Today, Arab Americans are both confident and deeply concerned

Over the many years I have been involved with the Arab American public, I have had to contend with myths and misunderstandings about the community’s attitudes towards the major issues of concern in the United States.

This month, the Arab American Institute (AAI) commissioned Zogby Analytics of New York to conduct a poll of 400 Arab American voters.

What we found was that Arab Americans remain extremely proud of their heritage, despite having been targeted by discrimination. They also continue to identify as Democrats and favour the party’s approach to most issues – despite their growing dissatisfaction with Barack Obama.

We have poll data going back to 1996, so we have been able to track changes in attitudes over two decades. The fact that 87 per cent of Arab Americans continue to feel deep pride in their ethnicity is impressive, especially when this is weighed against the growth in the American public’s negative attitudes towards people of Arab descent. This continuing ethnic pride is also significant in the face of the 43 per cent of Arab Americans who report having “experienced discrimination because of [their] ethnicity or country of origin”.

When compared with data from previous years, pride in ethnicity has remained constant (more than 80 per cent), but the percentage of those who report having experienced discrimination has grown from 30 per cent in 2002 to 43 per cent today. The percentage of those who identify as “Arab American” has also continued to increase.

This stated preference in claiming an “Arab American” identity is shared by all subgroups within the community (immigrant or native-born, Christian or Muslim, and young or old).

In fact, the only subgroup where a majority does not prefer to identify as “Arab American” are those who are registered Republicans. In 2014, as in the past three polls, Democrats outnumber Republicans by nearly a two to one margin. This year 44 per cent identify as Democrats as opposed to 23 per cent who say they are Republicans.

Of those who said they voted in 2012, 65 per cent claim to have voted for Barack Obama. But not unlike the rest of the American public, Arab Americans now give President Obama a negative job rating (59 per cent negative). At the same time, only 13 per cent give Congress a positive rating for its performance. Given this lack of confidence in government, it is not surprising that a majority (55 per cent) say that they feel the country is heading in the wrong direction.

Nevertheless, Arab Americans have not lost their sense of optimism, with two-thirds saying that they have some confidence that their children will have a better life than they have right now.

This confidence stands in marked contrast to the attitudes of the American public at-large, where only one-third are optimistic that their children will be better off in the future.

But what are the most important issues facing the United States today?

For Arab Americans, it is jobs and the economy, followed by foreign policy, health care and education. The issues of immigration, budget, taxes and terrorism feature further down the list.

On all of these issues – with the exception of foreign policy – Arab Americans say they believe that Democrats will do a better job than Republicans.

Not surprisingly, when it comes to determining which party will do better in handling the Israeli-Palestinian issue or deal with terrorism and national security, most Arab Americans say they have confidence in neither party.

Taken together, these findings paint a portrait of Arab Americans as an ethnic community that is self-aware, proud of its heritage and confident in the future. The poll also demonstrates that Arab Americans are concerned about the state of politics in the US and attentive to the issues facing the country today.

Dr James Zogby is the president of the Arab American Institute

Twitter: @aaiusa

Terror attacks in Paris, November 13, 2015

- At 9.16pm, three suicide attackers killed one person outside the Atade de France during a foootball match between France and Germany- At 9.25pm, three attackers opened fire on restaurants and cafes over 20 minutes, killing 39 people- Shortly after 9.40pm, three other attackers launched a three-hour raid on the Bataclan, in which 1,500 people had gathered to watch a rock concert. In total, 90 people were killed- Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the terrorists, did not directly participate in the attacks, thought to be due to a technical glitch in his suicide vest- He fled to Belgium and was involved in attacks on Brussels in March 2016. He is serving a life sentence in France

THE BIO: Martin Van Almsick

Hometown: Cologne, Germany

Family: Wife Hanan Ahmed and their three children, Marrah (23), Tibijan (19), Amon (13)

Favourite dessert: Umm Ali with dark camel milk chocolate flakes

Favourite hobby: Football

Breakfast routine: a tall glass of camel milk

How the bonus system works

The two riders are among several riders in the UAE to receive the top payment of £10,000 under the Thank You Fund of £16 million (Dh80m), which was announced in conjunction with Deliveroo's £8 billion (Dh40bn) stock market listing earlier this year.

The £10,000 (Dh50,000) payment is made to those riders who have completed the highest number of orders in each market.

There are also riders who will receive payments of £1,000 (Dh5,000) and £500 (Dh2,500).

All riders who have worked with Deliveroo for at least one year and completed 2,000 orders will receive £200 (Dh1,000), the company said when it announced the scheme.

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets

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India squad

Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, K.L. Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant, Shivam Dube, Kedar Jadhav, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Deepak Chahar, Mohammed Shami, Shardul Thakur.

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”