The middle-class Pakistanis’ experience of everyday integration in Dubai: Beyond the Western-centric approach

In 2021, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) implemented the Green visas to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of the country. They do not change the basic principle of temporariness which represents a permanent status for all foreign workers in the country. Migration in the Gulf countries has given rise to a sort of contradictory attitude based on the tensions between exclusion and inclusion, belonging and non-belonging. This paper aims at discussing the practices of integration performed and exhibited by middle-class Pakistanis in Dubai. Everyday integration is a useful analytical tool to provide an explanation to the strategies and practices of everyday life exhibited by migrants. Indeed, the migrant experience of everyday integration of middle-class Pakistanis exemplifies how forms of belonging and integration occur even in contexts where there are no policies aimed at integrating migrants.