Dubai has replaced America as the new dream destination for Arab-American youth

Evidence

Dubai is the new American dream for many Arab-American youth. It is a bizarre wonderland of glassy skyscrapers, forest green golf courses, and man-made islands, all built by foreign labor and springing Athena-like, full blown on the edges of the Arabian Desert. It’s an unreal place, a clearinghouse of global capital deliberately projecting a flashy personality that is equal parts Disneyland and Las Vegas. The most American of all the Arab lands, Dubai also holds the attraction for Akram of being a place where he can get in touch with his Arab past, make a living, and learn about himself. This is also the case with his friends. Whenever they start discussing it, Akram and his friends speak glowingly of the emirate in near-mythic terms. — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 561

Categorization

• QUESTION: Dubai as ‘the most American of all the Arab lands’ — a synthetic consumer dream rather than a political freedom — inverts what 9/11-era Arab-Americans might seek in a homeland. Worth chasing how much actual settlement followed this dream.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 561