AMÉLIE LE RENARD. Western Privilege: Work, Intimacy, and Postcolonial Hierarchies in Dubai (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2021). Pp. 256. $26.00 paperback. ISBN: 9781503629233.

Abstract

Dubai and other major cities in the Gulf region are widely known for their economic and social inequalities. Academic and media accounts have often contrasted the luxuries of the sheikhs with the poor conditions of construction workers. The focus has therefore been on Arab local elites and Asian migrants. Interestingly, despite the long historical presence of Britain as an imperial power, privileged Westerners seldom appear in accounts of Gulf societies. Described as expatriates, guests, or tourists, they are commonly seen – even by themselves – as external to the social order. Yet, whether as managers of companies or as employers of maids, Europeans and North Americans have also contributed to widespread injustice, argues Amélie Le Renard in her book, Western Privilege. The fortunate Westerners are a “group with vague, ill-defined borders” (p. 69), acknowledges Le Renard. Not all people from Europe are among them. One landlord who is quoted in the book refused to rent to Romanian and Russian women, for instance, suspecting them of prostitution. The lucky foreigners in the United Arab Emirates are those with passports of “hegemonic countries” (p. 17). While the author does not provide a comprehensive list of such states, she considers Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Italy, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States as among them. However, the main Western country in her investigations is France. The sociologist primarily interviewed people from the francophone community and those connected to it. Appropriately then, the book first appeared in French (under the title Le privilège occidental: Travail, intimité et hiérarchies postcoloniales à Dubaï). French passport holders only make up a tiny fraction of the population of the United Arab Emirates: 25,000 out of 9 million in 2015. However, many of them enjoyed significant structural advantages in the job market. As a legacy