Forbes Rethinks the UAE’s Expat Friendliness
January has seen some bad news on the prospects for lawyers in the Middle East, followed by some good news for expats considering the region in general. On the heels of this, comes word that the region is not as expat unfriendly as has been suggested by an earlier Forbes report (via zawya) indicating that the UAE ranked at the bottom of a list of expat friendly countries.
“The ranking was based on the HSBC’s Expat Explorer Survey, which this year polled 3,385 expatriates in 100 countries about everything from where you can get a swimming pool and more luxurious holidays to what countries offer the best access to healthcare.
But what perhaps led to the UAE’s low score were certain parameters like the expats’ ‘ability to befriend locals, success in learning the language, integration into the community and ease of fitting into the local culture.’
Almost instantly, expatriates living in the UAE as well as Emiratis took offense to the skewed ranking, venting their feelings and opinion primarily on Twitter, and creating a hashtag # UAE Friendly to defend their home or second home, as the case may be.
‘I consider UAE my second home,’ tweeted Dara Al Hadidi, who goes by the Twitter handle @DaraaaH.
‘You can’t call a country that hosts 209 nationalities unfriendly. We’ve more countries here than the Olympics’ said @KhalidAlAmeri.
‘If UAE wasn’t a friendly country, why would people from all over the world consider it their second home?’ tweeted another user.
The outpouring was huge, and almost every comment went on to support the UAE and ridicule the rankings, to the extent that it led the Forbes magazine to reconsider its listing and, in fact, take an absolute U-turn.
‘[A]ccording to HSBC’s survey, expat paradise does exist: in Singapore, Hong Kong or the United Arab Emirates,’ wrote Dan Bigman, Executive Editor for Business News at Forbes, in a what is been largely seen as a retraction by the magazine.”
Good (and unsurprising) news, although the UAE is certainly a somewhat more difficult transition for expats than, say, Hong Kong. But, there is still a fast opening market there and plenty of opportunity for expatriate and repatriate lawyers, so please visit us at Law Alliance to see where your next career move may take you.
