I’ve not yet heard people from Dubai celebrate this aspect of their city (they might do; I just didn’t hear it), but as success stories like Naqvi’s — he’s a citizen of Pakistan who came to Dubai as an unknown — become more common, it seems only a matter of time.
It’s estimated that people from other countries outnumber Emirates natives by 8 or 9 to 1. This proportion dwarfs those in more famous immigrant cities: in New York, for instance, between 30-40% of the population is foreign-born. Many of those in Dubai are expats, but many others come to stay. Immigrants tend to be more entrepreneurial than people who are native born; the easier their paths are into the economy, the faster they will drive growth.
