Regional Stereotypes Based on Kuwaiti Nationality

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Table of Contents

Abstract
Introduction
Literature Review
Evidence and analysis
Discussion of findings
Conclusion
Reference List

Abstract

The question of regional stereotypes forms a critical part of social and economic development. People keep interacting with others, and perceptions play a critical role in the definition of people from different nationalities in the course of these interactions. This paper explores the regional stereotype of the Kuwaiti basing on national and ethnic perceptions. In the introduction, the paper has attempted to define regional stereotypes and identified the contemporary issues in regional stereotyping. This has been followed by analysis of the current issues that concern the stereotypes of the Kuwaiti, basing on different perceptions. The findings have revealed that most of the stereotypes of the Kuwaiti are unjustified because they are based on general long held perceptions that do not reflect the population in the contemporary economic environment.

Introduction

Ethnic and national stereotypes are common in the world today, to an extent that they distort the reality about the presence of people of certain ethnicities and nationalities in the world. Regional stereotypes are often based on few features of the people of a certain ethnicity or nationality. The stereotypes also vary between different groups of people who stereotype the ethnic groups or nationalities. This paper explores the regional stereotype for the Kuwait nationality. The paper brings about the perceptions and the misconceptions in the stereotypes and perceptions, as well as the justifications of the perceptions.

Literature Review

According to Simon (2008), regional stereotypes have become common in almost every part of the world. Regional stereotypes often begin with national stereotypes. Regional stereotypes that are held for an extended period turn into clichés. Regional stereotypes are not only based on the common personalities of the populace of the region, but also certain outcomes in the region. Most of the times, regional stereotypes are applied in a blanket manner on the population through the identification of features that are only prevalent in a few people. In the United States, regional stereotypes are attached to different states basing on the personalities of the populations of the region. The results of psychological studies are often used as bases of stereotyping (Simon 2008).

While regional stereotyping is considered to be easy, research has ascertained that stereotyping on the basis of ethnicity and nationality has a lot of flaws. During interactions between people in the international environment, people often stereotype others by basing on long held assumptions and the reported collective personalities and traits of people coming from a given region. In such kind of interactions in a wider environment, it becomes difficult to narrow down to the specific features of the population. Therefore, unlike people who have close relations or who come from the same region or nations, people from different regions are often not in a resounding position to truly identify the differences within a given group of people. This is perhaps the reason why regional stereotypes on nationality and ethnicity play out well (Barfoot 1997).

Wise (2001) observed that for a long time in history, the Arabs have been collectively placed into one group with people from different countries. The perceptions of people from Arab countries such as Kuwait are that they are all Muslims. Therefore, it can be said that religion is the most dominant feature that is used as a basis for stereotypes of people from Arab countries. Minimal attention is paid to other aspects of the people, such as their ethnicity and nationality. In fact, ethnic groups are rarely mentioned when referring to the people of the Arab world by people from other parts of the world, like the UK.

Evidence and analysis

Regional stereotyping is a practice that has become quite common across the world. It is evident that regional stereotyping is based on a number of perceptions, some of which do not reflect the true characteristics of the population in question. Notable attributes of stereotyping are common in cross racial and cross-national interactions. While it can be easy to attain resounding perceptions as a basis for stereotypes of the people within one country like the different regions of the United States, it is quite difficult to stereotype people from a different nationality. The rationale behind this observation is that people from the same nation possess a lot of common features. They easily identify the sub-groupings of the population within the country. The sub-groupings may be based on ethnic groups that are found in the country.

Based on the above observation, it can be said that the regional stereotypes for the Kuwaiti nationality and ethnicity is something that is expected. The largest population of the Kuwaiti people is comprised of Muslims. It is, thus, expected that somebody who does not come from Kuwait or somebody who meets a Kuwaiti outside his country will perceive the Kuwaiti basing on the perceptions of the Islamic religion. However, there are other features that are synonymous with Kuwaiti’s. However, the fact that these characteristics of the Kuwaitis cannot be identified by non- Kuwaiti’s often permits other people to dwell on other commonly known features and perceive the Kuwaiti’s basing on these features. The question of ethnicity rarely features in the regional stereotypes of the Kuwaiti. Perhaps this could be because most Arab countries do not pay a lot of emphasis on the classification and grouping of the population based on ethnicity. The most known grouping of Arabs and people from Kuwait is the religious grouping; Shiites and Sunnis. This classification cannot be comprehended in other regions that do not highly embrace the religion in Kuwait.

Discussion of findings

Regional stereotypes are common phenomena. One of the reasons why national and ethnic stereotypes are common is that people do not have time to get into the fine details of identifying the real features of a population of a given nation. The basis on which stereotypes are developed is the perceptions. The concern here is whether perceptions can be a profound basis for advancing stereotypes of national and ethnic groups in a given region. From the historical perspective, it can be concluded that Kuwait is an oil rich nation. Therefore, it cannot be said that Kuwaitis are rich because they come from an oil rich country.

Regional stereotypes can only be justified in one sense; that is when the stereotypes are based on the characteristic of a population, which are prevalent. However, people ought to be more objective when making generalizations about the Kuwaitis. While it is true that they come from the same country and in this sense, an Islamic dominated country; it does not mean that they can all be perceived basing entirely on Islam. There are different ethnic groups within the present Kuwait. However, not much attention is paid to the specific groups. To most people outside Kuwait, the general features of categorization are more important to them because they give them an easier time in making judgments about the Kuwaiti nationals. There is a likelihood of ignoring a considerable number of characteristics of a population when the perceptions are based on long held assumptions about a population in a given social, political or economic environment.

Conclusion

From the discussion, it can be concluded that regional stereotypes are still based on perceptions. The impact of holding on perceptions is that the population may be presented in terms of history and not the current reflection of the population. The Kuwaitis are often stereotyped based on the region and the history of the country from which they originate. This distorts the real picture and social and economic potential of the Kuwaitis as contemporary presentation of the population is suppressed by perceptions.

Reference List

Barfoot, CC 1997, Beyond Pug’s tour: National and ethnic stereotyping in theory and literary practice, Rodopi, Amsterdam.

Simon, S 2008, The United States of mind, The Wall Street Journal, Web.

Wise, H 2001, Arabic at a glance: Phrase book & dictionary for travelers, Barron’s, Hauppauge, NY.

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