Social life in Saudi Arabia has always intrigued the rest of the world. Do they live in tents, do they ride camels, or do they have access to the Internet? These are biased questions from people who have not come to Saudi Arabia and think of the country as one of those backwater countries. The heterogeneous expatriate community consisting of 5.6 million among the 22.6 million Saudis in the Kingdom, could help tell the world about the true state of Saudi Arabia. In spite of conspicuous linguistic and cultural disparities – and, in some cases, religious differences, social mixing between expatriates and the Saudi community, helps the expatriates develop a better appreciation of Saudi culture and traditions. Mutual curiosity about the other's life is a conductor for such interaction and the benefits could cut both ways in helping curb, if not totally erase, deep-seated cultural divides. His interaction with expatriates makes Ibrahim Al-Hashmi, a Saudi working at the King Khalid Medical University in Riyadh, open to the prospect of marrying an expatriate. If given a chance, he said, he would marry an expatriate girl. “Our religion and law teach us equality and brotherhood. We interact with non-Saudis as we do with Saudis. Though sometimes there is a language barrier, it does not change the concept of social interaction,” he said. Saudi Arabia's expatriate communities consist of Arabs from neighboring countries and a significant number of Asians - mostly from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines. Westerners in the Kingdom number under 100,000. Many expatriates with local roots feel a sense of belonging here. Irfan Siddiqui, a Pakistani sales manager, is one of them. “Saudi Arabia is my birthplace. My father migrated here a few decades ago, so I consider this place my homeland. Language does not prevent me from interacting with my Saudi colleagues and friends,” he said. Siddiqui said a few bad experiences with some Saudis should not allow an expatriate to blame the whole society. “Societies can't be held responsible for individual acts,” he said. Sharif Anwar, an Indian GIS engineer, said the Saudi people are easy to go along with but added that the behavior of some Saudi youth is a thing of concern. “A few of them are so brash on the roads that they scare me. Otherwise, Saudis are a happy and lively people,” he said and wished that he had learned how to speak Arabic well to help him make more Saudi friends. Azmat Ullah, an Indian housewife in Riyadh, tried to reach out to the Saudi families from the time she first stepped on Saudi soil. “When I first joined my husband here, there were not many expat families and our area was predominantly inhabited by Saudis. I started exchanging food recipes with some of my neighbors, and gradually, many Saudi ladies befriended me, though it was hard to communicate with them. But bit by bit, I picked up their language,” she said. She said that, like any other women. Saudi housewives talk about common issues, such as, “their husband's moods, childcare and education, household chores, etc.” But she said: “They seem to have less interaction with their relatives, unlike us back home.” Najla Hamad, a Saudi working woman, gets together with her expatriate friends on a regular basis. “There may be differences in clothing, fashion, food, habits, etc., but our approach to life is similar and that is something that bonds us together,” she said. Sajjad Anwar, a Pakistani investor, who calls intercultural socializing as a “marriage of convenience,” finds Saudis to be “reasonably cooperative” and generally friendly. “There is no dearth of people here to socialize with. Intercultural socialization is necessity-oriented rather than a matter of choice, and this is true for all cosmopolitan societies,” he said. Over the past years, the number of English-speaking Saudis is growing rapidly and gives hope that in the coming years any communication gap will be easily bridged, increasing the interaction between Saudis and expatriates. Hopefully, this will curb – if not render extinct – the misconceptions of many people about Saudi society when the expatriates tell their memorable experiences in the Kingdom back home.
