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Abstract
This article looks at how the highly internationalized context of Abu Dhabi and the benefits of migration intersect for French migrants. It analyzes the tensions surrounding a specific form of the repatriation of the benefits of migration: how these are passed on to children. While French migrants generally receive higher salaries and consolidate dominant class positions in Abu Dhabi, they also have to deal with the remoteness of national structures of social reproduction. Drawing on an ethnographic study of French migrants in Abu Dhabi conducted from October 2015 to May 2016 (participant observation and interviews, n = 70), this article argues that migrants adjust their educational strategies in order to build up a cosmopolitan repertoire and ensure different paths of social reproduction. The article introduces three forms of educational strategies and associated cosmopolitan repertoires and shows how these relate to the parents’ social positions.
Notes
1 These figures should be read with caution: they reflect the demographic landscape of the UAE during the study period (2015–16), which may have changed by the time of publication. They do not proceed from a systematic census, as public statistics in the UAE break the total population down into two groups, national and foreign, and do not break the “foreign” group down further into specific nationalities. The figures relied on here come from estimates by the relevant embassies in the UAE, compiled by BQ Magazine in April 2015 (accessed 8 January 2016).
2 I use “Global North” and “Global South” as analytical categories without wishing to imply any cultural, ideological, or economic coherence. Instead, I use them to indicate a common proximity to colonialism and its diverse historical trajectories. In this sense, “North” and “South” can refer more to the migrants themselves than to the countries they originate from: while South Africa could be considered a part of the Global South, South African migrants to the UAE generally descend from white colonizers and have inherited various forms of global and local privileges.
3 Whereas French migrants to Abu Dhabi mostly belong to these privileged class categories by birth, French migrants to Dubai are far more likely to belong to lower class categories in France and then experience upward social mobility during migration [Le Renard, Le privilège occidental. Travail, intimité et hiérarchies postcoloniales à Dubaï (2019)].
4 Cosquer, “Expat”: (Re)construction du groupe national et blanchité dans les migrations françaises à Abu Dhabi (Émirats arabes unis), PhD diss. (2018); Le Renard, “‘Ici, il y a les Français français et les Français avec origines’: reconfigurations raciales autour d’expériences de Dubaï”, Tracés 30.1 (2016), pp. 55–78.
5 Qong, “Wages Structure in the in the United Arab Emirates”, Working Paper 2, Institute for Social & Economic Research, Zayed University, UAE (2010).
6 Bourdieu and Passeron, Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture (1977).
7 Bourdieu, Distinction: a social critique of the judgement of taste (2010).
8 Wagner and Réau, “Le capital international: un outil d’analyse de la reconfiguration des rapports de domination”, in Siméant (ed.), Guide de l’enquête globale en sciences sociales (2015), p. 34.
9 For other formulations of international, transnational, spatial or cosmopolitan capital, see Börjesson and Broady, “Nouvelles stratégies dans le marché transnational de l’enseignement supérieur”, in Kouvouama, Gueye, Piriou (eds), Wagner, Figures croisées d’intellectuels: trajectoires, modes d’action, productions (2007), pp. 387–397; Lévy, L’invention du monde: Une géographie de la mondialisation (2008); Poupeau, “Sur deux formes de capital international: Les ‘élites de la globalisation’ en Bolivie”, Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales 151–152 (2004), pp. 126–133; Weenink, “Cosmopolitan and Established Resources of Power in the Education Arena”, International Sociology 22.4 (2007), pp. 492–516.
10 Colombi, Les usages de la mondialisation: mobilité internationale et marchés du travail en France, PhD diss. (2016).
11 Vora, Impossible Citizens: Dubai’s Indian Diaspora (2013).
12 Although the emirates of the UAE were never colonised as such, they were British protected states (with their foreign affairs and defence under British imperial control) from 1892 until their independence from Britain in December 1971.
13 Migrating to Abu Dhabi allows an acceleration of professional careers in a number of cases. However, French migration to Abu Dhabi (unlike French migration to Dubai [see Le Renard, “‘Ici, il y a les Français français et les Français avec origines’: reconfigurations raciales autour d’expériences de Dubaï”, Tracés 30.1 (2016)] does not fundamentally transform class belonging, as the migrants held similar positions in France. De Bel-Air’s useful research provides an estimate of socio-professional belonging by nationality, although national-specific data have been published only for Dubai and not for Abu Dhabi or the federation as a whole [De Bel-Air, “Demography, Migration, and the Labour Market in the UAE”, Gulf Labour Markets and Migration 7 (2015)].
14 Chaudoir, “Westerners in the United Arab Emirates: A View from Abu Dhabi”, Middle East @ 75: Peace, Prosperity, Partnership, 2 February 2010.
15 Each year, the French-Lebanese school adds another higher year to its curriculum, so that the oldest year group does not have to leave the school. In 2019–2020, it provided a full curriculum, including for the last year of high school.
16 It is worth noting that these fees are significantly lower than those of other schools attended by western migrants. For instance, the British International School charges from AED 52,050 (€12,700) for nursery school to roughly AED 68,700 (€16,800) for years 12 and 13. Cranleigh, one of the most expensive educational institutions in Abu Dhabi, charges from AED 65,000 (€15,900) in year one to AED 96,333 (€23,500) in years 12–13.
17 Van Zanten, Choisir son école (2009); Barrault-Stella, “De fausses adresses pour contourner la carte scolaire: Arrangements avec le droit et fidélité à l’État”, Sociétés contemporaines 4.108 (2017), pp. 125–154.
18 Interview with Cécile (56, no professional activity, the wife of a French pilot and instructor), Abu Dhabi, April 2016.
19 Interview with Betty (48, school teacher), Abu Dhabi, December 2015.
20 Lundström, White Migrations: Gender, Whiteness and Privilege in Transnational Migration (2014).
21 Ibid., p. 74.
22 Interview with Emmanuel (51, consultant and instructor), Abu Dhabi, February 2016.
23 It should also be noted that complaints about the poor quality of Arabic courses at the French school add to complaints about teachers who are perceived as Arabs, which is the case of the Arabic teachers at the Lycée Massignon.
24 Quashie, “‘Mais c’est la langue officielle !’: Hiérarchies sociales et crispations raciales autour des usages du français et du wolof dans les quotidiens de Français migrants et expatriés au Sénégal”, presented at École normale supérieure, Paris on 4 June 2018.
25 Nogueira and Aguiar, “La formation des élites et l’internationalisation des études: peut-on parler d’une ‘bonne volonté internationale’?”, Education et sociétés 21.1 (2008), pp. 105–119.
26 Interview with Monique (37, lawyer), Abu Dhabi, February 2016.
27 Interview with Mariame (45, manager), Abu Dhabi, March 2016.
28 Hajjat and Mohammed, Islamophobia in France: The Construction of the Muslim Problem (2023).
29 Goffman, Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity (1986).
30 Brinbaum, Chauvel, and Tenret, “Quelles expériences de la discrimination à l’école? Entre dénonciation du racisme et discours méritocratique”, Migrations Société 147–148 (2013), pp. 97–110; Brinbaum, Moguérou, and Primon, “La scolarisation des filles d’immigrés: Succès et orientations différentielles”, Diversité: Ville Ecole Intégration 165 (2010), pp. 166–172; Ichou, “Différences d’origine et origine des différences: les résultats scolaires des enfants d’émigrés/immigrés en France du début de l’école primaire à la fin du college”, Revue française de sociologie 54.1 (2013), pp. 5–52 ; Primon and Brinbaum, “Une école discriminante?”, Plein droit 103 (2014), pp. 32–35.
31 Emirati schools are never considered as an option. However, the situation of French migrants in Abu Dhabi is not as exceptional as it might seem relative to the educational strategies of French migrants in general. Under a third of French children abroad attend (or have attended) a local school [Ministère des affaires étrangères, “Enquête sur l’expatriation des Français” (2013)].
32 Johanna (48, no professional occupation, wife of a manager in an oil-related company), Abu Dhabi, March 2016.
33 Manelle (no professional occupation, wife of a financial executive), Abu Dhabi, April 2016.
34 Manelle (no professional occupation, wife of a financial executive), Abu Dhabi, April 2016.
35 Bourdieu and Passeron, Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture (1977); Bourdieu and de Saint-Martin, “L’excellence scolaire et les valeurs du système d’enseignement français”, Annales: Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations 25.1 (1970), pp. 147–175; Courtois, “Excellence sociale ou excellence scolaire ?”, Cahiers de la recherche sur l’éducation et les savoirs 12 (2013), pp. 297–311.
36 UFE, “4 raisons de convaincre vos ados de suivre une scolarité à l’étranger”, 10 October 2017.
37 Bourdieu, Distinction: a social critique of the judgement of taste (2010); Coulangeon and Duval, Trente ans après La Distinction, de Pierre Bourdieu (2013).
38 Blandine (45, administrative employee), Abu Dhabi, April 2016.
39 Johanna (48, no professional occupation, wife of a manager in an oil-related company), Abu Dhabi, March 2016.
40 Bourdieu, State Nobility: Elite Schools in the Field of Power (1998).
41 Colombi, “Les usages de la mondialisation : mobilité internationale et marchés du travail en France”, p. 267.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Claire Cosquer
Claire Cosquer is a Senior SNF Researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lausanne, Switzerland, [email protected].