Brits who moved to Dubai, how's life?

[Southparkt]

I had several friends who moved to Dubai in the last 3 years and they are really loving it and have no plans to come back. We have been considering a move as we have young family and will be very thankful if we can afford to have nannies and driver etc as our friends have. They feel more relaxed in the sun and can afford big house with swimming pool etc. We are high earners here and used to have nanny for our oldest but if we keep spending at that rate, we can never retire here with the Cost of living increases.
I am looking to hear from Brits who moved to Dubai and how life feels like now?

I could barely make it through 4 days. I couldn’t stand the way certain types of people were treated. Absolutely no way i’d ever consider moving there.

An acquaintance has recently moved there with 2 young children.
She doesnt fit the stereotype above and u
is not a high earner in the UK, but it seems will get a better lifestyle in Dubai.
It's not somewhere I've aspired to (and agree with pp about human rights and people trafficking)
However i think you'd get a better idea about life there, and more info, from ex pat communities or FB groups specifically for people living there

I have various friends who have moved out there

One couple loves it and no plans to move back. They are very much about show.

One couple came back once their kids were a little older (primary age). They appreciated the staff but never liked the culture and always saw it as temporary. He was told to move there by his work rather than it being a choice

One couple - he likes it, she doesn’t so he is staying there and she is back here …

It is very much a limited existence. You cannot really be outside for 5 months of the year as it’s too hot, the whole place is set up for driving not walking, traffic is insane and there isn’t much you can do that doesn’t cost money. You will need to consider modest dressing and behaviour outside of tourist hotels and ex pat compounds.

Prices for eating out and activities are London prices. Property prices are very high especially rentals. So be careful with assumptions that you would be better off - look at the costs and do the maths.

If you get into any sort of dispute with a local you are toast.

All this is separate from the human rights issues.

Look at this YouTube video of a BBC World Service investigation. It's also a World of Secrets podcast on IPlayer . These poor trafficked women are called Dubai Potties. Not only are the peed and shat upon, but they are also made to eat said shit from a cornet while their abusers watch. It's about total humiliation and depravity.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OboT09uRw6M

If you do get a nanny, and she has had to leave her own children behind, please do the ethical thing and make sure she has several trips back each year.

I will add a different opinion from everyone else, I lived in Dubai from 1995 to 2000 with my husband and 2 children. We had a large house with shared pool, a maid, gardener and my children went to excellant schools. The social life was very good and I made some very good friends. We always felt very safe there. You tend to live in areas where ex pats live, we had a great life and my children have very happy memories. My husband was a high earner in the UK and I worked a few hours a week.

In Dubai my husband worked for a local company and was paid very well but we had to pay very high rent, school fees and the cost of living was much higher than here. Financially we were no better off. Also take into account cost of flights home for visits. It may not be all you think it is. Make sure you look into the costs. We gad a great time but certainly didn'
t have any spare money.

This

Two distant family members went out there , male late 20s to do a certain sports coaching , and his sister early 30s ( real estate ) both enjoyed the party lifestyle for a few years , both came back to the UK .

You do know Saudi Arabia is a completely different country, right?

OP, you’ll get lots of jealous and bitter comments here. I lived in Dubai around 10 years ago so was younger and loved the lifestyle. I have friends there still and go for holidays and I have to say it is a very different place these days. It is incredibly busy, lots of traffic, hard to find good quality foods in supermarkets etc. The schools are not particularly good if you compare to the top private schools in London. Personally I wouldn’t move my children there for those reasons. It is undeniable that workers from India, Pakistan, Philippines etc are treated very badly and work extremely long hours for very little pay.

on the plus side, is it incredibly safe, very low crime rate, women are very safe and respected despite what you’ll read on here from people who have never been! Alcohol is widely available and pubs, clubs etc are very popular and accepted - again despite what you’ll read here! No dress code is enforced these days. It is very liberal and westernised.

In summary - it is a great lifestyle, very luxurious, convenient, safe place to live. But it isn’t the place for a serious, long term life in my opinion as most people treat it like an extended holiday.

I have a friend who moved there for work. She finds the people are quite ruthless - she has been dropped from jobs for disagreeing with people (she works in fashion... so minor differences of opinion).
She said there is no integration. Europeans only hang out with other europeans and the locals don't really like them... She finds the women do not want to interact at all.
She says it's like living in an expensive shopping mall. No style or class but lots of money....
She loves the weather and has a huge, serviced apartment.

Having done an expat you couldn’t pay me to go back.

It is soulless, very designer and people are judgemental if you aren’t dressed in all designer.

It is super hot and pools are great but 40 degree weather isn’t. You don’t go outside.

You are in a country with strict laws - never mind just affection in public. Women are treated differently and you feel it. Think about if for any reason you split - you can’t just take your kids home.

International schools are great but your kids may have ‘American’ accents and returning is both a cultural shock but also difficult for senior school and or uni.

Paying poor people peanuts to be your chauffeur and cleaner isn’t something that fits with me morally especially as they live there away from their family for most of the year. And if you return a lot of people can’t handle reintegration.

If you lose your job and can’t find another you can’t just leave a rental agreement and could be arrested if you can’t pay.

Much like a lot of these things it sounds like the grass is greener. Visiting a country isn’t living there.

Not in dress code in public but in work absolutely but you don’t have to cover your head. People don’t really need the money so working hard isn’t required and it’s very ruthless. There is a large bias against foreign workers and they will often try and get rid of you. There aren’t Labour laws to protect you in the same way.

Not in a million years would I do it.

Love how you can't voice legitimate complaints about a place without being called jealous or bitter.

No not really. what's there to be jealous of?

I'm sure there are people I am jealous of, but "expats" living in Dubai- nope.

Who on earth gets a kick form that. It's horrifying. Those poor poor women.

Why do you think people are jealous and bitter? That's a weird assumption to make.

You need to educate yourself on the lack of human rights. How the lower paid workers are exploited. You sound shallow so maybe it will suit you.

I think the op is more interested in getting nannies and cleaners than she cares about any moral issues.

Neighbours son and DIL worked there before having children. They enjoyed the lifestyle. Came home to have a child and then went back to Dubai.
They were home again within a month. They had the reality check that Dubai is not the place to bring up children.

No way would I even holiday there!!

Setting human rights issues aside (because you may not be the kind of person who is bothered by that), I would think hard about:

• it’s not a cheap place at all
• how to handle a move plus work. Particularly - the likelihood of getting jobs and the risks of being on probation periods in jobs whilst simultaneously taking on expensive private school fees and an expensive lease. Feel pretty precarious to me
• the expense of school fees vs the quality of education
• it’s a very busy place where you drive almost everywhere and the air quality isn’t great at all
• it attracts a lot of people who are showy and obsessed with wealth. That’s not to say there’s no one normal there but there is nonetheless an overriding ‘type’

I considered moving out there a few years ago and spent a month there looking into it. I concluded that I would be miserable living there. It is full of people running away from their lives, outright criminals and those who profit from the misery of others. Human rights and the environment are completely ignored. You can’t walk anywhere as there are no pavements and it’s often way too hot to go outside. Honestly it’s the last place I would move.

I was wondering where the weekly Dubai bashing thread was.
Never fear, here we are again, like clockwork.

So now that the majority of people in the thread have agreed with me, do you still think it's an exaggeration?

I haven't personally lived there but I have spent a lot of time there as a friend of mine lived there. She had an apartment in one of the high-rises. You could see the buses carrying the slaves to their camps. The buses don't go through the main streets of the city as they couldn't possibly allow their precious princes/princesses (AKA botox fake chavs) to have their fake nights ruined by having to see sad, poor people. But they are there. They lure them in by telling them they'll make loads of money to send back to their families. Then they pay them next to nothing, dress them all in identical orange boiler suits, (that are totally inappropriate for the heat), house them in mass camps/slums and take their passports off them so they cannot go back.

(By chavs, I'm talking about the 'new money' types. Wouldn't know class if it smacked them round the head. Fake boobs, trout pout lips, botox everywhere, too much make up and fake designer brands. Probably aiming to be an influencer or a love island contestant).

Could it be that Dubai gets bashed because it deserved bashing for being a country full of people with zero shame?

This is a silly comment. How can it be a bashing thread if people are giving honest answers to a question or do you think you those posting should just lie and say it's all sunshine and smiles?

What you mean is people are rightly pointing out the very dubious aspects of life there and their honest answers make for difficult reading for people who have a moral compass.

In Dubai if you are raped and go to the police you will be arrested for having sex outside wedlock.