Anita* provides forensic and dispute consultancy service on behalf of Ernst & Young, an international business advisory firm in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. At 21, she was hired at E&Y’s* Kuwait office and was transferred to Dubai, UAE as the quantum of opportunities increased as a result of the the financial and real estate boom in 2007.
Her parents migrated to Kuwait for employment in the 70’s economic boom as oil money flooded the region. Like many families that hail from Kerala, India, her parents worked hard to establish security and stability for the family. Her mother is a nurse employed with the government hospital in Kuwait and her father worked for a shipping company in the private sector. Neither of them came from a background of financial stability and worked hard to make ends meet for the family in Kuwait as well as support relatives from the larger family in Kerala, India. They lived in a small apartment in the city renting out half the living room to make the rent payment each month.
Although born and raised in Kuwait, she was reminded every day that life in Kuwait was never permanent. Living in Kuwait was contingent on being employed in the country. Anita’s dad purchased real estate property and built a house in India where he planned to settle post retirement. She recalls asking her parents for a toaster to which they would respond, ‘we have one in our house in India and have no reason to have two toasters’.
She completed her high school in Kuwait under an Indian system, following which she moved to India to pursue her higher studies as there was no provision to continue her studies in Kuwait. The move to India was not easy, yet she successfully navigated between cultures finding solace in friends who shared a similar expatriate experience. She returned to Kuwait after her education to join her parents where she was found employment at the firm she is currently employed-an event that she attributes to God’s provision.
In Kuwait, Anita and her family attend a Pentecostal church where the service is conducted in her native language, Malayalam. Anita, no doubt loved God with all her heart. But she had a hard time at her church. The pastor was nice and the people were friendly, but she knew that her life experiences were different compared to folks who just moved to Kuwait to seek employment opportunities or had to transfer as their spouse was in Kuwait. While they both were Indian, and in fact spoke the same native language, there was something different about the way in which each of them saw life.
The frustration of living with her parents continued to grow. Her parents ran a tight ship with dress codes, curfews, and stringent code of conduct to match their church’s holiness tradition. Further, the Kuwaiti experience did not help the discontent that she experienced. She felt marginalized by the Kuwaitis because she was non-Arab and because she was a woman. The country being small was not conducive to the adventurous explorative spirit of this lively young lady. So when the opportunity came to work in Dubai with a great pay package, she embraced it with open arms.
Moving to Dubai she found herself soaring through the air like a bird that had been let out of the cage. Instead of attending a Malayalee church, she found community in a multicultural church that included Indians, Filipinos, Sri Lankans, Australians, Americans, Egyptians and African believers. Living single and making good money, she supported her brother who attended a seminary in the United States and many Christian ministries in India, Sri Lanka and the Philippines. She even enrolled in an Australian University which had a campus in Dubai to pursue a Master’s degree in Finance and Banking.
Anita is an example of a second generation migrant worker in the Middle East who is educated, upwardly mobile and multicultural. She does not know where home is; for now, home is where mom is.
*Names have been changed to protect the identity of the individual.