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Hi Im a ayoung African-American female considering moving to Dubai and I was wondering what Dubai is like for blacks; is it pleasant? Is there a lot of racism or prejudice? Are there many black Americans or blacks in general...thank you!

Hi jenji,

I currently live in NC and spent my highschool years in Kuwait. I feel dubai should be a bit more liberal than kuwait. Also it is a giant melting pot of cultures you will be surprised to see the population of African people there. Hope this helps..

Diesel wrote:Hi jenji,

I currently live in NC and spent my highschool years in Kuwait. I feel dubai should be a bit more liberal than kuwait. Also it is a giant melting pot of cultures you will be surprised to see the population of African people there. Hope this helps..

not really a melting pot we can debate about this... just make a separate thread if you wish. One thing im sure, Jenji will enjoy dubai. Welcome to DF Jenji!

Jenji, welcome. You'd be fine here, there's lots of different nationalities here. You'd have no problem.

welcomeness...


i've never heard of black people having problems with racism or prejudice here... and i've been here over 22 years.

Diesel wrote:Also it is a giant melting pot of cultures

Dubai is NOT a melting pot at all.
A melting pot means that people lose their identy and become a homogenous society.
In Dubai, each nationality keeps to itself.

that the darker you are the less you get paid...
White americans earn the most. I.e if you a White American Vs Indian/Asian/Black with the same qualifications you may earn less..
i never been there personally but thats the impression i been getting from a few web sites. Maybe someone else can comment.

Also i noticed some job adverts are quite specific on the people they require and actually specify the race i.e 'SOUTH INDIAN'(Normally fairer) etc..
so the people(Expats?) may not be prejudice but... policies etc seem to be

larre wrote:that the darker you are the less you get paid...
White americans earn the most. I.e if you a White American Vs Indian/Asian/Black with the same qualifications you may earn less..
i never been there personally but thats the impression i been getting from a few web sites. Maybe someone else can comment.

Also i noticed some job adverts are quite specific on the people they require and actually specify the race i.e 'SOUTH INDIAN'(Normally fairer) etc..
so the people(Expats?) may not be prejudice but... policies etc seem to be

Yup that is true!!! They might specify South Indian or White UK/US/SA expats....

And no there are no laws to protect such discrimination here.

I disagree that an African American would be paid less than a Caucasian in the UAE. There is no racism in the UAE if you are black, however you might face prejudice or different treatment if you are South Asian .. Although again i see that happening more often to the unskilled labor and poorer people and not to professional working in companies around the city.

just my two cents..

jenji, personally i feel like in the UAE you will feel waaaaay more welcomed than you would have ever felt in the US.

MaaaD wrote:I disagree that an African American would be paid less than a Caucasian in the UAE. There is no racism in the UAE if you are black, however you might face prejudice or different treatment if you are South Asian .. Although again i see that happening more often to the unskilled labor and poorer people and not to professional working in companies around the city.
just my two cents..
jenji, personally i feel like in the UAE you will feel waaaaay more welcomed than you would have ever felt in the US.

I agree with MaaaD. Though I must add, not only South Asians, but South East Asians too in general get different treatments, for both skilled and unskilled worker. A caucasian manager will most certainly get higher pay than an Asian manager with the same experience. That's the fact.

xty wrote:

MaaaD wrote:I disagree that an African American would be paid less than a Caucasian in the UAE. There is no racism in the UAE if you are black, however you might face prejudice or different treatment if you are South Asian .. Although again i see that happening more often to the unskilled labor and poorer people and not to professional working in companies around the city.
just my two cents..
jenji, personally i feel like in the UAE you will feel waaaaay more welcomed than you would have ever felt in the US.

I agree with MaaaD. Though I must add, not only South Asians, but South East Asians too in general get different treatments, for both skilled and unskilled worker. A caucasian manager will most certainly get higher pay than an Asian manager with the same experience. That's the fact.

So sad about this.

xty wrote:I agree with MaaaD. Though I must add, not only South Asians, but South East Asians too in general get different treatments, for both skilled and unskilled worker. A caucasian manager will most certainly get higher pay than an Asian manager with the same experience. That's the fact.

But if the Asian manager had a foreign passport i think he would be paid the same as his Caucasian colleague. Right ? After all he doesn't have to put up with these double standards and can just leave back to his home country. While probably the guy with the Indian/Paki passport will accept the lower pay because he wants the better quality of life here vs home.

In my opinion in the issue of wages, a business is always interested in paying the least amount in can get away with. After all that will lower costs. So in the end its what YOU accept is what determines what you get paid. If you are accepting 7K for a middle management position that is your fault not the company.


In cases of prejudice i am more concerned over bad treatment in a restaurant or government department rather than the issue of lower pay.

MaaaD wrote:But if the Asian manager had a foreign passport i think he would be paid the same as his Caucasian colleague. Right ?

Could be. That's why I had a wish to have a second passports (e.g. Canadian, etc) for easier travels (almost no visa requirements) and "better" treatments. I wonder if I could keep this secret (dual citizenships) from my country's immigration (not allowed to have dual citizenships). :p

MaaaD wrote:After all he doesn't have to put up with these double standards and can just leave back to his home country. While probably the guy with the Indian/Paki passport will accept the lower pay because he wants the better quality of life here vs home.

Don't think so. I'm sure that most of them (Caucasians) have a wish too for better life (perhaps different level) than at home for working in Dubai. Otherwise, why bother of moving?

MaaaD wrote:In my opinion in the issue of wages, a business is always interested in paying the least amount in can get away with. After all that will lower costs. So in the end its what YOU accept is what determines what you get paid. If you are accepting 7K for a middle management position that is your fault not the company.

I agree. I don't understand people are moaning about high living costs, but yet still accepting lower standard salary.

MaaaD wrote:In cases of prejudice i am more concerned over bad treatment in a restaurant or government department rather than the issue of lower pay.

Also at some luxury stores. Sometimes they will stare at you from top to bottom, even if you have platinum credit cards and bunch of cash in the wallet Do we need to wear a suit everytime we want to buy something? Gee.

asc_26 wrote:So sad about this.

Yep, take a look at job ads in newspapers... "must be US/UK/AU/NZ/SAF educated". What's wrong with non-US/UK education? If the language is the main concern, why don't they just put "must be English native speakers"?

xty wrote:

asc_26 wrote:So sad about this.

Yep, take a look at job ads in newspapers... "must be US/UK/AU/NZ/SAF educated". What's wrong with non-US/UK education? If the language is the main concern, why don't they just put "must be English native speakers"?

Yes, i've noticed this too. It is really a sad fact here in dubai. The payscale is really based on your race then only to find out there's no big difference between white or asian employees. Well, i'm talking in terms of same credentials and qualifications between asians & whites, and the only difference is the skin colour. I got a supplier's proposal and the cover letter was written by the one of the mentioned **** educated, hahah.. i was really laughing because it's full of grammar error. of course, the paper went straight to the dust bin near my table.

xty wrote:

asc_26 wrote:So sad about this.

Yep, take a look at job ads in newspapers... "must be US/UK/AU/NZ/SAF educated". What's wrong with non-US/UK education? If the language is the main concern, why don't they just put "must be English native speakers"?

Despite the discriminatory job ads, i still find it challenging to compete with those *** educated. And believe me, it really depends on how you market yourself to get the job.

Second, some companies are really posting that kind of job ads to match the kind of work environment or the company's culture they have. E.g if the companies are all western expats definitely it's quite hard for asians to cope with the working environment, unless he/she has previous experience working with multicultural companies.

anyway, are you still coming to dubai? Cheer Up. If you like challenges then i would suggest you to come and see it for yourself.

asc_26 wrote:Despite the discriminatory job ads, i still find it challenging to compete with those *** educated. And believe me, it really depends on how you market yourself to get the job.

I agree. Personally, I don't have this kind of problem yet as I have some international experiences and specific skills (in the world) for bargaining power. So in my case, it's an exception. But in general it's just that we (Asians) always get irritated to this kind of discrimination.

asc_26 wrote:Second, some companies are really posting that kind of job ads to match the kind of work environment or the company's culture they have. E.g if the companies are all western expats definitely it's quite hard for asians to cope with the working environment, unless he/she has previous experience working with multicultural companies.

If they never post/open, how would they know?

asc_26 wrote:anyway, are you still coming to dubai? Cheer Up. If you like challenges then i would suggest you to come and see it for yourself.

You must be asking to the OP, right? I've been in Dubai already... and dare to compete with

[/quote]
I agree. Personally, I don't have this kind of problem yet as I have some international experiences and specific skills (in the world) for bargaining power. So in my case, it's an exception. But in general it's just that we (Asians) always get irritated to this kind of discrimination.

NO NEED FOR YOU TO BE IRRITATED. Discrimination is everywhere.

asc_26 wrote:

asc_26 wrote:anyway, are you still coming to dubai? Cheer Up. If you like challenges then i would suggest you to come and see it for yourself.

You must be asking to the OP, right? I've been in Dubai already... and dare to compete with

NO, but thanks. I am working already.