Trespassing the Boundaries: Migrants and Tourists in Dubai

This research investigates how religious identities shape everyday experiences of belonging in the Al Fahidi District of Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), with a focus on understanding the boundaries between migrants and tourists. Drawing on 32 months of ethnographic fieldwork, the study explores how Dubai’s residents—both nationals and non-nationals—navigate religious identities in a city where 89% of the population consists of temporary migrants. Religion thus becomes a critical lens through which these migrants make sense of "the other," especially in a context where Islam is the majority religion but religious diversity is officially embraced under principles of tolerance and cosmopolitanism.

Al Fahidi District, a historical neighborhood, offers a unique space where the boundaries between nationals, migrants, and tourists intersect. Home to both government offices and major tourist sites, the district attracts visitors who engage in a form of orientalist flânerie. Meanwhile, migrants, particularly those recruited for labor, use religious identity as a tool to connect with the host community and establish a sense of belonging. This creates a complex interplay of religious and social boundaries, where migrants demonstrate religiosity to foster social cohesion, while tourists remain on the outskirts of these boundaries as observers. The religious dynamic thus helps to create a shared cosmopolitan space for migrants while reinforcing the boundaries between them and tourists—until moments arise when tourists cross these boundaries, engaging in performative acts of religiosity and momentarily blurring the lines between outsider and insider among the non-nationals in Dubai’s diverse social fabric. This work explores where the boundaries between migrants and tourists are drawn within segregated contexts of migration, and when these boundaries become blurred.