[CervezaPorFavor]

I've only been to a few countries in the Middle East, so I can't generalise. But one thing common among these countries is the lack of warmth, sincerity and humility among the locals. It is one of the most unpleasant and hostile cultures that I have encountered in my years of travel.

They treat blue-collar foreigners as lesser humans.

EDIT: To clarify, I've only been to Qatar, UAE and Bahrain.

[Tzunamitom]

What a load of crap. So you saw the airport in Qatar, stayed in a 5-Star hotel in the UAE and caught a connection at Bahrain without ever actually speaking to a local??? I can tell you from my experience of living in the UAE for 3 years and regularly travelling to Saudi overland via Bahrain, the locals are just like people anywhere in the world - some crappy, most decent, and some really nice. Minor differences include the fact that they are generally more spoilt, and much more hospitable than people in the west. Most that I've spoken to care about the worker conditions, and would hate to see people hurt, though they worry about being a minority in their own countries, they find it hard to say no to the comfortable lure if unbridled capitalism and its shiny things.

How many of you have actually been to labour camps? I've been to a couple - I drove on (hardly a "prison") and was invited into the home of a worker, who bought me a juice. There were 6 guys living in a small space (about 10 feet by 20 feet), and they had a rota system for sleeping space. The place was clean and they had somehow managed to afford satellite TV.

Maybe don't be so quick to generalise next time?

[CervezaPorFavor]

I worked on various projects in the region for more than a year. That has been my experience. I'm not white, if that matters.

[chad_oliver]

Here's a blog post (from someone I trust) which seems to contradict you:

http://www.wanderingearl.com/welcome-to-syria-my-friend/

"I am simply unable to recall any other country that I’ve visited where I’ve been so instantly and warmly welcomed and I still cannot believe how many people have approached me in the streets just to literally say the words “Welcome to Syria my friend!”"

[vacri]

A lesbian couple I know travelled through west Africa and the middle east. They mentioned that Syria was far more welcoming than the stereotype suggests, and that they felt safe there. This was only a few years ago.

While I doubt they were openly advertising their homosexuality, they still were two women travelling alone, off the beaten path, which was enough to cause a lot of their friends back home to express concern.

[rdl]

Oman was actually pretty decent, from my experience between 2004-2010. They also mostly have young Omanis doing things like working at gas stations, rather than importing labor. They have recently started building more of a downstream gas economy, but have a demographic bulge in youth like Egypt does. It's also the prettiest natural environment of any of the GCC countries.

Bahrain and Kuwait mainly have issues due to large minority groups being repressed. Saudi is huge, and relatively diverse, with lots of political strife under the surface. UAE and Qatar are the expected super-rich with mostly imported slave labor. Jordan, Syria, Egypt don't have meaningful oil so no one cares. Iraq and Iran are largely having issues due to sectarianism, war, and isolation; Iran seems like it was the best country in the region before the Shah and revolution.

There are friendly/warm locals in all of these countries, but there's a clear social hierarchy, and only white Americans and Western Europeans, or other Gulf Arabs, will be treated as humans (some exception for Japanese in Kuwait), generally, and even then, the culture isn't as accessible to complete strangers as a lot of other cultures.

[contingencies]

They treat blue-collar foreigners as lesser humans.

Singapore, too.

[twic]

And Buckinghamshire.