SUAD – CEFREPA Diwan: Chinese Expatriate Community in the UAE: Opportunities and Challenges in a New Era

Date : Tuesday 24 May 2022 
Time : 5:00pm – 7:00pm
Venue : Online and physically at Robert de Sorbon Amphitheatre

You are cordially invited to attend the SUAD – CEFREPA Diwan: Chinese Expatriate Community in the UAE: Opportunities and Challenges in a New Era

In the last two decades, China and the UAE have strengthened their bilateral relations and expanded the exchanges from primarily commodity trade, oil and energy, to the fields of construction, health care, research, education, media, and entertainment. The elevation of the China-UAE bilateral ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2018 has further strengthened the status of the UAE as the new entrepôt of China into the vast MENA and African region. It is estimated that the number of Chinese residents in the UAE had increased from some 2,000 in the early 1990s to nearly 300,000 by 2018, among which 270,000 concentrated in Dubai. This presentation provides an overview of the four waves of Chinese migration into the region, examines the process of institutionalization of the Chinese expatriate community, and assesses the opportunities and challenges the community faces as the result of the shifting geopolitical conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic



Know more about Yuting Wang

Yuting Wang received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Notre Dame in 2009. She is a Professor of Sociology at the American University of Sharjah in the UAE and a Non-resident Research Fellow in the Center on Religion and the Global East at Purdue University. She has held several visiting positions, including at Northwestern University, Purdue University, University of California-Berkley, and the Middle East Center at London School of Economics and Political Science. She has published widely on Islam and Muslims in China, transnational religious networks, social changes in the Arabian Gulf, the Chinese expatriate community in the UAE, and Sino-UAE relations in the era of Belt and Road. She is the author of Between Islam and the American Dream: An Immigrant Muslim Community in Post-9/11 America (Routledge, 2014) and Chinese in Dubai: Money, Pride, and Soul-Searching (Brill, 2020)


A negative PCR test of no more than 30 days (green pass) and being fully vaccinated is required to access/attend the event or non-vaccinated individuals may now enter with a negative PCR test received within 48 hours

Kindly note that this event will be photographed and videographed

Event attendance is free of charge and online attendance option is available by clicking here

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