Why do people still want to live and work in Dubai when the bubble has burst and things have turned ugly?
A friend recently over-nighted in Dubai on his way to New Zealand: this is a stop off on a trip he makes up to six times a year for business. On his return he commented how Dubai was dead…on further questioning he said the city felt lifeless to him, the airport felt deserted and all in all, the soul seemed to have been sucked out of Dubai.
He recalled the days he’d spent in the city over the past 3 – 4 years when the buzz, the hype and the vibe was somehow infectious – it was as if the positive excitement that Dubai was purveying with its lofty ambitions was transmittable, and everyone in Dubai was riding a wave of endorphins and adrenaline, high on the prospects and the prosperity. But according to our friend, all that has now been leeched out of the city and out of its residents who have all been affected by the massive and dramatic downturn in the emirate.
However, the Dubai dream still exists, and it is seemingly defying logic – expats still want to live in Dubai and would-be expats still write to us asking about working in Dubai, getting jobs and visas. So, we decided we’d better update our position on the emirate for anyone still actively considering their options, and who is looking at Dubai as a real prospect in lifestyle and employment terms.
Just in case you’ve been living in a parallel universe, we’d better begin this report by pointing out that the entire world is living through troubled economic times at the moment! The UK is officially in the worst recession since WWII, parts of mainland Europe are also wallowing in the doldrums of fiscal depression, and all across the world, from the USA to the UAE, nations’ balance sheets are lodged in the red, with no real prospects of a positive and fast turn around any time soon.
Thanks to globalisation as a real concept, when a country like America sneezes, parts of the rest of the world now catch pneumonia – or swine flu! This is because many countries are inextricably financially linked through global business ties - from international banking to import and export – and if one country suffers, we all suffer. Naturally as the fact that globalisation has become such a reality, so the current financial crisis many nations are suffering internally has become a global pandemic of fiscal decline…and almost no other location has suffered so catastrophically and so visibly as Dubai.
Dubai was the fastest growing city in the world – in terms of the rate of population inflow, in terms of the physical rate it was expanding with land reclamation and building development, and in terms of the money it was generating through business, investment and expansion. Dubai was a fantasy that was becoming a reality, it was a dream destination, an incredible example to us all that having very great ambitions is no bad thing, dreams can come true - and this reality that Dubai presented to the rest of the world became something we all wanted to be a part of. Even those who were turned off by the naked opulence and the ‘in your face’ excesses of the emirate couldn’t ignore it! And anyone looking for true opportunities for fiscal greatness knew that there was only one place to go and be, and that was Dubai.
And then everything changed. America’s banks began going bankrupt, and this had an international impact. Britain bankrupted itself and its citizens for many generations to come by holding up their banks from falling into a financial black hole. Credit lines dried up to everyone, from the likes of you and me seeking a mortgage or a business loan, to globally reaching businesses like those building, expanding or operating in Dubai…and all of a sudden, Dubai’s debt became apparent. And it is massive on an almost incomprehensible scale – some say $80 billion, most say far more. Therefore the expansion of the emirate stopped, building projects were put on hold, those who have made down payments for off plan property have yet to see the fruition of their investment in a number of cases, and ambitious developments such as Dubaiworld have been frozen for the foreseeable future.
Just as quickly as Dubai’s prospects flourished, so its bubble has burst and companies have left, investment has dried up, expatriates have been bankrupted and the mood has turned ugly. Those responsible for building Dubai – the Pakistani, Indian and Bangladeshi workers – are suffering more than most. Trapped by hideous conditions of employment and appalling wages, they are living and dying in poverty and emotional pain in Dubai. This is a side that no one wants to see or even think about – yet it exists. No one cares about these people. On another level, locals are becoming more aggressive to those Westerners who remain – in terms of blaming them for the fall out in Dubai, resenting their ways and excesses and seemingly cracking down to the letter of the law and imprisoning people for anything and everything from Westerners of the opposite sex sharing a property when unmarried, to Westerners bouncing a cheque.
So how come people still want to move to live and work in Dubai?
Well, in part people are still lulled and lured by the tax-free lifestyle – and it exists and can be fantastic. Wages, when you get a professional posting in Dubai, are impressive and made more so by the fact that they are paid without the deduction of taxation. The shopping, dining and entertainment options and alternatives in Dubai are excellent, therefore you have a lot to spend your money and time on. The lifestyle can be great – you can have staff working for you, you can have your children privately educated, you can go to your private, members only beach club every day – you can even buy and consume alcohol, go to a different party or expat event every night and have a good time. However, you have to work harder than ever to find a job, you have to be prepared that many companies’ positions in Dubai are unstable and that you could therefore be left without a contract, and that if you lose your employment contract you have to leave Dubai within a month. You have to pay for your rent up to a year in advance and if you lose your job and have to leave you may well not get that back. If you have made a life for yourself in Dubai, you have a car, a home, furniture and even pets for example, 30 days is not long to find a new life to ship your family and possessions to or to sell or off load your property and your assets.
So, is Dubai worth the risk? Is Dubai worth turning a blind eye to the exploitation and the double standards? Is Dubai a prospect worth betting on?
Some people think so – and on closer scrutiny, most people believe that Dubai will rebound…that what has happened has been a fairly positive thing to slow excessive growth down to a more sustainable and realistic level. And on this point we have to agree. Dubai will survive and thrive again in time – at least on a fiscal level. So prospects will begin to reappear, the lifestyle will become more appealing as job security returns to the market, and building projects will slowly start up again so the workers will have something to do all day other than live in hell.
But will Dubai learn from this, will it improve in terms of social, moral and equality standards? Of that we are doubtful. So, if you can live with the reality of the emirate, the way poorer people are treated and how you too will be treated if you break the sometimes arcane and draconian laws or if you lose your job, then go for it.
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