Why The Term ‘Expat’ Is Holding Us Back From Making The Most Of Life In The UAE

It’s natural to require a sense of belonging. It’s also very normal to associate with your national identity. 

Since the time of travel, people have lived in countries they weren’t born in. 

Some for a few years and others for a lifetime, others have changed nationalities and become citizens, their children identify more with the country they were born in than their parents country. 

In the UAE, it’s common to label non-nationals as expats. This can be accurate depending on the definition, however, non-nationals can also be called immigrants or migrants. 

Definitions

• Expatriate: ‘A person who lives outside their native country’ (Oxford)
• Migrant: ‘A person who moves from one place to another in order to find work or better living conditions’ (Oxford)
• Immigrant: A person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country’ (Oxford)

The Problem

How these words are used in the past have caused controversy. For example, a British national working in Spain or Portugal is commonly referred to as an ‘expatriate’, whereas a Spanish or Portuguese national working in Britain is referred to as an ‘immigrant’. 

Expat is a word that has more elegance to it, it says you belong somewhere else, it might suggest you are here for a good time not a long time, you talk about ‘home’, not the country you currently reside in, but the country you are from. 

Industries feed the term ‘expat’, and an eco-system is built up around it such as financial advice. We are taken down a path to think that the standards of life are better elsewhere and that we will move on eventually. 

Here are the main reasons an ‘expat’ mentality can be negative:
– It stops you from embracing the country you live in
– It makes you think short term 
– It suggests that you ex-country is better 
– You talk of home, where as the UAE is home
– You end up spending more time with people from the same country as you
– You miss out somewhat, on the 206 other nationalities that are here

Embrace it

This is a young country, and Dubai is a city being built. We are lucky to be here in its infancy. There are endless opportunities. 

The UAE will turn 50 years old in the next five years. Therefore, what we do and achieve in our time here, can impact the first 100 years of this country and shape its future. 

It’s like living in the USA at the start of the 19th century when it was a young nation. 

A couple of million Irish people migrated to the US in the mid 19th century after the great famine and they went on to become presidents and part of every facet of US life. 

Those who get stuck in to life in the UAE, end up having a better time here, staying longer and being more successful. 

Why is it hard

It’s hard to accept that we may never truly belong here. But is that really a problem? The UAE is a very accepting nation, more so that many of the countries we have come from. 

If we overcome this feeling of insecurity, we can feel like we belong here. If citizenship is really an issue for us, all other countries eventually adopt this, the US did, and even Qatar now has permanent residency, all be it under different circumstances did. 

The UAE is aware it needs to retain immigrants here and steps will be taken to do so, but immigrants’ mindset also needs to change. 

Conclusion

Technically, all non-nationals are expats, migrants, and immigrants at the same time. It doesn’t really matter what word we use to describe ourselves. It’s our attitude that defines us.