Could FAIN be the first step in offering permanent residency and citizenship to UAE expats?

On Tuesday 22 August, the UAE government renamed its Emirates Identity Authority, the agency responsible for issuing national IDs to residents and citizens alike, to the Federal Authority for Identity and Naturalisation, or FAIN. 

According to the local newspapers, the new authority will be ‘tasked with the identity, naturalisation and passports affairs as well as the entry and residency of foreigners.’

While most folks in the UAE have largely ignored this announcement, perhaps dismissing it as an attempt by another inconspicuous agency to revamp itself in an effort to improve services to the expat community, my mind immediately chimed on the word ‘naturalisation’ in the new name. 

Anyone who has lived or worked in Dubai for any amount of time will tell you that the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs – Dubai, or more affectionately known as ‘Immigration’, is the agency responsible for processing residencies for ‘foreigners’ – a term that drew a clear line between the small, local population and the rest of us who are here on a restricted right of residency based on employment sponsorship.

The inclusion of ‘naturalisation’ was on my mind all week. Why on earth would the new federal authority use this word?

Has the UAE government finally softened its stance on awarding citizenship to ‘foreigners’? Could this be a turning point in the country’s history that will ensure its future security through the mass naturalisation of, at least, its long-term residents who are inarguably, the reason behind the country’s economic and social prosperity?

Then I remembered a comment I made at the beginning of August here on LinkedIn, in reference to a story on Bloomberg about Qatar approving legislation to grant permanent residency to members of its predominantly foreign population. My comment was that permanent residency should be considered by all Gulf states, as it ensures the long-term growth and sustainability of these small nations, by providing them with a built-in pool of intellectual capability.

Fast forward to this weekend, and I am hypothesising that these two incidents and their timings are very much related, and reflect a much larger plan this is still being cooked.

My first thought is that the Qatar announcement stems from a larger, broader agreement by the Gulf states to begin implementing a framework that would initially enable permanent residency, thus setting the stage for long-term naturalisation programs. Such a step makes absolute sense and is critical to every state’s national security and sustainability.

Under pressure from all sides, Qatar desperately broke the announcement first after realising the internal threats to its security if its expat population was forced to leave the country.  Such an exodus, in my humble opinion, would be catastrophic to this tiny state.

I also believe that the UAE’s announcement, as discreet and un-interesting as it was, was made as a reaction to the earlier announcement and, perhaps, made in hast since the cat was now out of the bag.

Such a move, I also believe, would be a defining point in UAE’s ambitious efforts to become a dynamic, culturally diverse nation with a big role to play on the world stage.

If this nation can continue to grow its population through inclusion, diversity and acceptance of all nationalities, all beliefs and all cultures, the UAE will have secured its future, and continued prosperity, that is not dependent solely on the constant churn of its migratory population of workers, white collar and blue.

It will also become a model nation among all global nations, a case study for the effective integration of all nationalities that historians will talk about for hundreds of years to come.

I would love to get opinions and views on this.