n January 30, the ruler of Dubai and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashed Al Maktoum announced a decision that will provide a select group of foreigners with a pathway to Emirati citizenship. Under a new amendment to the country’s citizenship law, foreigners whom the national authorities believe have made important contributions to the UAE’s development—such as investors, inventors, scientists, artists, intellectuals, and other professionals with specialized talents can become citizens of the UAE. This is the latest example of how the UAE is beginning to make significant changes in preparation for the eventual post-fossil fuel era.
This amendment is a milestone in the UAE’s emergence as a major international hub for trade, finance, and culture. For the Emirates, this policy shift is designed to give a select number of highly skilled and wealthy foreigners a stake in the country’s future as part of a grander effort aimed at boosting the UAE’s economy. The National, an Abu Dhabi-based daily, published an editorial explaining the rationale behind this decision: “The UAE has set itself hugely ambitious developmental targets, aiming by 2071 to be one of most advanced nations in the world. While talent knows no borders, gathering world-leading expertise in one place catalyses innovation.”
The UAE is a country where almost 90 percent of the population of nine million are foreign (mostly South Asian) residents. The country’s development has for decades relied on talent and innovation from abroad. Up until now, the UAE’s foreign residents have relied primarily on renewable visas tied to their employment in order to stay in the country. As a result, in 2020 the double whammy of COVID-19 and low oil prices resulted in a mass exodus of expatriates. A chief investment officer at the London-based emerging markets asset management firm Longdean Capital explained: “The model for expatriates used to be ‘let’s make as much as we can from this country then move home. The new mindset the government is trying to inspire is ‘if you give as much as you can to this country, you can call it your home.’”
Foreigners cannot apply for citizenship. This process will be through appointments by local courts, executive councils, and the UAE cabinet. State-run media specified the conditions that one must meet in order to gain Emirati citizenship. These require investors to own property in the country, and scientists, doctors, and specialists to meet certain criteria. In some cases, government entities must provide a letter of recommendation on behalf of an expatriate for him/her to receive citizenship in the UAE. If these conditions are violated, the Emirati citizenship can be revoked.
This amendment permits dual citizenship, meaning that expatriates who become Emirati citizens are not required to give up citizenship of their home country. The UAE’s authorities released a statement explaining that these new citizens will be offered “a wide range of benefits includes the right to establish or own commercial entities and properties, in addition to any other benefits granted by federal authorities.” Yet it is unclear whether those who gain Emirati citizenship will have the same rights and access to the same benefits in the country’s generous welfare system as native-born Emiratis. Perhaps the answer to this open question will heavily influence the extent to which this major shift incentivizes these select foreigners to take advantage of the opportunity to obtain Emirati citizenship.
Social Dynamics
Arguably the most interesting and potentially far-reaching questions about this amendment to the UAE’s citizenship law concern the possible social ramifications of this policy shift. Many Emirati nationals praised the change as a historic watershed for their country. But some had negative views on this shift and expressed that the UAE was “selling the country’s birthright” and “putt[ing] Emiratis’ future at risk,” according to Abeer Abu Omar of Bloomberg. What remains to be seen is if this issue leads to rare cases of dissent in the UAE, a country where public criticism of the government can result in extremely harsh punishments.
There is a difficult balance that the Emirati authorities must strike. The wife of the ruler of Sharjah, Sheikha Jawaher Al Qasimi, made remarks on social media about citizenship issues that go to the heart of gender equality issues in the country. In the UAE, the children of Emirati women who have non-Emirati fathers are not automatically citizens of the country, unlike children who have Emirati fathers but whose mothers are foreigners. Although Sheikh Sultan Al Qasimi’s wife emphasized that she was not criticizing the UAE’s government, she wrote: “Naturalization of the children of female citizens. That’s a demand. Employment for Emirati citizens. That’s a demand.”
Put simply, the leadership seeks to reap the economic benefits of granting citizenship to wealthy individuals without creating much of a social disruption. “I think that this is a step that can only go so far, meaning that there are very few people who will actually get citizenship so as to not upset the local social fabric…the tribal balance is still something of concern for locals,” said King's College London assistant professor Andreas Krieg. “It’s a balance to strike that I would say is difficult to strike for the Dubai government, hence you need to carefully select those people. It will not provide an avenue to those people who don’t have the financial means. It definitely doesn’t provide an avenue for those laborers who have been in the country for decades, or even with those with low-paid white-collar jobs. It’s really about trying to boost the economy, trying to keep the capital outflow to a limit and reversing the brain drain that’s happened over the last year over COVID-19 from Dubai.”
Ultimately, it will require more time to understand how this policy shift impacts the UAE’s social fabric and how far the Emirati authorities go in terms of offering citizenship to foreigners. Although it remains unclear how much this amendment to the citizenship law will do in practice to reverse the economic impact of COVID-19 and low oil prices, this change could set an example for other Gulf Cooperation Council states where the plight of many people born in the region and who have lived there for many decades but cannot obtain citizenship remains an important issue.
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New UAE Citizenship Law a Milestone for the Gulf
Photo by David Rodrigo via Unsplash.
March 4, 2021
O
n January 30, the ruler of Dubai and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashed Al Maktoum announced a decision that will provide a select group of foreigners with a pathway to Emirati citizenship. Under a new amendment to the country’s citizenship law, foreigners whom the national authorities believe have made important contributions to the UAE’s development—such as investors, inventors, scientists, artists, intellectuals, and other professionals with specialized talents can become citizens of the UAE. This is the latest example of how the UAE is beginning to make significant changes in preparation for the eventual post-fossil fuel era.
This amendment is a milestone in the UAE’s emergence as a major international hub for trade, finance, and culture. For the Emirates, this policy shift is designed to give a select number of highly skilled and wealthy foreigners a stake in the country’s future as part of a grander effort aimed at boosting the UAE’s economy. The National, an Abu Dhabi-based daily, published an editorial explaining the rationale behind this decision: “The UAE has set itself hugely ambitious developmental targets, aiming by 2071 to be one of most advanced nations in the world. While talent knows no borders, gathering world-leading expertise in one place catalyses innovation.”
The UAE is a country where almost 90 percent of the population of nine million are foreign (mostly South Asian) residents. The country’s development has for decades relied on talent and innovation from abroad. Up until now, the UAE’s foreign residents have relied primarily on renewable visas tied to their employment in order to stay in the country. As a result, in 2020 the double whammy of COVID-19 and low oil prices resulted in a mass exodus of expatriates. A chief investment officer at the London-based emerging markets asset management firm Longdean Capital explained: “The model for expatriates used to be ‘let’s make as much as we can from this country then move home. The new mindset the government is trying to inspire is ‘if you give as much as you can to this country, you can call it your home.’”
Foreigners cannot apply for citizenship. This process will be through appointments by local courts, executive councils, and the UAE cabinet. State-run media specified the conditions that one must meet in order to gain Emirati citizenship. These require investors to own property in the country, and scientists, doctors, and specialists to meet certain criteria. In some cases, government entities must provide a letter of recommendation on behalf of an expatriate for him/her to receive citizenship in the UAE. If these conditions are violated, the Emirati citizenship can be revoked.
This amendment permits dual citizenship, meaning that expatriates who become Emirati citizens are not required to give up citizenship of their home country. The UAE’s authorities released a statement explaining that these new citizens will be offered “a wide range of benefits includes the right to establish or own commercial entities and properties, in addition to any other benefits granted by federal authorities.” Yet it is unclear whether those who gain Emirati citizenship will have the same rights and access to the same benefits in the country’s generous welfare system as native-born Emiratis. Perhaps the answer to this open question will heavily influence the extent to which this major shift incentivizes these select foreigners to take advantage of the opportunity to obtain Emirati citizenship.
Social Dynamics
Arguably the most interesting and potentially far-reaching questions about this amendment to the UAE’s citizenship law concern the possible social ramifications of this policy shift. Many Emirati nationals praised the change as a historic watershed for their country. But some had negative views on this shift and expressed that the UAE was “selling the country’s birthright” and “putt[ing] Emiratis’ future at risk,” according to Abeer Abu Omar of Bloomberg. What remains to be seen is if this issue leads to rare cases of dissent in the UAE, a country where public criticism of the government can result in extremely harsh punishments.
There is a difficult balance that the Emirati authorities must strike. The wife of the ruler of Sharjah, Sheikha Jawaher Al Qasimi, made remarks on social media about citizenship issues that go to the heart of gender equality issues in the country. In the UAE, the children of Emirati women who have non-Emirati fathers are not automatically citizens of the country, unlike children who have Emirati fathers but whose mothers are foreigners. Although Sheikh Sultan Al Qasimi’s wife emphasized that she was not criticizing the UAE’s government, she wrote: “Naturalization of the children of female citizens. That’s a demand. Employment for Emirati citizens. That’s a demand.”
Put simply, the leadership seeks to reap the economic benefits of granting citizenship to wealthy individuals without creating much of a social disruption. “I think that this is a step that can only go so far, meaning that there are very few people who will actually get citizenship so as to not upset the local social fabric…the tribal balance is still something of concern for locals,” said King's College London assistant professor Andreas Krieg. “It’s a balance to strike that I would say is difficult to strike for the Dubai government, hence you need to carefully select those people. It will not provide an avenue to those people who don’t have the financial means. It definitely doesn’t provide an avenue for those laborers who have been in the country for decades, or even with those with low-paid white-collar jobs. It’s really about trying to boost the economy, trying to keep the capital outflow to a limit and reversing the brain drain that’s happened over the last year over COVID-19 from Dubai.”
Ultimately, it will require more time to understand how this policy shift impacts the UAE’s social fabric and how far the Emirati authorities go in terms of offering citizenship to foreigners. Although it remains unclear how much this amendment to the citizenship law will do in practice to reverse the economic impact of COVID-19 and low oil prices, this change could set an example for other Gulf Cooperation Council states where the plight of many people born in the region and who have lived there for many decades but cannot obtain citizenship remains an important issue.
