"Still the white man’s world?" Exploring visible and invisible intersectional dynamics and aesthetic labour related inequalities among english language teachers in the UAE education sector

Research on the gendered lived experience of female self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) in the MENA region is limited and limiting. While research has informed us that gender and other intersections such as race and nationality play a pivotal role in shaping one’s working and private life in the MENA region, it is limiting in illustrating the role of tri-racial aesthetic labour which encompasses both visible and invisible intersectional characteristics. In this article, we examine the extent to which tri-racial aesthetic labour manifests itself in the employment experiences of female SIEs employed in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) private education sector. Drawing on the accounts of 30 individuals with varying intersectional identities, we demonstrate how individuals can be discriminated against by both visible intersections such as accent, race, and gender, as well as invisible intersections such as nationality. We further discuss how this tri-racial dynamic of aesthetic labour is embedded in organizations’ meso-level HR practices and influences hiring practices and other outcomes such as pay. We offer a novel perspective on the existing knowledge about aesthetic labour and broaden our understanding of the intersection of nationality, accent and race in the understudied context of the UAE.