Cultural Diversity
The July/August issue of Esomar Magazine Research World had special emphasis on Cultural Diversity. The interesting bit is how targeting and marketing to second generation immigrants could be different than that for the older one. The reason being the second generation would have been involved more in the culture of the new country he was born and has grown in and does not carry the same cultural baggage from his initial country of residence.
While this might be true in countries which grant citizenship, the situation might be different in the Arab Gulf countries where an immigrant worker and his/her offspring would stay ‘expatriates’ even if they were born there or lived for 20 or 30 years. These countries do not allow people to get deeply involved in their culture. Last year for example, while the UAE was celebrating its National Day, UAE kids walked in a parade wearing the local dress. On the other side of the road traffic came to a stand still with people observing the parade. Some of the cars had expatriate kids looking out of the window and wondering why they are not part of the procession. It is simple, they don’t have the citizenship and are not invited to be part of the crowd. Kids in the Gulf can spend most of their youth and adult life without being exposed to what the country is all about. They go to private schools, even ethnic ones belonging to their country, they play with other expatriate kids either from their own nationality or one of the other 200 nationalities available in the Gulf, they frequent shopping centers, go to the movies where available and learn to live an extreme life of consumerism where parents try to compensate for a lost childhood and cultural roots and experiences with gifts, toys and clothes. They live in closely guarded compounds or apartments.
The breather comes when these kids go back home (their own country) during the summer months where they get to know who they are and the culture from which they come from. In that respect, they identify more with their country of origin than they do with the hosting country. But how effective is spending 2 months out of 12 in your country?
So how do we talk to these kids? Most probably through the language of consumerism rather than that of culture. It is what is new and trendy rather than values and beliefs. There is no country anthem in the morning, no national day, no integration, no cultural trips, no actual history sites to be visited. They are here because dad and mom are here to make a living. They stay, learn, graduate from university only to work with multi-nationals or private local companies holding tight to their original passport and nationality and not knowing where they actually belong…
But the story has another turn. The UAE this year opened the subject of “National Identity” where the number of UAE nationals is dwindling and expatriate populations are growing. The question for anyone who has an answer is: What will happen next?
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