Xaliimo in Saudi Arabia eloquently conducts presentation front of Apple CEO as the team lead.Sadly she probably ain’t Saudi

[Garaad Awal]

This girl is Somali Suadi. There are plenty of us here.

Who dominates this community?

 

[Shimbiris]

Who dominates this community?

Khaleeji Somalis are pretty diverse. No one really dominates. In the UAE, as an example, you've got a lot of Isaaqs among the oldies in Abu Dhabi but then lots of Hartis and Hawiyes in Dubai and Sharjah. Just generally varies.

 

[Almis]

Who dominates this community?

You already know Beesha barakysan are the majority of the Somali saudis almost exclusively with very few harti families.

 

[Garaad Awal]

You already know Beesha barakysan are the majority of the Somali saudis almost exclusively with very few harti families.

 

[Duubpon]

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[iley]

Am I the only one who's never met a Somali person from the Gulf? I don’t know anything about them. Even when I visited Dubai and Qatar, I didn’t see any Somalis. Do y’all even exist Atp? I never hear anything about yall.

i've met many kids in somalia who lived in the gulf. Many were in Jedda saudi arabia and dubai.

 

[Shimbiris]

You already know Beesha barakysan are the majority of the Somali saudis almost exclusively with very few harti families.

In Oman and eastern Yemen it's much more Hartis and Daroods in general. A lot of them have even assimilated into the Arab tribes there. In western Yemen it tends to be Isaaqs. In the northern UAE it's pretty mixed with a fair bit of Isaaqs and Hartis among the older communities. Beesha barakaysan mostly dominate Abu Dhabi, both its old and new communities. I'm not as familiar with Saudi, I'll admit. You maybe right but I definitely have several Harti relations assimilated into there.

@Garaad Awal

 

[Almis]

In Oman and eastern Yemen it's much more Hartis and Daroods in general. A lot of them have even assimilated into the Arab tribes there. In western Yemen it tends to be Isaaqs. In the northern UAE it's pretty mixed with a fair bit of Isaaqs and Hartis among the older communities. Beesha barakaysan mostly dominate Abu Dhabi, both its old and new communities. I'm not as familiar with Saudi, I'll admit. You maybe right but I definitely have several Harti relations assimilated into there.

@Garaad Awal

When it comes to Somali Khaliji citizens.
Bahrain and Oman are predominantly Harti majority.
Saudi and Qatar are predominantly Isaaq.
Im honestly not familiar with local somalis in UAE but I heard its somewhat close to what you mentioned. Kuwait is what I call the Somali meting pot where you can find all Qabils there but sadly those who hold the Kuwaiti citizenship are less than 0.01%

 

[Garaad Awal]

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I knew the SNM part but a lot of Somalis have left the Khaleej for the West. Reminds me of my grandpa’s generation who left Yemen and that’s when Isaaqs were the majority of Somalis in Aden

 

[Pizza man]

Wallahi im so glad for her, its always a great sight seeing somalis excelling in any field anywhere, i wish nothing but more success for her.

It's also cool seeing how Saudi Arabia is making all these big moves and opening up more to the world... Im also lowkey jealous of how well run their country is compared to Egypt - i grew up there- in a time where all the biggest companies in the world are opening offices in Saudi Arabia and holding events, egyptians are still struggling with basic needs like stable electricity and having unlimited internet which is almost unattainable there and that's just the tip of the iceberg..... So bizarre seeing a country that was once the leading force in the region fall so behind and fumble a 100 years head start to a country that had laws againt women driving vehicles up til 2017

 

[Kisame]

The population in the Gulf, particularly in the UAE, has shrunken significantly. It all started when Farmaajo—I would say rightly—caught the UAE trying to bribe Somali politicians with something like 10 million dollars of undeclared cash and seized it in Xamar. Started a whole fiasco where the UAE began to break down relations with the FGS. One thing to understand is that these places are monarchies, essentially absolute ones. One man or family's whims are the constitution. So they were reeling up at their higher-ups' behest to deport all Somalis at one point until Farmaajo flew in to Abu Dhabi to ice things over with them. They had a similar snafu with Djibouti and Djiboutians that was thankfully averted.

But since then they still just made things hard on Somalis. My dad and I were starting and owned an import-export operation in Sharjah a few years back and the amount of red-tape they put us through just for being Somali passport holders was outlandish. Even an aunt of mine who was a police officer for 38 years in Sharjah was given trouble when she retired and wanted to start a small shop to keep her visa and retire, "We will put you all through what your president put us through" a high ranked individual said to her when she complained about her visa situation. An uncle of mine who has business holdings in Xamar would get stopped at the airport everytime he flew into Dubai. They'd question him for hours and try to convince him to become an informant on the goings on of Xamar since he rubbed shoulders with some notables back home.

Simply ridiculous. Somalis just didn't feel at home or welcome anymore so most like the Xamar uncle moved to Kenya, Turkiye, and even Qatar to some extent. A few years back I remember running into a nice Emirati officer in Ajman one time when I had to visit a government building there and he recognized me as Somali and was overjoyed but also incredulous that I was "still around". In his words, "I grew up with so many Somalis! Love you guys, wallahi. But most of my friends left for Canada, America, the UK or wherever. You guys had entire neighborhoods to yourselves in Ajman. Shame. No future here, wallahi." —felt almost uncomfortable when he said that last bit, can't be saying anti-government things here but I understand what he means in that even if we could trust them not to suddenly deport us all they ultimately don't offer citizenship or even permanent residency (golden visas being only recent and pretty limited) so even people who feel otherwise secure in the place leave for somewhere like the west in search of a more permanent situation. Shame...

But even so, you can definitely still find some Somalis huddled up in Souq al-Dahab (Gold Market) in Dubai with several shops but yeah, we're not as common to spot in Dubai and other Emirates anymore. Is what it is.

Were the Somali communities in the Gulf mostly filled with middle and upper class families??

the few somalis I met online from the Gulf seemed to be very educated and career driven.

 

[Shimbiris]

Were the Somali communities in the Gulf mostly filled with middle and upper class families??

the few somalis I met online from the Gulf seemed to be very educated and career driven.

It's a form of selection bias the environment in the Gulf creates. Countries like the UAE effectively don't have refugee programs or anything like that. Whatever they do sometimes take in is so low it's pretty much non-existent. The only way you can live in those countries is:

• You own a business or have a significant investment in the country
• You are employed by a legitimate and registered business in the country
• You are employed by the government

That's pretty much it. Only avenues for having a visa. They deport you otherwise and even if you somehow stayed as an illegal it would be a tough life as no high-paying legitimate businesses would hire you and there's no social safety net for non-citizens whatsoever or concepts like homeless shelters. You'd be torturing yourself and pulling off the books slave labor-like wages.

So all the Somalis in the Khaleej, particularly in the UAE, Qatar, Oman and Kuwait which I'm more privy to tend to be either well-off business people, educated working professionals or at least dudes and women who are hustling and working in some way (off the books Somali community taxi-drivers who have another low-paying job, girls who work as housekeepers for Somali households exclusively while pretending to be a niece staying with them etc). Growing up most of the kids I grew up with's parents were cops, doctors, dentists, small-business owners, wealthy business tycoons back in Somalia/Somaliland who wanted their families nearby and the like.

Very different strata of Somali society from refugees in the west.