Palm trees, Vegas-style clubs, tax-free salaries, perfectly manicured promenades. Something about Dubai, the most famous of the seven kingdoms that make up the United Arab Emirates, makes living in the desert seem exotic and luxurious. …
About 80% of Dubai’s 2 million or so residents are foreigners …
Even though salaries are comparable with their European and North American counterparts, you won’t pay income taxes, which means you’ll be earning about 40% more. …
The expats I know in Riyadh and Doha are happy with conditions, overall. Our Gymnasium caretaker in Riyadh is now home in India for a 2 month holiday, for example. He has no plans to leave Saudi.
Here’s the other side of the story. 😦 The horror stories are mostly low paid construction workers.
Qatar’s failure to enact meaningful reforms for its kafala (sponsorship) system leaves hundreds of thousands of low-paid migrant workers at serious risk of forced labor and other abuses. Reforms announced on October 27, 2015, still require low-paid migrant workers to get their employer’s permission to change jobs or to leave the country, a system that that prevents workers from leaving abusive employers.
The new sponsorship law, law no. 21 of 2015, refers to “recruiters” instead of “sponsors” but it leaves the fundamentally exploitative characteristics of the kafala system in place. …
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Rick McCharles 