Dubai Camel Market Transnational Workers

An Ethnographic Portrait

Bibliographic Data

ID2280655
AuthorsSulayman N Khalaf
Year2010
Volume22
Issue1
Pages97-118
Publication date2010-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCity & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0893-0465 • E-ISSN: 1548-744X
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1548-744x.2010.01032.x
OpenAlexW2161346746
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited11

The paper presents an ethnographic documentation of life conditions and work patterns of transnational camel workers in the UAE. The ethnographic evidence presented is based on field work carried out in 2005 in Dubai Nad Al-Sheba camel market and in the adjacent camel racetrack and camel farms. Intermittent field visits were also carried out during 2007and 2008. The data is presented in the form of short synopses of kin-related workers who come from Asian and Arab countries, such as Pakistan, Sudan and Syria. The main thesis of this study revolves around how members of the various ethnic groups working in the market managed in spite of the transitory, precarious and underclass globalized life conditions at the margins of Dubai city to reconstruct numerous aspects of their local communities. They activated traditional multiplex relationships as survival mechanisms. These included the utilization of traditional social capital, symbiotic economic networks, family nesting, kinship bonding and mutual support for fellow ethnic migrants. Locality here is equated with the activation of village/tribal social habitus

Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub