chris,
ek do have one or two americans working for them, i think this is more to do with the fact that emirates is a relatively unknown airline in the us, than anything else. However to be eligible to apply as an fo, you must have a min. of 2500hrs TT with 1000hrs of that being on jets. You will normally find however that most fo's are quite a bit more senior than that. You should try gulf air, who are based in Bahrain, as i believe the min. requirements are 1000hrs, + 200 multi. (please don't quote me on this!) If you can get with them you will have your 1000hrs on jets in no time and then be eligible for ek. (you will however probably have a 3 yr bond for the jet type-rating with gulf air) Hope this helps.