pranabdc

I have been going around the forum......learning a lot from you guys and enjoying the tour also :P.

Could not help but observe, most of the people come here for the money/better life prospects. After the downturn, the Western salaries here have humbled down a lot, but not the hardship part. I presume most(if not all) people here are qualified enough to earn similar bounty and also to give the 'Uncle Sam'/ 'Big Ben' their share. With cheaper house prices,better 'human rights' and familiar culture, is it not a better place to move to than continue in the 'costa del sand pit'? I know 'to each his own' but your views will be appreciated....

Bijilo123

A while ago a lot of the long term expats would not have been able to go back because simply they were not employable any more in their own countries. More currently the Western Ex-Pat salary has declined in line with the declining economy but this is only for new joiners. People who have stayed may not have had any cut at all. In some areas jobs that would have gone to Brits have now gone to equally or better educated Asians or Meds such as Lebanese. In my last job in the middle east the job spec included the term British National and meant white British national. Some of that still goes on.

So maybe now house proices are cheaper and living in the UK is less fraught than in the Middle East but the choice is not there. It is not easy to get a job interview in the UK because you have to pay for the flight - for the agency interview certainly. For some it is better paid in the Middle East anyway and for a lot there is a preference for the idiosyncracy of life in the sand over life back in the UK.

Some people just prefer being there.

Gulfstreamaviator

Also remember that most brits, are here and not paying any UK tax, so going back can expose you to tax........

Those of us who have been here a few years, (4), actually like the idiotic way of life, and if established in home and business, have no great desire to go back to UK, (except in Aug and Sep).

Thats my story anyway.

glf

gottheTshirt

Left Uk to work in Nigeria in 1977 and I have lost count of the countries I have been in since then - been back to work in UK a few times, but although I enjoy being in UK for visits, working in UK is at best bloody awful. Too little freedom too much PC, too much bureaucracy, too many jobsworth secretaries, inappropriate health and safety and intelligible human resource departments: also there is an organisation called the inland revenue that I never could get to grips with. I have many colleagues who also started the expat life in the 70's and are still also content as expats.
Mind expat life in the 70's was also a hell of a lot better than it is now - no Internet, no phones and no interference from head office.

lionheart

I wouldn't want to return to the UK...too miserable, violent and cold. Plenty of better places to live in this world.

Patsy Stoned

Ditto ^^^^

Millhouse

On this very rare occasion I find myself wholeheartedly agreeing with you. We better make a note of this date!

Hello.Kitty

Well, from a "new-comer's" point of view (we've been here 2 years this September), we're where the jobs are. Regardless of salary and lifestyle (both Dubai and the UK have their pros and cons in near enough equal measure), we happen to have got through the Crunch with a job. It'd be the height of foolishness to quit and chance a new start.

prwatts

We have to come here because all the low cost countries are moving west for the freedom, protection and free Social Benefits. We are discarded in our countries but of value here. Go figure. Join the British army, do your tour, get citizenship for life. No other countries on earth do that - try and get citizenship in China or India or Russia.....only the stupid colonials with their guilt complex.

Millhouse

How are you doing buddy? I hope things are now working out for you

prwatts

And another thing: Middle Easterners with the correct skills are getting huge packages here in the GCC, families kept comfortable in Doo-bye/Baa-rain etc. while they work in this 'hardship' of a place. And I mean 250kUSD + + so it is not only the westerners. A lebanese-canadian/ostraylian/amerikan who has experience and can speak Arabic can name his price (because I have yet to meet a lebanese - great people btw - who is not a dual citizen )

prwatts

Hi E-M - if that is directed at me I am doing ok thank you very much. Taking it day by day and I find if one keeps the pressure on it all works out I was not being cheated, it was just the old story of manyana (can't put spanish squiggles in) - each day is sufficient for the evils thereof.

As the man said, "Calm down, dear !" This is my life-lesson in this lovely place: patience and fortitude. I need to learn them NOW!

Many thanks

Millhouse

... and I bet that these dual citizens always claim to be western before admitting to be Lebanese.

prwatts

Certainly not !!

Millhouse

Good man. I'm pleased it's going well for you finally!