Calling the United Arab Emirates (UAE) the world’s “least friendly” place for expatriates – well those are fighting words. Certainly, they are in a place where non-citizens make up close to 90% of the population and are responsible for everything from running the national airline to cleaning up at construction sites.
But a fight is what Forbes magazine and one of its contributing writers, Beth Greenfield, got when they ran a piece putting the Gulf confederation of seven mini-states at the bottom of a list using criteria that hone in on social factors – the ability to befriend natives, fitting into local culture, learning the language and integrating into the community.
The article sparked a furious reaction, a dedicated Twitter hashtag #UAEFriendly and finally, according to local media spin, Forbes “took back” its words and conceded that Greenfield’s list was “non-scientific.” The American magazine also helped smooth ruffled feathers in a posting by Dan Bigman, its managing editor for business news, who called the UAE an “expat paradise.”
Giving advice to the businesspeople, diplomats and others living abroad is a big and important business. One of those measures is published by the expatriate financial-services unit of the British-based bank HSBC, and that was the starting-off point for the controversy.
The Expat Explorer Survey for 2011 survey ranks 31 countries for expat conditions based on a survey of 3,385 people in 100 countries taken last May-July. The UAE ranked a respectable third. But Greenfield, citing the views of expat “coach” Heather Markel, isolated four factors from the HSBC survey she said make a place “friendly” for foreigners living and working there. Suddenly, the UAE plummeted to the bottom of the list.
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