Laavanya Kathiravelu

Social Networks in Dubai: Informal Solidarities in an Uncaring State

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 states 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.

Encounter, Transport and Transitory Spaces

This chapter focuses on a particular aspect of everyday encounter in diverse neighbourhoods that has been largely overlooked in the literature — the temporary movements through spaces of transport and transit that urban residents regularly traverse. Although there has been a significant amount of research on contact zones (see, for example, Amin 2013, Wise 2013) and of interactions and segregation in residential areas (DeFina and Hannon 2009, Deener 2010, Wladyka and Moren-Alegret 2013), there has not been significant attention paid to these in-between and often overlooked areas of momentary occupation (cf. Wilson 2010). This chapter demonstrates the importance of these spaces associated with mobility and transit through weaving ethnographic descriptions with interview quotes in order to suggest that it is often momentary, fleeting and unspoken encounters that shape attitudes, potential prejudices and, most importantly, where residents of diverse cities learn the social codes and intangible aspects of negotiating difference. This chapter speaks to an emerging strand of literature that acknowledges the small-scale but incremental ‘work’ in quotidian encounter that is imperative for a sustainable ‘rubbing along’ in the super-diverse society (cf. McFarlane 2011).

Jurong West, Singapore

Jurong West is like many neighbourhoods in Singapore, but it is distinct in its migrant geographies. Like the rest of the country, its ethnic composition is representative of the ‘old diversity’ as described by the national CMIO model (emphasizing the population’s makeup of people from Chinese, Malay, Indian and ‘Other’ descent). However, Jurong West is remarkable for having a far larger number of foreign newcomers than in most other areas of the city state. While old diversity in Singapore is recognized as historical and something to publically celebrate, new diversity is perceived by state authorities as being crucial to the country’s future well-being. As the following quote shows, new migrants are perceived as vital to fortifying the workforce, to making up for the lack of population growth by local born and to facilitating the transfer of knowledge: We cannot do without a proportion of foreign workers, or a continuing flow of PRs [Permanent Residents of foreign origin] and new citizens. Let us welcome them with an open heart, help them to fit in and encourage those who will become citizens to strike roots here … Remember, we ourselves are descendants of immigrants too. With new arrivals living and working harmoniously with those born here, we will keep Singapore dynamic, cosmopolitan, and successful. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, National Day Rally Speech, 2010.1