Dubai Expats Love The Social Life As Much As The High Wages

scores high in the latest expat survey, winning praise for its job prospects and active social life.

Dubai is well known in the expat world for its high salaries and job prospects in general, but the results of the latest survey suggest it’s not just all work and no play. Given the chance to earn a generous, tax-free salary and boost one’s career prospects at the same time, few upwardly-mobile expat professionals would refuse, even if the lifestyle wasn’t to their liking.

Dubai, it seems, now provides a buzzing social life as well as the cash to enjoy it to the full.

The HSBC Expat Explorer survey is the most comprehensive study of expat life, rating everything from salaries through ease of settling in to costs of living and lifestyle. Surprisingly, Dubai is now out ahead of London, Paris, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles for its social life, enhanced by the sheer concentration of comparatively wealthy expats in a smallish area. Survey respondents are full of praise for the city’s fantastic food scene, its excellent leisure facilities and its clean, safe environment. Admittedly, the rising cost of accommodation of a certain standard, services and goods in general is a reality, but tax-free salaries help a great deal.

Compared with the rest of the Arab States, Dubai is considered by expat residents to be more cosmopolitan as well as more sympathetic towards the international expat community in the city. The emirate is also a favourite with Chinese expats, as demonstrated recently this month during the celebrations of the Chinese New Year of the Dog. According to those who took part or watched, it was even more exciting than the celebrations in China’s main cities, with all the major traditions including dragon dances, a huge parade and performances delighting spectators. There are an estimated 200,000 plus Chinese nationals in Dubai, and a million Chinese tourists arrive annually.