From my own experiences living in the Middle East, I have noticed the quality of life in terms of social, political and economic terms can only be judged by how the expat chooses to take that experience. An expat is a person temporarily or permanently residing, in a country other than that of their citizenship. The word comes from the Latin terms ex (out of) and patria (country, fatherland). In this blog, I will talk about what to expect as an expat in the Middle East. Relocating to the Middle East There are many reasons for relocating and when it comes to the Middle East I have found that the following are some of the primary reasons: Career Cultural Experience Travel Western expats typically choose to relocate to the Middle East to experience an exciting and challenging new culture and lifestyle, while Arab expats tend to move around a lot in the Middle East looking for better opportunities. Depending on where you are fro...
It seems only fair, after writing earlier this week about the joys of being an expat wife , that I should give equal time to the dark side. Here, then, are the 10 worst things about being an expat wife: 1. Frankly, the “wife” part. Being a permanent “plus one” becomes wearying at times, and that feeling of being dismissed as an afterthought seems to intensify in expat circles. It was especially frustrating in Singapore, where I couldn’t get a single utility company to talk to me because my name wasn’t on the contract. Whenever something needed fixing, Chef Boyardee was invariably off in a different time zone — either on a plane, in a meeting, fast asleep, or otherwise unreachable. I never once managed to breach the inviolable wall of “so sorry, Mrs. Michael, but Mr. Michael needs to call us.” Asking politely, wheedling, threatening, crying hysterically — nothing worked. 2. Forced career break. This wasn’t an issue for me, but it certainly is for many women and men...