Dubai is a multi-cultural haven for global citizens, a world hub where dreams could come true if you are adequately qualified and willing to work hard, we can categorize the people living here to four non-intersecting layers that rarely – or never – interact directly, people of each layer practically live in a totally different “Dubai” than those of other layers, it’s almost impossible in regular circumstances to move from one layer to another, the system wouldn’t easily allow such a transfer.
Let’s shed some light on each layer and see what differentiates the people of which it consists and what their own Dubai look like.
Layer 1: The Prosperous
(AKA: the really rich)
This is the least populated layer, however the most exposed, these are the apparently happy and relaxed people you can easily spot on main roads and luxurious neighborhoods popping-up riding their extremely costly vehicles or scattering between the retail stores of fancy brands only within distinguished shopping malls, The majority of natives along with the exclusive elite of expats enjoy a world-class level of prosperity and experience a noticeably higher standard of lifestyle than what could be found in most of the world, natives earn very high wages at governmental institutions or through the booming private business sectors especially construction, real-estate, hospitality and tourism, while the highly educated, experienced and qualified expats (mostly western nationals) earn really huge wages comparing to any other place in the world and – most distinguishably – free of all kinds of taxes, if you used to grudgingly pay 40-60% of your income to your government as taxes you would certainly appreciate a place where the government never collects any taxes.
Dubai to people of this layer is the luxurious villas, cars and resorts, great variety of adventure and entertainment facilities, wide selection of nightlife and dining spots and – of course – very convenient business opportunities.
People of this layer sometimes interact with the layer of qualified professionals and rarely get targeted by the layer of crooks, but they barely notice the existence of the lowest layer.
Layer 2: The Survivors
(AKA: the qualified professionals)
This is the most populated layer, educated people from around the world – mostly Arabs, Southern and Eastern Asians – who earn what’s adequate for convenient living in this costly city comparing to where they come from, but still far from what it takes to upgrade to “The Prosperous” layer.
People of this layer are really well-qualified and really work hard, you need both to keep in this layer which is the most variant, it starts with those who barely secure their bills for accomodation, utilities, kids education and groceries to others who can enjoy a good deal of luxury and can afford the expensive brands, bigger houses and reasonably prestigious vehicles, it usually gets you years to escalate yourself to the higher levels of this layer, but only very few exceptional people can exceed its highest threshold and join “The Prosperous”.
Dubai to people of this layer is the higher standard lifestyle, the better education and environment and the ideal place to raise a family, it’s also the good variety of affordable places for fun and leisure and – most importantly – the paved path for career development through real hard and consistent work.
People of this layer are the most social, they interact with almost all the other layers but they always realize the actual position of their own layer and respect it.
Layer 3: The Crooks
(AKA: the underground creatures)
The inevitably popping parasites that evolve in any booming community, climbing creatures that live underground longing for a victim from the higher layers, people of this layer don’t add up anything to the society and don’t have professional skills or qualifications though they always claim the opposite, they earn their living – or barely do – through convincing persons from the higher layers or citizens of neighboring Gulf states seeking investment in Dubai that they are actually qualified for what they are seeking – which is never true -, people of this layer are always on the edge, always on a legally critical status, they benefit from the principles of law that protect privacy of residents as per which it’s very rare that you get stopped by a police officer for a regular check, a good example is you could be driving a car for years without being stopped and asked for your driving license – which is relatively harder and more costly to get here than where crooks usually come from – therefore you discover that many crooks actually drive without a license living on the risk of being caught and sentenced to jail as there’s no possibility of bribing police officers here!
Those people never get rich as they dream because they are simply not following the proper approach, they always look up to “The Prosperous” and dream to join them through some miracle that would occur out of their alleged smartness, they don’t even dream to join “The Survivors” since they deeply believe that they don’t actually have what it takes to join them, they are under the illusion of being smarter than the qualified working-hard persons but they eventually and inevitably end up broke and sometimes expelled.
Dubai to people of this layer is the hope for an opportunity that would take them out of the underground world straight up to the surface, their Dubai is the most vague and contradictory of all layers, they actually live like the poor but they scatter to where their target – the rich – usually exist, they spend more on their look not to appear irrelevant to rich places though they actually barely afford their basic living needs.
People of this layer try their best to socialize with the higher and lower layers trying to gain as much experience with the secrets of the city in their search for an opportunity, but they are usually despised by the working professionals and rarely welcomed by the rich.
Layer 4: The Invisibles
(AKA: the poor fuel)
Those are the poor non-skilled labor that come mostly from South Asian countries in search for very few Dirhams that represent “good money” for feeding their families in their rural Indian villages, this is the manpower, the actual fuel that operates the huge and sophisticated mechanism called “Dubai”, they earn in a month less what a qualified professional would earn in 2 days but they don’t worry about the cost of accomodation, food and education since they are sheltered and fed by their employer and not allowed to bring their families.
Dubai to people of this layer is the work site, the labor camp and the white non-air-conditioned standard bus that transfers them daily from one to another and vice versa, nothing more!
People of this layer have almost no chance to interact with other layers or even get noticed by them, they are very rarely spotted in the city streets unless they are on duty or avoiding direct sunlight behind their broken-down bus that you might stumble upon on a highway.