Pros and Cons of Living Abroad
Being an Expat has its goods and bads. In this series of “Expat life blog,” I will try to explore what life looks like for people and their families living and working overseas.
My family chose not to move with me abroad which felt as if I was living a bachelor’s life all alone, felt bad and lonely for a long time, but it also gave me the opportunity to explore and live a different experience every day.
I had many friends who brought their families with them, so I was able to see the positives and the negatives of each situation.
Expat (short for Expatriate) is any person who lives outside their native country, not to be mistaken with a tourist who is just there to visit. I have been Expat for more than 25 years, which ended 2 years ago when I came back home to California, USA.
My life was like a roller coaster, full of new adventures, experiences, and there was something new everyday. Some days were great, while others were awful and exhausting.
However, I felt blessed to have the opportunity to live such an adventurous life, and loved every minute of it. Others unfortunately did not have a similar experience and could not appreciate the lifestyle.
I know people who hated their expat experience so much that within a year they were back home in their country, some even before ending their contractual work periods.
Being a partner to influential people, I was able to create good business relationships with ministers, government officials, executives, wealthy developers, bankers, business owners and CEOs of great organizations.
Through these partners, I was able to have a glimpse into the exclusive lifestyle of these wealthy people in the UAE (especially Dubai) and the other Gulf countries.
While working in the Arab countries was exciting, I always had a fascination with different cultures. Being in the UAE, Qatar, and Saudi, I was surrounded by a wealth of various cultures and was exposed to the life they were living.
I spent considerable time away from the very narrow lifestyle my partners were living, and somehow I found a balance between the two. I am so glad I did.
Why Work in a foreign country
Many people chose expat life because it is a career advancement which generally results in better pay, better title, and/or a better standard of living.
Some leave their families because they have no future in their countries and come seeking any opportunity to advance. My secretary for more than six years had a degree in electronic engineering.
Realizing she had little to no chance in the Philippines, she came and agreed to work as a secretary. Some I know left their country because they wanted to escape the old life back home due to marriage problems, divorces, breakups, or flee from their families and live the lifestyle they chose away from family pressure.
There are also immigrants that escaped their conflict countries (Iraq, Syria, Iran, and Sudan) and came to these stable, rich, and fast developing Arab countries for a better life.
I had a friend, who left NZ and came and worked in Iraq for two years, then moved to UAE and now works in Kuwait due to a bad divorce settlement that forced him to leave his home.
The Arab countries on the west side of the Persian Gulf (UAE, Qatar, Saudi, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman) are oil-rich countries.
For decades these countries depended on westerners to provide them with technology to build their infrastructures, strategic projects, and occupy the high level executive jobs for their banks, hospitals, airlines…etc.
They also depend on these countries for their top doctors, medical and financial experts, university professors, researchers, etc.
Other Arabic countries (Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, Morocco, and others), India, Pakistan, Philippines, and other southeast Asian nations were relied upon to run their country.
Most of their cheap labor, taxi drivers, cleaners, housekeepers, caregivers ..etc come from these countries. Also, they depend on expat workers in most of their technical jobs, nurses, administration workers, accounts, managers, hospitality staff (restaurants, hotels, bars, nightclubs), showrooms, supermarkets, banks, schools, etc.
This leaves the actual locals to work in the government, army, security forces, airport security, or own their businesses and depend on others to run them.
They generally are also the owners of the big contracting companies, banks, malls, big developers, etc.
Is it worth working in these arab countries?
Many western expat executives have huge salaries with big company villas, company cars, and schooling for their kids paid for as accommodations.
On the other hand, you see the majority of the laborers, secretaries, technicians, sales, non-technical office staff, hotel workers, low managers, cooks, waiters etc, ) which make up the majority of the expats) make anywhere between $250 to $1000 a month (850 to 4000 AED).
Much of the workforce is employed from Southeast Asia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and some Arab countries. These people usually live in labor camps or share 3-6 bedroom houses/apartments with others.
They live in bed spaces, 2 to 6 people in a room with a total of 6 to 18 people in an apartment sharing two bathrooms.
Of course, there are also the engineers, mid to senior managers, nurses and IT engineers, unlicensed lawyers, dentists, teachers, and other professionals who make enough to enjoy the middle-class lifestyle which they cannot experience in their countries.
You’ve also probably heard about the horrifying stories on abuse to expat workers (which does happen) but you need to understand that there are millions of workers in these countries, and bad experiences like this can happen in any country.
However, the significant majority would stay if they can because they know they cannot enjoy the lifestyle nor save money if they return home. I had a worker from Bangladesh who used to make (after accommodation and transportation paid) around $200 a month.
The first week he bought an old Nokia cell phone for $75, then sent the remaining $125 back home for the family. He stayed the whole month with no money to eat which prompted one of his supervisors to complain about him to me.
Once HR knew, we had to give him extra pocket money for him to live. But this guy never in his life had a phone and was able to support his family as he did in Dubai. He was happy and never once wanted to go back.
I know a Filipino couple who met and got married in Dubai. The guy was an IT engineer and the wife worked in administration, so both were making a mid-range salary. They had no kids and after one year of savings, were able to move to a separate room in an apartment in Dubai.
This would cost them almost one-third of their salaries. For the first year, they were living in a “partition,” which means sharing a room with another couple with a cloth or plywood divider between them.
However, they were happy, the guy was able to buy the camera he was dreaming off, and he started to give photography lessons. This resulted in them moving to a separate room and having privacy for the first time ever.
This type of living is typical not only in these Arab countries, but also in Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and South Korea. The pay level and the standard of living in these rich south Asian countries are nearly the same as in the Arab countries.
However, jobs are harder to get in these Southeast Asian rich countries while having tough competition and strict age limits. Furthermore, workers can save more in Arab countries compared to Asian rich countries.
In the past 15 years, the way the locals treat expats improved many fold, and the governments started to put laws to help these workers to report abuse should it happen.
What is the end goal?
Most of the workers, when they come to work in these countries have one goal, make enough money to go back home and retire. Very few people I know stayed on track and were able to achieve their financial and retirement goals.
Some can’t make it due to homesickness or other problems they face. They usually go back after less than a year and never want to go back overseas, and are satisfied with the life that they had before.
For the majority of people I met (including myself), this plan changes after a year or two. I know many who come with enthusiasm and specific plans that end up in completely different situations.
Work stress, homesickness, alternatives, and sudden change in income puts a massive strain on relationships and changes people’s perspectives. I will dedicate another blog to talk more about these reasons.
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