I have seen a number of posts on various forums and blogs about the high rate of people leaving Al Ain and the UAE in general, along with many posts about how bad various institutions are. I know we didn’t have to go through the whole culture shock thing because compared to Doha, Al Ain really is a peaceful and tranquil city... and as far as the college goes although I was only there for two months before the summer break I have no problems with it at all. Ok so maybe I am in the “honeymoon” phase due to 2 months of work and 2 months of holidays at full pay.
I was asked an interesting question during my first few weeks at work a few times. Basically it was something along the lines of “what is university teaching like now?” It at first seemed like a strange question, but because my college has a large number of long term staff who have either been there or on other expat adventures for so long many of them don’t know what it is like to be within a university teaching environment outside the "expat world" anymore beyond what they read or are told. I really didn’t know what to tell them because there is very little difference beyond the pay and benefits being far better here.
This leads to another point that I read often about the rate of inflation and how wages are too low... hinting at the packages here being no longer competitive. Obviously it must be institution dependent because from my experience this is completely untrue. Wages here possibly were once higher in comparison to the cost of living (fluctuations in exchange rate can be a killer though... being pegged to USD is no fun), but in real terms our standard of living is better here than what it was in both Australia and Qatar.
As far as work goes, my hours are far shorter in reality than what they were in Australia. I might have to be “in office” far more than I am used to but there is very little if any work I actually need to bring home (which did come as a bit of a shock). Students are very respectful and are genuinely nice people but are as demanding as I think any students are these days if you have ever worked in an institution with an international student body (I know this is a generalisation)... From a personal perspective wearing a tie everyday is the hardest thing to get used to!
So while some may say something along the lines of the “last western expat to leave the UAE, turn off the lights”... I am sure there are many other foolish people out there such as myself that will be more than happy to take their place. While it apparently may not be as good as it once was, if this is bad, “bad” is still pretty good.
Compared to Qatar I know the roads and washing machines are far safer here!
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5 comments:
I expect this should not shock you. I found there to be a fairly high turnover rate in the ex-pat population (at least among Westerners). I suspect this is true in most Middle Eastern nations.
Some of it is first year people who can not adjust to the culture & conditions and some is people's reasons for being over there are satisfied (enough $) or there is something else drawing a person elsewhere or back home.
Al-Ain is a nice place and I enjoyed my time there. Since you are an experienced ex-pat and formerly of Doha you should have no problems whatsoever.
Hi M and K,
If you've swapped Doha for Al Ain then I guess you must be feeling quite happy, I would be too!
Welcome to Al Ain and I hope that you have a great time there. I'm already missing the place (a little bit)
I'm one of the critical ones you talk about, I think it was me that said 'the last one to leave the UAE etc'. I agree that as westerners, our standard of living is usually higher than what we can achieve in our own countries. However, my big gripe was that the expat packages are not as good as they once were- while the cost of living is rising, the salaries are not. Do you really think this is right?
Expats make the sacrifice of leaving their families and familiar surroundings to come and live and work in the UAE in return for a non taxed salary and nothing more. No stake, no votes, no long term future there. We contribute to the growth of the nation while our reward is being whittled away at year by year because the government will not unpeg the dirham from the US dollar. Secondly, the people in power feel than can offer less incentives to expats these days. It's not that the UAE can't afford to offer what they used to, its because they know the cost of labour has dropped.
For us, the deal wasn't good enough anymore. We weighed up what was important in our lives.
Didn't someone say the dirham will be unpegged from the dollar soon? Maybe it was just a rumour...without giving away you're anonymity, are you working in the Al Ain chapter of a large UAE university?
Hi Cairogal,
Not really concerned about "anonymity" factor as I have already mentioned HCT and my interview process on the previous Qatar blog anyway. Who knows what will happen with the currency situation in the GCC countries. Kuwait has already removed the US$ peg, KSA probably would never want it removed due to the huge level of investment they have within the USA.
I don't really have anything new to add here that hasn't already been discussed.
This, I'll say: there seems to be a connection between living in Al Ain & UAE bashing on blogworld - those who blog from Al Ain are least likely to "bash". Interesting, that, isn't it?! :)
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