Listening to the din at the Caribou Coffee shop in Dubai one hears a smorgasbord of languages. From Arabic to English and Hindi, even the occasional smattering of Japanese can be heard here.
"Dubai doesn't have one face, it has a hundred different faces," said Ahmad Waarie, general manager of Watson Wyatt Middle East in Dubai.
The scene is repeated around the Gulf, the result of booming economies and small populations.