Shades of Sudan: Navigating Sudanese Racial Identity in a Multicultural Context | Youmna Mohammed

Sudanese racial identity is complex and multifaceted, particularly when studied in connection to migration. While previous literature has explored the manifestation of Sudanese racial identity in different migratory contexts, it has not explored it in the context of the UAE. This is an important context to address given the history of the migration of Sudanese people to the UAE and the uniqueness of the UAE as a migrant-receiving country that mirrors the intersection between Arab and African races present within the ancestry of Sudanese people. To fill this gap in literature, first-generation migrants in the UAE were interviewed as part of a study that examined the impact of migration to the UAE on ascribed and self-identified racial identity, the former referring to the identity people attribute to an individual and the latter referring to the identity that the individual chooses for themselves. The study showed that the migration of Sudanese people to the UAE can influence their ascribed and self-identified racial identities in various ways, such as making them more likely to experience negative treatment as a result of ascribed identity, allowing them to more fully express their self-identities, and causing shifts in how they choose to self-identify.

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