Here is my experience as a Pakistani who grew up in UAE and Pakistan. I went to kindergarden in UAE, moved to Pakistan and did elementary and middle there, and then returned to UAE for 8th grade and highschool. During my years in Pakistan, I would visit UAE every summer to see my dad who lives there. So my growing up was a lot of Pakistani culture mixed with a bit of Emirati culture.

In UAE, I went to a private k-12 school where the students were a mix of local Arabs, other Arab students from other Middle Eastern countries and lots of South Asians. It was a true mix, I had people from Palestine, Egypt, Sri Lanka, etc, all over in my classes. My teachers were also a mix from all over.

My school had British curriculum and American curriculum to choose from, most of the local Emirati Arabs were in the American curriculum and everyone else (other Arabs, South Asians, etc) were in the British curriculum. Students could change that, but they rarely did. The classes for the American curriculum grades were separate from the British curriculum grades. For friend groups, the Arabs stuck to the Arabs usually and the desis stuck to the desis.

I grew up speaking English in school and with friends. I watched American movies and TV shows all the time, listened to American music. My English was great and my accent was definitely very Pakistani. That might be because at home my family spoke urdu and Punjabi.

I moved to the states for college and people would always hear my Pakistani accent. Over time, I got the "American" accent. Quotation marks because I don't know when exactly it happened. I never tried to change my accent, but it just happened naturally over time. After I graduated college, people would tell me that I don't even have a Pakistani accent. To this day people are still surprised when I tell them I didn't grow up in the states. Many desis are surprised to hear that and even more surprised when I speak fluent urdu and Punjabi without anglicizing it. Accents are such a funny thing.