Deconstructing nationality
This article deconstructs national categories to reveal how they are embedded in the social relations of class and race, in the context of migrations to Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. It analyzes the racialization of national groups and class positions in the migratory hierarchy, understanding it as both a geopolitical framework that informs discourses and practices of distinction and as a local system of division of labour. The article first explores the racial meanings that underly the inequalities between nations, translated globally in migratory hierarchies and routes, and their impact locally in Abu Dhabi society. It then demonstrates how these migratory hierarchies translate into a division of labour between national groups and analyzes the racial meanings attached to class positions and the management of nationalities in the professional world. The naturalization of class relations between manager and worker associates competence and professional authority with whiteness, legitimizing the structural advantages of this in the professional world, while subaltern nationalities are assigned to working class positions and associated with depreciated professional skills.