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New Delhi: Thirty-two years ago, when Dubai’s economy was still evolving, Sameer Dhawan, a business development executive, decided to emigrate to the emirate from India. “I was twenty-five then,” he said over the phone from Dubai on Friday, speaking from the midst of a conflict that is rippling across West Asia since a week – and whose shadow has fallen on Dubai as well. Like many Indians there, Dhawan cannot help but reflect on that decision, taken in his youth. “The prospects were better here,” he says, adding, “It is close to home and I also have cousins here. So I decided to set up a life here.”

Dhawan worked as part of the revenue generating team of a leading newspaper for many years until he decided to move into business development in the insurance industry. “I have always felt comfortable and safe here. In so many years, I haven’t thought of moving back,” he says. That remains quite true even today: the only setback he faced during the ongoing conflict was that he was unable to fly to India to attend a wedding in his family.

Over the last five days, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), of which Dubai is one of seven emirates, and its neighbours in the Gulf Cooperation Council have become embroiled in the fallout of the United States and Israel’s airstrikes on Iran, one of which killed the Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The repercussions are being felt across West Asia.

The glittery hub of Dubai, the most popular destination for Indian expats, has also come under attack.

On social media, two contrasting images of Dubai have circulated since then. One shows life as usual – residents dining out, shopping malls open and influencers posting routine updates. The other, shared by some news outlets and users, shows visuals of interceptor missiles striking incoming projectiles, and debris falling near buildings.

A number of videos circulating online were either fabricated using artificial intelligence or old videos being presented as current, so much so that Dubai authorities issued a warning to residents about sharing unverified or “negative” content on social media amid heightened regional tensions.

A number of hyper-nationalists in India have made this an opportunity to criticise Non-Resident Indians and let them know how “grateful” they are to be living in India.

Sometimes I pause and realize how lucky we are to be born in India. While somewhere in the world people are living through war and fear, I’m able to sit quietly and sip my tea in peace. It makes my heart grateful for the little moments we often forget to value. Some ordinary days… pic.twitter.com/jVY7tIabh8 — 𝓜𝓸𝓸𝓷𝓫𝓸𝔀 (@furiouslyhappie) March 6, 2026

Sometimes I pause and realize how lucky we are to be born in India. While somewhere in the world people are living through war and fear, I’m able to sit quietly and sip my tea in peace. It makes my heart grateful for the little moments we often forget to value. Some ordinary days… pic.twitter.com/jVY7tIabh8

— 𝓜𝓸𝓸𝓷𝓫𝓸𝔀 (@furiouslyhappie) March 6, 2026

Look at the quality of life abroad right now-especially Dubai. To those who go ga-ga over living outside India and keep bashing it: in real crises, it’s the Indian government you’ll turn to for evacuation. Criticism is fair. Disrespect isn’t. Be grateful to your motherland 🇮🇳 — Abinash Panda 🇮🇳 (@abinash_vtr) February 28, 2026

Look at the quality of life abroad right now-especially Dubai. To those who go ga-ga over living outside India and keep bashing it: in real crises, it’s the Indian government you’ll turn to for evacuation. Criticism is fair. Disrespect isn’t. Be grateful to your motherland 🇮🇳

— Abinash Panda 🇮🇳 (@abinash_vtr) February 28, 2026

Meanwhile, many influencers, celebrities and residents of the UAE have posted lengthy messages aimed at reassuring people that daily life in the emirate remains unaffected.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVUBaL7DRwu/?igsh=YXJwdjM4YjVsaXRr

Several described the unfolding developments as having had little impact on their routines. Some even praised UAE authorities for helping travellers leave the country smoothly. Passengers arriving in India on the limited flights operating out of Dubai commended officials for facilitating departures.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVWQp5VDEEh/?igsh=bTV4NnZpamVrcXUz

Official messaging has also sought to reinforce a sense of normalcy. On Tuesday, videos circulated on social media showing UAE Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum alongside President Mohammed bin Zayed walking through Dubai Mall and greeting members of the public.

“Do not worry, for the UAE is safe and secure, and its leadership is among its people and close to its nation,” said a post on X by Dubai Media Office, alongside the video.

But Sanjaya Baru, a policy analyst and former media adviser to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, rejected this façade of normalcy, saying, “⁠Social media is a battlefield of propaganda.”

“The Iranian attack on GCC countries was to be expected, given that they have all stood with the US and befriended Israel,” he tells The Wire. “Given India’s stakes in the GCC, we ought to have worked with GCC to dissuade the attack on Iran. Instead we stood with Israel and the US.”

“Indian HNIs will now have to reconsider Dubai as a safe tax haven and a good place to be in. UAE’s political risk has gone up. I expect some Indian wealth to migrate to other destinations,” he says.

Moments after the airstrikes on Iran began, on February 28, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Nishikant Dubey posted on X, “A lesson for those leaving behind their Indian passport to go to Dubai: With Modi ji here, we are safe. It’s easy to post long, lengthy things on social media.”

However, as opposed to the BJP leader’s comment, Indians living in Dubai, like Dhawan and others The Wire spoke to, say they don’t feel alarmed – not enough to want to leave.

“Some time in the early evening [of February 28], we heard the first interceptions and clouds of white smoke, which brought the realisation that Dubai was being attacked as well. Then we heard about the Abu Dhabi airport and Fairmont hotel being hit by debris. We were pretty sure that this ordeal had started,” says Ankit, a 25-year-old resident of Dubai, who works at a cryptocurrency firm.

“That said, life is mostly normal. I’m still going to work, and going about my daily activities. My friends have been staying at my place since that day, just to feel safe. They were worried on the first day. But we are pretty relaxed now,” he adds.

For most Dubai residents, the recent situation came along with a stream of other unprecedented events. For the first few days, they were asked to stay indoors, work from home and avoid unnecessary travel.

“We never thought it [the ongoing conflict in the region] would go to this scale because, even in previous conflicts, Dubai has usually been protected. I have friends who live closer to where the interceptions happened and for them, it might have been scarier,” says Dhawan.

“It is too early to say how it is going to pan out,” he says, but also stresses, “The thought of going home [to India] still hasn’t occurred to me. We’ve been safe here.”

The UAE has the largest number of Indian expatriates, most of whom are concentrated in Dubai, and has built an image as a safe haven for expats and investors alike. According to India’s Ministry of External Affairs, as of 2025, there were 3.5 million Indians, including Non-Resident Indians and Persons of Indian Origin, in the UAE, accounting for nearly one-third of its total population.

Saudi Arabia, with 2.46 million, has the second biggest group of Indians in the Gulf region, whereas Kuwait has 1 million. More than 8 million Indians live across the other Gulf countries – Qatar, Bahrain and Oman.

As a result, for many, the impact of the conflict felt close to home.

The government’s comments after the strikes, too, made this evident. “There are almost one crore Indian citizens who live and work in the Gulf region. Their safety and well-being is of utmost priority. We cannot be impervious to any development that negatively affects them,” the MEA said in a statement on the situation in West Asia.

Passengers and crew of Air India flight AI916D from Dubai arrive at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, in New Delhi. The airline said the flight was the first by an Indian carrier to land in the national capital amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Photo: @AirIndia_News/X via PTI.

In fact, the very first comment from Prime Minister Narendra Modi following the airstrikes condemned the attacks on the UAE and expressed solidarity, thanking the leadership for taking care of the Indian community living there. This was followed by posts for Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Oman, Kuwait and Qatar in the following days. All this time, he continued to maintain silence over the attacks on Iran.

“There is no point engaging in geopolitical soothsaying since the circumstances on the ground are changing by the hour,” says Namrata Raju, a migration policy researcher. “What is exceedingly evident is that an immediate ceasefire and cessation of all hostilities is the need of the hour, with an emphasis on diplomatic solutions,” she adds.

The flow of migrants from India to the UAE rapidly increased in the 2000s when the UAE government introduced incentives in the real estate sector, long-term residency visas, tax benefits and other business-friendly policies. A strong sense of security has added to the appeal of the emirates.

This reflects in the migration data for Indians in the decade between 1995 and 2015. According to OECD data, 2.8 million migrated over the decade, and more arrived every year after.

Soon, advertisers in Dubai started catering to Indian audiences specifically, celebrities started promoting real estate and holiday destinations among Indians, restaurants started specialising in Indian cuisines, grocery stores stocked up Indian products – all presenting the UAE as the next big destination.

According to a report by Financial Times, for years, two very different versions of West Asia have existed side by side, in which countries like Syria, Libya or Lebanon were engulfed by conflict while the GCC boomed. While that may have been true, the report also baldly asserts: “The Trump administration hoped to spread the peace and prosperity of the Gulf outwards to the rest of the Middle East – with diplomatic normalisation with Israel at the heart of the process.”

Ultimately, Iran retaliated to Trump’s bombing of the country by targeting US bases in the GCC. And now, the region’s reputation for stability seems to have been punctured.

The conflict has caused enough of an impact to bring the UAE’s economy to a wait-and-watch mode.

The UAE has over the last two decades thrived on a property boom that faces its first major test as the Iranian strikes rattle investors.

According to Reuters, developments that had been selling out off-plan launches within hours now confront a sharply changed demand backdrop. However, those dealing in real estate see only short-term impact from the hostilities.

“In the immediate term (2-3 months), we may see a minor impact; however, the long-term fundamentals remain strong,” says Kiran Kripalani, a realtor based in Dubai, speaking to The Wire over the phone.

“The market is currently in a holding pattern. We aren’t seeing any signs of forced liquidations or distress selling yet,” she says.

Travel and tourism is the other major sector that contributes more than 12% to the UAE’s GDP. Dubai alone has become one of the world’s most popular locations to host economic and even sporting and cultural events, a connectivity hub for major airlines linking East to West, and a luxury tourist destination.

However, when the airstrikes began and the airspace was declared shut – intermittently said to open in a limited way by most accounts – the brunt of the chaos was felt by those travelling through the Gulf.

While many are still stranded, according to the Financial Express, travellers who could afford it paid up to 200,000 euros (USD 232,000) for high-priced charter flights.

Some air travellers also ditched Dubai by evacuating to other overland locations like Muscat in Oman, a roughly four-hour drive away. Some are even opting to go the distance to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, a more than ten-hour drive away, as per the Express report.

The question that looms, however, is different: could the chaos and violence unfolding in one part of the Persian Gulf threaten the longer-term future of the UAE’s richest and most stable enclaves? For the UAE, where migrants make up close to 80% of the population, what happens to them is in itself a massive consideration.

According to Raju, when referring to “migrants”, the image that usually forms is of an economically well-heeled Indian in the US, perhaps working in tech. “In fact, most of the approximately nine million Indian migrants in the Gulf are low-wage workers, and the lives of each of them are just as important: whether an H1-B visa holder in the US or an electrician in Saudi Arabia,” she says.

She adds, “The images of the business district being hit [by missiles during the conflict] are unprecedented and worrisome. The fact that stock exchanges were closed even briefly shows how even the GCC states are not inured to larger tensions in the region. The most concerning part from an Indian perspective is that of Indian migrants overseas: from their lives to their job stability, which impacts the Indian economy as well, given the sizeable remittances that migrants send home.”

© The Wire