This paper explores how young Emiratis articulate nation-ness in relation to ethnic heterogeneity and ancestral migration histories among their national population. Where indigenous and national population of the Emirates is racialized as Arab, I illustrate how the notion of Arabness is deployed by young Emiratis both in a flexible and essential manner to legitimise their understanding of nation-ness. The paper presents findings from a qualitative study conducted in Dubai with young Emiratis. Some of the participants' families migrated from various parts of the Indian Ocean, Baluchistan, Southern Persia, Arabian Peninsula and East Africa during the nineteenth and twentieth century and received Emirati nationality and/or passports. In understanding conceptions of Arabness, I follow the argument that kinship is a selective and social process of performing the ‘relations that matter’ (Nash, 2005). While this implies performances of kinship are flexible to a certain degree, they are also often limited by a racially exclusive understanding of national communities. I demonstrate this argument first by revealing the contingent inclusion of individuals to Arabness on the basis of their time of arrival to Dubai and ‘having the right papers’. The possession of jinsiya (nationality) is perceived as a testament of ‘adequate’ length of residence in the national territory, thus marking holders as deserving and loyal citizens, as well as rendering their ‘lack of Arab origin’ and/or origins outside the Arabian Peninsula unimportant. Second, I illustrate how this flexibility is constrained by the stratified citizenship system in the UAE, where some Emiratis only hold passports (jawaz) and others have been waiting to receive their passports. Regardless of their temporal rootedness to Dubai, Emiratis lacking jinsiya are typically considered as lacking historical connections to the UAE, thus considered as not being ‘real Emiratis’. While this implies the most legitimate form of Emiratiness is reserved for those holding formal state citizenship, the paper also illustrates how boundaries are shaped informally, where even among jinsiya holders ‘Arab purity’ informs the most authentic form of Emiratiness. By attending to the complexities of the category of Arabness, this paper underlines the deep connection between ideas of race and nation, both of which, like kinship, rely on the notions of sameness and difference and their reconfiguration in response to shifting socio-economic and political circumstances.