The ‘Local Turn’ and Everyday Integration. The Pakistani Middle-Class Migrants in Dubai

Abstract Integration refers to socio-economic and cultural incorporation of migrants into a host society, which should adopt measures to encourage their adaptation by taking over its norms and customs. Recently, the ‘local turn’ has entailed studying migration and integration in cities. In this paper, I engage with the Pakistani middle-class migrants’ lives in Dubai. It emerges that they feel integrated in their everyday life by sharing practices and experiences in a multicultural environment. Integration is conceptualized from a bottom-up approach meaning that it moves beyond the state intervention to focus on how people perceive and experience integration in their everyday life.