I live in Dubai, ask me anything

I’m curious to know whether that’s what the OP means.

It’s a shame your friend feels that way. I wonder if it varies according to sex and age. My DD is gay and doesn’t feel life would be any easier if she was straight.

How do you know she’s white?

I'm going to ask this question again, because it's fundamentally important to understanding your position OP. The question got ignored the first time of asking.

Do you have a mortgage in Dubai OP?

I'll explain again the significance of this. If the OP has a mortgage, they can't just leave. They have all their money tied up in Dubai. They are trapped by economics.

The OP mentally has to double down on life being great in the face of a possible war because they may be unable to just leave due to debts and they have no resources with which to leave and start over in the UK.

If you can't sell your house (and no one sane is going to be buying houses in Dubai right now, if for no other reason that house insurance on falling drones is either extortionate or none existent - and therefore lenders may not be issuing mortgages) you are stuck.

You face the real prospect if a massive crisis does happen of then having to flee suddenly, driving across the desert to Oman and hoping you can get somewhere to stay with a couple of kids, when everyone else is doing the same, with few airlines willing to go to even Oman under the circumstances. (Oh and btw the routes out of Dubai and the border area are likely targeted) Knowing you have no where to go if you get back to the UK. You wouldnt want to consider that as a realistic scenario would you?

Yeah I think I'd be ostriching and trying to convince myself on MN about how wonderful my lifestyle in Dubai is, how shit the UK and how I wouldn't change a thing and everyone back home was just hyperventilating for fun so I didn't have to even consider for a nanosecond what might happen in the next couple of weeks.

I'd be super 'its not my experience' and 'yeah I'll just leave if I have to if something happens' precisely because I can't just get the fuck out yesterday.

I am not convinced at this Dubai is the Dream nonsense online. Especially from people in UAE right now. It's trying too hard and they can't say anything different to themselves or to us anyway for multiple reasons.

This thread is a nonsense.

I note it's in 30 days only too, so it doesn't even get to be tested by time as to what actually does pan out.

Good point let's find out
OP what colour are you?

Wise up, @Obeseandashamed. Under no circumstances would anyone British prefer being cheap immigrant domestic labour in Dubai to a zero hours contract in a country of which you are a citizen, where you have the right to choose your job freely and to change jobs if you’re not satisfied, and where you aren’t fined and deported if you fail to show up to an employer who is abusing or employing you.

Women are regularly recruited from overseas under the impression they will go straight to a job with a family, but are kept under lock and key by an agency for months on no salary. They are advertised on Fb or TikTok according to their nationality (Africans get paid less and are advertised as not needing their own bedroom by some agencies, whereas Filipinas do), complexion (fair-skinned or ‘black’), marital status, age, weight, with the tagline that families looking for maids can do a video interview and the agency will Uber them over the same day, keeping them on the agency visa for convenience. Like you would order a takeaway.

The women may not even have met their employers, but if they’ve been locked in the agency accommodation for months on no salary, they’re desperate.

https://andyjhall.org/2023/10/12/12th-oct-2023-we-lie-on-the-floor-till-someone-buys-us-shocking-allegations-of-uae-agencies-abuse-of-domestic-workers/

Most people who are immigrants here don’t claim benefits. Healthcare, education and a generally honest and safe society are benefits but they are for all of us - even the people who say they don’t get anything back for the tax they pay.

Bit late to ask now 🤦‍♀️

It's never too late! Bet OP won't answer though. You and I both know she is White British.

Oh, you agree with equal opportunities?

My wife's neice is Ethiopian. She's in her mid 20s and has just done two years in Dubai. She enjoyed it, worked in an office, and was treated well, but had to work incredibly hard for her salary. She chose to return to Addis.
However, it's safe to say that some of the people she met from other similar countries were not treated well at all, often getting screwed over by employers, both Emirati and Western, including Brits.
I'd also say to the OP, knowing a very good friend who's lived there over 15 years or so and raised a family there, that after just 1 year, you're not in a great position to pontificate about it. You're just a newcomer! And some of what you've said is factually incaccurate re life going on as normal- schools went online and many expats decamped to other countries for the duration.

Expats is what privileged Westerners call themselves.

Immigrants is what Westerners call lower status people from lower status countries who do exactly the same - including only staying for a short period.

Expat is honestly a word reflecting privileged status and 'otherness' from lower status migrant workers. and nothing more. You can't fully get away from the racist undertones it carries, especially when someone gets pissy about being referred to as an immigrant. If they admitted to being an immigrant but said they preferred expat that's different to an adverse reaction to the word.

I find linguistic use fascinating in what it conveys.

What? Alan Sugar? Paul McCartney?
Poor you to have been so harshly taxed, yet want to return to live in the UK.

The level of misinformation on this thread is staggering.

Right. Of course.

Yes, it's quite fascinating, and sadly unsurprising.

I don’t know anything. One thing I’ve learned these days is not to assume anything when it comes to race/gender/sexuality/religion.

Yes I agree the people who live there know the lie of the land, generally have access to funds and will not be waiting on the UK government for help. I think it was tourists who perhaps had an expectation of more government help last time.

Expats is what privileged Westerners call themselves.

⬆️

This. I know British people who have lived in Spain for over 20 years who nearly pass out at being called an immigrant, course they are!
And lo and behold when their health starts to fail, they are back in the UK for good to take advantage of the good old NHS after paying no taxes here for decades.

Ohhhh, I think we can be sure of a few things. Most definitely sexuality.

Yep those brown international students thrown out of their local park for being “immigrants” by reform tossers.

funny how they aren’t “ex-pats”

again, much of op’s narrative reflects my experience in 80’s South Africa. They were all “ex pats” too.

If you're happy to go into more detail about 80s SA, please do. Fascinating, and passing into history....(not saying you're old!!!)

There are freeloaders aplenty who use NHS facilities while having no rights to them.
Then clear off without paying the bill.
Their passports should be held until they cough up

Yeah, and the people I know who were “expats” in the uk for all their working lives are now back in the UK claiming everything they can get their hands on and complaining that black people dare to get jobs that were once solely given to white people in South Africa.