Why So Many People Come to the UAE for a Few Years… and Stay Much Longer

It’s a phrase quite commonly uttered by new arrivals in the Emirates: “I’m only here for couple of years.”

It’s spoken as if this is a temporary thing, almost without even thinking. Maybe one has got a job that lasts only one or two years, a short contract, a project assignment. The idea is straightforward: work hard, get some experience, save up some money, and after that move to a different place. However, time often changes things in an unexpected way here.

Those “two years” silently turn into four. Then six. Before you know it, a whole decade has gone by and the person who once described their stay as temporary is now so familiar with the city that they know the locations and streets better than many residents who have been living there for a long time.

Why is this phenomenon so common? Opportunity is one of the reasons.

UAE has been able to establish itself as a place where people who are willing to take a proactive approach are rewarded. Usually, the professionals coming in with a skill or a concept get to know paths which were previously unknown to them. One can start off as a normal employee and in no time find that they are holding a leadership position. A freelance gig can be turned into a prosperous business. One can begin with a temporary contract and end up with a permanent long career. Besides that, there is lifestyle.

Live in UAE and for most people, the daily operations are so well done that it becomes difficult at times to compare it with other parts of the world. Airplane connections are very good. Services happen really fast. Thanks to diversity of cultures, friendships literally go across countries and continents.

However, there is an added element that is difficult to quantify.

One major factor in living a life in the UAE is that you are, more often than not, quite literally at a point of change. A new district, a new set of government policies, a new industry these are the things that change every few years here. So in such a scenario, it is quite natural for one to want to be a part of this momentum and it can even get quite addictive at times.

In fact its as if you get accustomed to the notion that everything is progressing all the time.

First of all, not everyone lives there permanently. Many will ultimately decide to go back to their homeland or look for other options. In fact, even those who have left frequently speak of their time in the Emirates as the period in which they were most deeply shaped.

In a way, that is what the real story is about.

People come with a notion of the temporary stint.

Sometimes this is when they realise that their stay is actually part of a long story.