirical content on everyday life and also on showing the
transnational identity of the content creator that exceeds one country, the
UAE or India (Dakkak 2022; Lenze 2021). Moreover, the fact that they brought
the dissatisfaction of rafeeq or showed how little they know about the culture
or the possible undervaluing of the Indians by the locals in a satirical way are
ways that can be considered digital citizenship and also a performance of
everyday inclusion. Furthermore, considering the content they have pro-
moted, one can say that these are similar to what Couldry et al. (2014) define
as digital citizenship for England, as digital storytelling was shown as a feature
to create civic culture.

Webinaring in the Gulf (The cases of Desi-Khaleejis and Muwafed)

Two webinars were organized to platform second and third-generation South
Asian and Arab immigrant voices from the Gulf in 2021; the first is titled ‘Desi-
Khaleejis: when home is a mirage’, while the second is titled ‘Muwafed:
Temporary Home Permanent Belonging’. The webinars were co-organized
by Saraswathi and Al Hussein and were later uploaded to YouTube on Al
Hussein’s channel and served as the primary data of this study (Al Hussein
2021b, 2021c).
Contrary to the satirical videos explained above, the videos are more
serious as they are a reflection of academic discussions. The topics in both
webinars include experiences and thoughts about belonging, home, and
their status in the country and culture.

Desi-Kheeleji: when home is a mirage

The first webinar hosted the second and third-generation South Asian immi-
grants took place in March 2021. The term ‘Desi- Khaleejis’ was coined by one
of the panellists, Prasad, and refers to people who are of South Asian origins
but have been long-term residents of the Gulf. The term Desi-Khaleejis is
significant that will be further elaborated with the next case.
12 H. BAYCAR

Notably, the webinar was co-organized by Al Hussein, an Emirati citizen

who has often spoken out against the pan-Gulf legal ruling that does not
allow female citizens to pass on citizenship to their children if born to foreign
fathers (Al Hussein 2021a). Over the past year, Al Hussein has organized
several webinars on discussions around expatriate experiences in the Gulf.
The webinar on Desi Khaleejis brought together different people of Indian
origin living in the Gulf. Daud, a ‘Desi-Emirati’ who moderated the session,
stated that this conversation was not about nostalgia. It was neither about
demanding citizenship nor, eventually, a conversation that recommended such
a thing. The meeting was not about praise for, gratitude for, or pleasing the
UAE; rather, the debate reflected people who have thought about the issues.
The audience’s debate, comments, and questions were reflective of people
who were not in the country just for the remittances. This is even truer for
the second and third generations of ‘Desis’, a term that is used to define South
Asians, even though among the participants who rejected to be called ‘Desi-
Khaleeji’ as neither the ‘Desi’ nor ‘Khaleej’ can be called home. Saraswathi, for
example, stated that even though she does not call either place home, Qatar is
a home for her children (Al Hussein 2021c, mint. 1.33–2.30).
Quadri (Desi-Emirati, or Desi-Dubaian) questions her status being
addressed as a ‘migrant’ or ‘expat’ since she was born and raised in the
UAE. Prasad, a ‘Desi-Omani’, brought up the question of the ‘Western
human right lens’ perspective and believed that the Gulf studies should
avoid this discourse. Instead, Prasad put forward the notion of ‘emotional
citizenship’ – a concept that he elaborated on based on Vora’s studies. For
Prasad, ‘Muscat is home, Muscat will always be home, so nobody can take it
from me, no passport, no visa, no visa status’ (Al Hussein 2021c, mint. 29.38–
29.49). The fact that he attempts to avoid the so-called human right lens and
studies the region with lived experiences shows his feeling and belonging to
the region. Moreover, he clearly stated that Muscat would always remain
home even if he left the place.
Promodh, who was identified as ‘Desi-Qatari’ at the meeting, did not agree
with the ‘Desi-Khaleeji’ characterization of her identity on account of objec-
tions to both components of the term (Desi and Khaleeji). The term Desi,
according to Promodh, homogenizes South Asians by ignoring other identi-
ties. The term ‘Khaleeji’ also does not correlate much meaning to the locals.
As she spent most of her life (the first 18 years) in Dubai and then moved to
Qatar, neither she nor her parents’ interactions with the local population had
been beyond bureaucratic affairs. Promodh’s criticism of analyses which treat
the ‘Gulf’ as a homogenous entity is also worth consideration. Even though
the webinar, for the sake of a catchy title, was titled ‘Desi-Khaleeji’, the fact
that the panellists’ experiences in the various Gulf States were so wildly
divergent indicated that the designation was problematic. Promodh thrust
this issue onto the agenda by referring to the wide-ranging experiences of
 IDENTITIES: GLOBAL STUDIES IN CULTURE AND POWER 13

people and pointing out that different levels of interactions with locals are
essential.
Promodh’s analysis of the term ‘migration’ is even more noteworthy. When
Promodh asked her mother about the concept of migration for her own
research, her mother’s response was striking: ‘What is this migration? Only
birds migrate. We did not migrate over here; we are just people who came
here to work; and we happened to come to Dubai’ (Al Hussein 2021c, mint.
40.40–40.56).
Mirza’s analyses of ‘Desi-Khaleejis’ can be considered parallel to the people
who are non-nationals, especially those of second or later generations. Mirza
states that neither ‘Desi’ nor ‘Khaleeji’ is a term that she affiliates herself with.
However, the combination of the two terms is important as they aim to

creating a label that takes into account our identities and acknowledges it
rather than each identity being viewed as separate, so it is a more of amalga-
mation of these identities and these selves within us rather than treating alien
to each other. (Al Hussein 2021c, mint. 56.10–56.50)

Mirza’s remarks about the segregation of the residents and citizens are
important. She states that,

It was really strange to me we shared a country with over a million Kuwaitis, but
we didn’t share space with any of them. So, to us, they were the others; it made
me think, how do they see us? How do they otherise us as we do to them?. (Al
Hussein 2021c, mint. 60.00–61.00)

Even though the discussion includes many other experiences, the reason
I base the discussion more on their feelings about the ‘Desi’ and ‘Khaleeji’ is
that being identified as one of these or the combination of these two terms,
‘desi-Khaleeji’ is a reflection of belonging to the region or where ‘home’ is.
Also, as some of the panellists have lived outside the Gulf for a while but still
join the debates about the region is important. For example, Prasad has been
based outside the Gulf for over two years, and Daud has been living in
London for many years now.

The case of Muwafed: temporary home permanent belonging

Muwafed was another webinar organized by Al Hussein, but this time not
with South Asian expats. Rather, it was with six Arab expats who were either
born in or spent most of their lifespans in the UAE (Al Hussein 2021c).
Muwafed is a word derived from two Arabic terms, muwaten (meaning citizen)
and wafed (meaning expat). What makes the term relevant to this study is the
experiences that the expats (second and third generations) faced and
a similar attempt to title the experience and define it.
14 H. BAYCAR

The term ‘desi-khaleejis’ was also coined by one of the participants in

a previous webinar. If one considers both terms in one setting, it is easy to link
the shared experience, which includes transnational identity in one sense
which includes the country of origin and the Gulf, at the same inclusion and
exclusion. Inclusion is a way of feeling the Gulf as a part of one’s identity
while, because of total integration, also foreign. Moreover, the existence of
these kinds of discussions and debates transformed the participants into
agents. Therefore, regardless of the nationality of non-nationals, there are
significant points that they share to the degree coincidentally they coined
a term for their experience.
The webinar begins with a short narrative film explaining the following:
The term Muwafed, according to the Haddad, is an expat who is born, raised,
or has lived the majority of his or her lives in the Arabian Gulf, holding no ties
to their country of origin, nor county of residence. An expat but not
a foreigner, a local but not a citizen. ‘I have a name for this’, Haddad adds. ‘I
am neither Muwaten [national] nor Wafed [expat]. I am Muwafed, and so are
you’. He continues to explain his understanding of the term, and its relation-
ship to his lived experience, as follows:

This is the United Arab Emirates. It’s young, like 47 years young, and it is the
place where my parents decided to move to in the ‘70s. But I did not move here.
I was born here. This is home. This is where I was raised. And I lived through it all.
The volcano fountain, Channel 33, fishing at the old Corniche, movies at the
Cultural Foundation . . . . I know this place like the back of my hand as a local
would. But on paper, I’m not actually a local citizen. I’m an expat.

They come from all over the place. I grew up in a church surrounded by Syrians
and Iraqis. I studied at Indian school most of my life. I played football in the
streets with kids from Palestine, Yemen, and Sudan. I played in a music band
with British kids. I worked with kids from American schools when I was a youth
worker.

And I ate dates and drank qahwa in Emirati people’s majlises. And on the top of
that, my family are both Lebanese and Egyptian. And in the UAE, I’m cate-
gorised as one of two groups of people. I’m either a wafed meaning expat, or
a muwatin, meaning local.

Typically, a muwaten is a local citizen. But on the other hand, expats are
generally perceived as temporary visitors who have a home somewhere else
to go back to in the summer, and have very little to do with the values and the
customs here. But to be honest, I struggle to call myself an expat. Because
I don’t have a home to go back to in the summer like most expats do. But I also
struggle to call myself a local since I’m not a citizen. So, if I don’t have a home in
the country where I am from, and if I am not from the country I call home, then
what am I?. (Al Hussein 2021a, mint. 0.18–2.29)

The term Muwafed was more accepted than the term Desi-Khaleeji among the
audience, as it was widely perceived to better reflect their relationship with
 IDENTITIES: GLOBAL STUDIES IN CULTURE AND POWER 15

the state. Kilani, for example, argued that I think overall, I definitely think that
Muwafed is easier for me to identify under rather than expats because, to be
honest, when I think expats, I just think British expats over here, I don’t really
think of us.
The content of the documentary shows that the lived experience of the
Muwafed is of a different type to that of a simple expatriate. For many, the
UAE is home, despite their precarious status there. The sense of being from
there, having all experiences, and even more important, the fact that Sheikh
Zayed, one of the founding fathers and the first President of the UAE, men-
tioned ‘he is our father as well’ is important to see how powerful their sense of
belonging is (Al Hussein 2021a, mint. 4.07–4.09).

Conclusion
This study attempted to shed light on an understudied aspect of Gulf
migrants’ use of social media for socio-political ends. From nostalgic conver-
sations to academic discussions to satirical commentary on local issues, to
portraying stereotypes, non-nationals have found a space in UAE’s social
media sphere from which they have proven able to widen the public debate
around identity and belonging.
By staking a claim in debates and discussions on issues that define Emirati
society, these social media activists, early-career academics, and second or
third-generation immigrants are guided by a strong intention to popularize
their local expertise and knowledge of the UAE and the Gulf in general. By the
same token, this fulfils the criteria of what Vora calls ‘consumer citizenship’ or
what Isin calls ‘habitus’ and ‘acts of citizenship’.
And yet, this commitment has not entirely removed the genuine feelings
of displacement and long-term disenfranchisement experienced by expatri-
ates in an autocratic state like the UAE. However, I do not argue that all these
social media interventions amounts to brave citizen activism, as that would
be true for the case of Bidali in Qatar but may not be necessarily true for the
other cases. However, all cases show the everyday belonging and also bor-
dering of the non-nationals to the UAE and Gulf.
Of course, the discourse of home and homing is not straightforward
among non-nationals. For example, O’Connor (2021) analysed the notion of
home and homing among both citizens and non-nationals and found that
71% of the UAE nationals having a strong attachment to the UAE, while the
rate for non-nationals is much lower – a mere 28%, a significant fact when
one considers what belonging or homing mean among the UAE’s non-
nationals.
Going back to citizenship debates by Isin, it can be said that blogging,
vlogging, or other new forms of activities challenge classical conceptions
of citizenship. However, it would be a misunderstanding to think that
16 H. BAYCAR

expats have all rights and privileges of citizens except citizenship as status
or that the UAE expats are happy with their status and are satisfied with
their level of public participation regardless of their formal citizenship
status.

Note
1. A conceptual discussion about these terms (expats, migrants, and guests) will
be made in the methodology section.

Acknowledgements
I would like to express my gratitude to the anonymous reviewers and editors for their
engagement and feedback on this article and to Professor William Gallois and
Professor Ilan Pappe for their supervision. Moreover, I would like to thank the
Ministry of National Education of Türkiye for funding my education in the US and
the UK.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID
Hamdullah Baycar http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8720-9995

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