So who is running away from the United Arab Emirates? I spoke to several blue-collar workers and they literally laughed me off. Said Bishajit, a driver of 15 years, “The war here is being handled. Problem is at home these news channels scaring our families so much they are saying we should fly back at once.”
There’s a lot of anxiety being shovelled from screen to home to expats. The pressure would be comical if it was not so tragic.
Their mood, already tempered by the usual stresses of expatriate life, is now fraught with a new, profound anxiety – not just for their own safety, but for the psychological weight of reassuring families back home who are consuming non-stop news, often alarming and fake.
One marketing expert said that Indian TV media is permanently on steroids. They are not journalists but C-grade actors hashing out masala on screens to a mind-numbing level.
And yet no one switches off their TVs or YouTube channels because they have become used to seeing and consuming garbage. TRP’s should stand for Totally Rubbish Publishing.
One of the elements that gets little play is the emotional upheaval that social media causes in the lives of these stoic and hardworking bread earners.
Most of them go home only once in two years – on an early trip to get married and, having impregnated the newly minted wife, are now back in harness waiting for the delivery from afar, witness to the progress long distance, by audio-visual.
For instance, Srini from Telengana is worried about his wife stressed through concern for him in the fifth month of her pregnancy to the point of having suffered complications.
Across the six states that are members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, there is an army of such expectant fathers now handling an extra layer of worry, besides the standard pressures coming from aging parents, land problems, loan repayments, errant siblings and nasty relatives and neighbours.
This recent escalation of the US-Israel-Iran conflict has sent tremors far beyond the immediate blast zones, resonating deeply in the homes and hearts of millions in India. It is that much more palpable in the communities connected to the 10 million Indian workers in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, particularly the nearly 4.4 million in the United Arab Emirates.
Do the maths. If a modest 10 people per expat are directly impacted, that is a 100 million people and counting.
The scale of the Indian presence in the United Arab Emirates is staggering. Constituting nearly 38% of the UAE’s population, Indians are the backbone of its construction, retail, hospitality, and logistics
This human bridge is also a financial superhighway. India receives over $150 billion in remittances annually, with the Gulf Cooperation Council accounting for 38% of these inflows. The UAE alone contributes about a fifth, making it the second-largest source for India globally.
This money is not for luxuries: it sustains families across states such as Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Telangana, funding food, education and healthcare. As a consequence, the current crisis isn’t just a geopolitical story. It is a direct threat to the economic stability of family members on the home front who totally depend on this lifeline.
On Tuesday afternoon at the Sonapur labour camp in Dubai, Osman simply shruggred in response to my probing. He works on a construction site just 6 km from where drone debris fell near the Fairmont Hotel.
“I am a little nervous, but my family is much more worried,” he said. “My mother calls me several times a day, they don’t believe me.”
Mohammed Ibrahim is on his phone cajoling, raising his voice, pleading. “They don’t understand that we are safe here,” he said. “These damn [several expletive] newswallahs, they tell lies.”
There is a concerted effort by authorities and a visible reality on the ground in much of Dubai and Abu Dhabi to maintain normalcy. The UAE’s advanced air defense systems intercepted the vast majority of projectiles, and while some hit soil and caused tragic casualties, the impact was not city-wide devastation.
As of March 9, the UAE Ministry of Defence had intercepted and destroyed 233 ballistic missiles and 1,359 drones launched during recent attacks, along with eight cruise missiles. The attacks have caused four fatalities and 117 minor injuries, all of it from falling debris.
In many parts of these cities, life continues with normalcy. Malls are open, businesses are operating, and the infrastructure remains functional. There is no shortage of essentials. For many white-collar professionals and those in areas far from the targeted ports and military installations, the crisis is something they watch on screens rather than experience directly.
The mood of Indian workers in the UAE is thus a tapestry of contrasting threads: the resilience born of economic necessity, the fear of visible danger, the exhaustion of pre-existing expat struggles, and the heavy, new burden of being a pillar of strength for a terrified family thousands of miles away.
Bikram Vohra is a columnist and media consultant in Dubai.
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