ukmouse

Hello

I have read quite a few posts where folk are saying that people are leaving Dubai and returning home in their droves. I just wondered, and excuse my ignorance, why that is? Is it the case of taking such posts with a pinch of salt or is it fact... If the latter... I just wondered about the reason.

Thanks

soukie

A lot of people have lost jobs due to cancelled projects etc. If you don't have a job it's difficult to stay in this part of the world even if you may want to.

ukmouse

Thanks soukie

busybee2

yep the fact that projects have been cancelled so people who were meant to be working on them, have been sacked. and also the fact that some "developers" and the like who are not paying their bills for services rendered, so in turn the contractors/consultants etc cannot afford to keep the company afloat, in any other place there would be some address.

The Dean

......... and a lot of people see no prospect of that changing for quite some time to come.

They haven't just lost jobs - many of them have also lost a lot of money on poorly-judged property investments (buying at the top of an already inflated market just as the rest of the world was slipping into recession, etc). And Dubai's punitive approach to debtors encourages people to do a runner rather than, say, meet their bank to discuss a suitable method of repaying debts.

There are plenty of people still in Dubai, and enjoying it, but they know they are simply biding their time - the tap on the shoulder is going to be felt by many more people yet.

Madam Medusa

the mass exodus that loads of people predicted certainly doesn't seem to have happened...schools are still full, for example, so even if people have left (and people would always be leaving in the summer) there are bags of people still coming here...

MM, xx

soukie

Some have moved up to Dubai from Abu Dhabi for cheaper housing. I know a fair few who have done this and changed schools too. A lot of people are commuting from Dubai to Abu Dhabi to work in the construction sector.

Kim67

I've met heaps moving from Sharjah too - couldn't afford Dubai rent or get school places last year so they've moved this year.

The Dean

These "bags of people"........ what jobs are they coming out to do? I accept that plenty of people remain in Dubai, but I'm sceptical about large numbers of newcomers arriving.

What fields or industries are they mainly working in?

Ethos83

I don't think there's been a mass exodus of westerners, but other segments of the population surely have taken a hit. I see far fewer labourers out and about these days, and the mini-buses carting labourers to and from the camps, often at twice the speed limit), have largely disappeared. Plenty of low-income Indian white collar workers have been sacked and left. Overall, Dubai's population has surely declined, 10-15% possibly?

Ethos83

If your company is not Dubai-focused, things aren't quite too bad. My firm is in the architecture sector and most of our projects are outside Dubai, elsewhere in the middle east region. We did sack quite a few people in January but we're now (slowly) starting to hire again.

Blue Cat

I have been told that the majority of new kids in our school are from Sharjah and AD, due the rents dropping so dramatically people have moved around alot. I have been to that many leaving do's I have lost count now!

NorthernLad

JPS had some kids leave in the summer (nothing out of the ordinary) and these places were quickly snapped up, still a waiting list.

Traffic seems to be back to normal i.e. busy.

It looks to me like the mass exodus has not happened. The company I work for is still recruiting aggressively. A lot of our business is Africa and the rest of the Gulf, but we have Dubai as the location for our head office as it has easy access to pretty much every country we need to get to.

Blue Cat

I have to agree but I am gutted, the school run is taking me well over and hour!! mental.

Madam Medusa

talk about hedging your bets, bc, lol...

MM, xx