(Left) Jordanian refugee camp (right) Dubai street view
Speaking of the UAE, the most impressive one is certainly Dubai, which has the Burj Al Arab Hotel and the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa. This country, which turned around due to oil in the early years, has always given people the impression of prosperity and luxury. In recent years, the government has invested more than $7 billion to hold the 2020 World Expo, creating the image of a top tourist destination. Greater investment in technology and innovative industries has shouted the slogan of Silicon Valley in the Middle East.
In the early years, there were many rumors about the luxury of life in Dubai. For example, you can easily get rich by picking up garbage in Dubai, and there are all kinds of Dubai cutting methods that do not consider wear and tear.
However, not all middle Eastern countries are local tycoons, and we look to Jordan on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula. Not only natural resources are scarce. Even more famous is Jordan's presence of more than 760,000 refugees from 57 countries. Most of them are from Syria. That's just the number of people registered with UNHCR. We don't know how many people remain uncounted.
Obviously, they are all Arab countries, why is there such a huge contrast. This also makes everyone's impression of the Arab world is often very extreme local tycoons and refugees.
In Dubai, most people are foreigners, and many of them are alone. Therefore, the relationship with colleagues who have also come from afar is very friendly. After work, they tend to go to a bar in groups of three or five and go to a bar for a drink. Gatherings are also arranged regularly, and they often travel together on holidays.
The protagonist of this article, Winston, is a sojourner from Taiwan Province of China. The world he saw and experienced through his eyes was far from what the simple label of local tycoons and refugees could say.
The World's Fair, which was scheduled to be held in Dubai in 2020, has been postponed due to the pandemic
Visit Dubai and marvel at the cultural diversity
In 2018, Winston updated his English resume on the multinational job search platform LinkinIn.
Prior to that, he had been working on iOS software development in Taiwan Province of China for three or four years. Because they aspire to live in other countries, they go online to find opportunities for overseas employment. Soon, he received interview invitations from headhunters from different countries. One of them introduced him to working as a development engineer at Property Finder, a real estate trading site in the UAE.
At first, like most people, he knew very little about arab countries, let alone the Dubai-based company, and could only keep searching for clues about the job in English keywords. It wasn't until the interview that I found out that the atmosphere of this UAE-based company was different from that of a multinational company I knew.
First of all, the company's interviewers come from all directions, and the supervisor is also very kind. The style of work is biased towards the American style. More importantly, the other party's salary is more than twice that of his salary in Taiwan Province. So he quickly accepted the offer. Set off for this country full of freshness and the unknown.
We know that most of the UAE is religious. When Winston first visited the Islamic country, he was cautious, afraid of inadvertently touching religious taboos. But he gradually discovered that more than 80% of the uae's citizens are Muslims. But they make up only 11 percent of the country's minority population. Nearly 90% of the remaining foreigners come from more than 200 countries around the world, thus shaping the local open and inclusive cultural style.
In Winston's work, national inclusion is also reflected in corporate culture. Not only are working hours flexible, communication is direct, employees are willing to express their opinions, and supervisors also give everyone full respect. More interestingly, in order to take into account the cultural diversity of employees, the company celebrated from Easter and Fasting to Indian Hanukkah and Christmas.
Alternative options for traveling overseas
After living in Dubai for two years, Winston returned to his hometown due to the epidemic and the company began to lay off employees.
According to the Dubai Statistical Centre, the Dubai economy declined by 10.9% in 2020 compared to the previous year. And because the annual event World Expo was postponed, Dubai, which relied heavily on tourism revenue, was once in a depression.
During the post-pandemic. Dubai has recovered its past glory at an astonishing pace, with GDP up 3.8% from the previous year, outpacing its 2019 gains. The World's Fair, which was postponed for a year, attracted more than 24 million visitors in half a year.
Winston is returning to Dubai in 2021, when the economy is recovering. Because of the previous experience of working on the ground. He was successfully accepted by Emirates. Witnessed the local and pre-epidemic daily life that is no different from before the epidemic, and even more lively and vibrant.
Winston said that although Dubai does not levy personal income tax, the price of living is very high, and in the case of housing, it is generally 2-2.5 times that of Taipei City in Taiwan Province. Therefore, if there is no high income level in the local area, life will still be very difficult.