Dubai:If you’re living in Dubai and you sometimes fancy looking for new employment opportunities in other European and Asian cities, like Paris, London or Hong Kong, it may be a good idea to just stick around.
According to a new research that polled more than 14,000 foreigners living or working abroad, expatriate life in Dubai is still better than in a lot of cities in popular tourist destinations.
Dubai, as well as Abu Dhabi, has been voted as one of the 25 best places for foreigners looking to live and work overseas.
The third edition of the annual InterNations Expat Insider 2016 survey, which looks at the general living situation of expatriates by polling more than 14,000 respondents around the world, ranked Dubai as the 22nd best destination for expatriates, ahead of London, Paris and Rome. Abu Dhabi occupied the 20th place.
The two cities earned high approval ratings in the area of personal safety, with 64 expats in Abu Dhabi and 63 per cent of expats considering their personal safety to be “very good”, much higher than the global average of 38 per cent.
The two emirates also received positive feedback for political stability, with 51 per cent of expats in Dubai and 44 per cent in Abu Dhabi rating political stability as “very good.”
Dubai and Abu Dhabi have also been credited for making it easy for foreigners to settle in. Dubai takes the 11th spot in the study’s Ease of Settling Index, while Abu Dhabi follows close behind in the 12th spot. Both cities do particularly well in the friendliness and language subcategories. In Abu Dhabi, for example, 25 per cent of the respondents said the local population is very friendly.
However, like many other Middle Eastern cities, there are certain aspects that Abu Dhabi and Dubai need to work on, including the areas of leisure, health, travel and transport and personal finances. The two cities didn't get as much positive feedback from expats under these categories.
Still, there are other places that gained more scores from expats. Overall, Melbourne has been voted as the number one city, followed by Houston, Madrid, Dusseldorf, Singapore, Vienna, Munich, Sydney, Mexico and Toronto in the top 10.
Dubai and Abu Dhabi are, however, ahead of Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Brussels, Beijing, London, Paris, Istanbul, Doha, Milan and Rome, among others.
InterNations is a huge global network and information site for people who live and work abroad. It has 2.4 million members in 390 cities around the world.
