DUKE UNIVERSITY Durham, North Carolina “The Door that Cannot Be Closed”: Citizens Bidoon Citizenship in the United Arab Emirates Diala Alqadi April 2015 Under the supervision of Dr. Frances S. Hasso, Associate Professor of Women's Studies and Sociology and Director, International Comparative Studies Program Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Graduation with Distinction Program in International Comparative Studies Trinity College of Arts and Sciences Alqadi Contents Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….4 Acknowledgments………………………………………………………………………………………………..6 Chapter 1: Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………..8 Research, Analysis & Sources…………………………………………………………………...11 Colonialism, States, & Sovereignty……………………………………………………………14 Law, Documents, & Statistics……………………………………………………………………20 Genealogy of a Word: People “Without Citizenship” in Kuwait…………………..24 Conclusion: Chapter Outline…………………………………………………………………….27 Chapter 2: Sovereignty and Citizenship Under British Colonialism……………………….30 Britain’s “non-interference” in the Trucial States………………………………………31 Legal Mechanisms: Tensions in Plurality…………………………………………………..35 Mapping Colonial Power: From Sea to Air to Land…………………………………….37 Instabilities and Shifts in Sovereignty……………………………………………………….46 Managing Migration Flows……………………………………………………………………....50 Tensions at the Establishment of the United Arab Emirates………………………52 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………………57 Chapter 3: Emergence of Bidoons as a Problem Category in the UAE…………………….59 Citizenship in Law and Practice………………………………………………………….........61 Sources of Tensions in the UAE Political System……………………………………….75 Federalism……………………………………………………………………………………76 Legal Unification…………………………………………………………………………...79 National Culture, Families, and Labor…………………………………………….80 2 Alqadi Conclusion: Being Bidoon in the UAE………………………………………………………..86 Chapter 4: Explanatory Accounts: “Glitches,” “Iranians,” and “Greedy Frauds…..…...95 “Glitch in the System”………………………………………………………………………………98 “The Iranian will always be an Iranian” ………………………………………………….102 Cautions against the “the Greedy Fraud” ………………………………………………..112 Conclusion: “The door that cannot be closed” ………………………………………...117 Chapter 5: Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………..…………..121 Works Cited……………………………………………………………………………………………………..124 Secondary Sources………………………………………………………………………………...124 Primary Sources…………………………………………………………………………………....131 3 Alqadi Abstract This project traces how and why people "without" [bidoon] citizenship emerged as a problem in the United Arab Emirates in the 2000s. It examines the reasons the government refuses to grant them citizenship despite regular complaints that citizens are "outnumbered" by migrants. Chapter 2 draws on archived British documents and other sources to show the new forms of sovereignty over territory and population that emerged as colonial interests shifted from control of waterways to control of land and fossil fuels. It analyzes the shifting power dynamics between British colonial powers and local rulers, and the legal developments that preceded the formation of the federation in 1971. The historical approach demonstrates the fluidity in power relations and the later tensions produced by multiple jurisdictions that were in fact encouraged by British colonial rule. Chapter 3 draws on scholarship, government sources, news, laws and decrees to show how the bidoons were casualties of a larger population project related to consolidating "federal" rule. It considers citizenship-related UAE laws and procedures between 1971 and 2011 and discusses turning points and major sources of demographic and political tension and the ways these have produced the problem of the bidoon in the UAE. The chapter also discusses state “security” discourse and cultural anxieties felt by Emirati citizens in relation to non-citizens and migrants and how bidoons articulate their frustrations and make claims for citizenship online. Chapter 4, which relies on blogs and news outlets, focuses on the dominant explanatory accounts for why bidoons, who speak the regional Arabic dialect and have lived there for 4 Alqadi generations, are refused citizenship. Ultimately, these accounts are insufficient as explanations for why the bidoon problem remains. 5 Alqadi Acknowledgements The completion of this project would not have been possible without a number of individuals whose extraordinary love and support has been steady since the humble beginnings of this project. I am indebted to Professor Frances Hasso, who has gone well beyond her role as advisor providing crucial insight that has guided every stage of the writing process. I appreciate your patience, understanding, and encouragement throughout the difficult times, and the confidence you have placed in my work and me. Thank you for raising this project to great standards that I could not be more proud of. I hope I was able to make the countless dedicated hours you have put into this thesis worth the final product. I am grateful to the ICS Department, and Duke University Libraries, both of which have provided me with the extensive research tools and resources that have shaped and strengthened this thesis. I would also like to thank Professor Cheryl Ross and Jon Stapnes for leading this year’s class with endless inspiration and wisdom. Your constructive critiques and contributions to this project have been nothing short of remarkable. Cheri, thank you for always pulling me out of the eye of the storm, and being a constant reminder of the love and support that surrounds me. Jon, I could not be more grateful for your strenuous efforts in revising my work, and always asking the questions that help me see the bigger picture. I would like to express my deep gratitude to the scholars that have been gracious enough to share and discuss their phenomenal work with me. Professors miriam cooke, Noora Lori, Manal Jamal, and Neha Vora, thank you for paving the 6 Alqadi way with your research which has proved to be invaluable to the work done in this thesis. I’d like to thank my wonderful friends at Duke and at home for their patience and understanding throughout the frustrations, sleepless nights, and writer’s blocks. I am so blessed to have the greatest support system a person could ask for, and I could not have chosen better people to share such a whirlwind of an experience with. Finally, I would like to thank my parents and brothers, who despite understanding the risks involved in this project, have continuously motivated me and showered me with love and support. I am forever indebted to you. 7 Alqadi Chapter 1 Introduction As an ethnically Palestinian dual citizen of the United States and Jordan, and a legal resident in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, questions of citizenship and national belonging have always intrigued me. When asked where I come from, my response is often “Do you mean where do I live? Where are my parents from? Or what country I am a citizen of?” In my time growing up in the Middle East, I’ve learned that the answer to the last question was rarely sought. I am a Jordanian citizen as a result of international negotiations that brought the Palestinian city of Nablus and surrounding villages under Jordanian control in 1950. Jordan’s King Abdullah gave all West Bank residents at the time, including my paternal and maternal grandparents, Jordanian citizenship. I am a U.S. citizen because my mother visited the U.S. one summer while pregnant with me and gave birth in the U.S. In my personal experience, citizenship does not necessarily determine or encompass all of one's cultural ties and communities. In fact, most people who surrounded me were part of families that left countries of origin to pursue citizenship possibilities in Western countries like the U.S., Canada, Australia, or England. When asked to identify themselves, they would typically describe their ethnic or ancestral origins. Affiliations based on documentation and passports are less relevant than attachments to particular places, groups, and histories. It is indeed odd that generally, people turn to documented citizenship in a recognized sovereign state as evidence of solidarity and ties when there is nothing natural about rules of nationality and citizenship. Jacqueline Stevens contends that 8 Alqadi birth right citizenship can, in no way, imply “a specific intergenerational people existentially distinct from others.”1 She argues that the institutionalization of citizenship binds an individual to a territory, creating fixed perceptions of ethnicity, nationality, and race, and prohibits recognition of “the contingencies of these affinities.”2 We typically understand citizenship throughout the world to be acquired through one of two forms: jus soli, the “right of the soil,” or jus sanguinis, the “right of blood”. The jus soli citizenship regime, applicable in countries such as the United States and Canada, establishes the right of citizenship by place of birth. Jus sanguinis citizenship, on the other hand, determines citizenship through the nationality of the father, the mother, or either parent.3 But in all cases, as indicated by Stevens, citizenship “rights” are created or decided by a government or ruler. They are legal constructs that vary from state to state and across historical periods. People living in the British-colonized areas that later became the United Arab Emirates expressed their identity through oral accounts of genealogical roots and tribal affiliations. When the UAE state was established