There was a time, a millennium ago, when the Middle East had nations more advanced than any in Europe. That's where Europe learned mathematics (Arabic numerals, algorithm, algebra) and got ahold of texts from ancient Greece. Are we returning to such a time? It's too soon to tall, way too soon. But this article in the NYTimes is tantalizing: Lydia Polgreen, I Went to Dubai, and Caught a Glimpse of the Future, Mar. 11, 2025:
When I traveled to Dubai late last year, I found a city that is collapsing the distinction, never very meaningful in the first place, between migrant and expat in fascinating ways. For decades, the story of skilled migration followed a predictable path: People flowed from developing economies to the established powerhouses of North America and Europe. Dubai’s rise represents a dramatic rewriting of that story.
But these new arrivals are also participants in what is at times an uneasy experiment. The United Arab Emirates has never been part of the postwar agreements to accept the claims of asylum seekers or to welcome refugees. Unlike most Western countries, where skilled workers often can ultimately become citizens, the U.A.E. restricts that privilege almost entirely to its native populations.
As Dubai becomes a highly transactional magnet for human talent, it poses serious challenges to our ideas about citizenship and belonging — and sets aside some core tenets of the postwar era characterized by the relatively free movement of people across the globe. Dubai is, in many ways, a glimpse into what the future might look like.
Dubai is the most populous of the seven territories that make up the United Arab Emirates, but almost everyone who lives there is a foreigner: less than 10 percent of its residents are citizens.
As in other countries in the Gulf, the vast majority of its foreign population has long consisted of relatively low-skilled workers from countries in Asia and Africa [...]
That system has come under much deserved criticism as Gulf countries have boomed and sought a bigger role on the global stage. [...] The scrutiny has led many places, including Dubai, to modestly reform their migrant labor policies, making it less difficult for workers to leave abusive employers for a new job, banning workplace discrimination and more.
These countries are not just responding to moral pressure, however. They are also recognizing that their diversifying economies require a broader range of skills and talents, and are changing their migration policies to reflect the increasing competition for skilled migrants of all kinds.
In the U.A.E., that has meant creating programs like the Golden Visa, which allows people with in-demand skills to live in the country for five or 10 years regardless of local employment. Initially this program was aimed at wealthy property investors and high-net-worth individuals, but it has expanded to include just about anyone making around $100,000 a year, as well as workers in high-demand fields like teaching and medicine. The number of those visas issued has roughly doubled every year since 2021, with 158,000 handed out in 2023, the last year for which complete data are available.
And while Western governments enact harsh deportation policies amid rising anti-migrant sentiment, Dubai has carried out multiple amnesty programs, allowing those who have overstayed their visas to regularize their status without having to leave.
There's much more at the link.
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