What’s Forcing Expat Professionals To Leave Dubai?

Once every expat professional’s dream destination,

is fading fast at more and more top talents up and leave.

‘Sunny, no taxes and a top quality of life’ was the mantra quoted by expatriates eager to find jobs in the fast-growing Middle Eastern tropical paradise. Salaries their rivals could only dream about kept the legend growing and the land of milk and honey was everyone’s favourite location until the slump in oil process happened and the push to replace expats with locals began.

Nowadays, the emirates including Dubai are under economic pressure, the real estate market is slumping and salaries are being squeezed. By the end of 2017, moving to a new job within the emirate was getting harder, but the thought of leaving was almost unbearable for those who’d enjoyed the good times. Believing opportunities were still out there and the slump would recede, many expats trimmed their expenses and stayed on rather than give up their lifestyles.

Nowadays, there’s a dawning realisation the emirate is simply too small to support the huge numbers of expat job-seekers still arriving as well as those already there. Economic fluctuations continue to this day, making potential employers nervous about spending on new expat employees, even if they’re more than happy to accept lower salaries than in the past.

The word on the street is that many are upping and leaving even although new expat arrivals are still coming in, hoping they’ll be lucky enough to get that much-desired job. The lures of low or no taxes on wages and the dream of becoming rich are resulting in many talented expat professionals wasting their time rather than finding a new home for their experience and qualifications.