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This is a wonderful place to work and live and also to start a family. Make the living and earning  here a stepping stone to find  a better and permanent life elsewhere.

Spent almost 5 years there.

I lived in the Meadows / Emirates Hill areas in a big 5 bedroom villa. Life was nice and lots of activities to do on the weekend.  Work was hectic and stressful.  Time was in short supply. The place was expensive and has become even more so over time.  Overall, my experience was good as I was at an income level where I didn't have to watch what I spent so could really do what I wanted - and I did it all; dropping 5-10K dirhams on one night out, staying at burj al arab for a weekend getaway etc etc.

However, if you ask me today if I would want to move back; my answer would be no.  And this surprises me as well - a few years ago, I would have said "definitely yes".  The reason is that the place is impersonal and doesn't feel real at times (ever notice that most expats don't know or are friends with any locals?  or you may live in a big villa in the same street for many years but never know any of your neighbours as they keep changing? and many other aspects, not all tangible).  Kind of like the transit lounge of an airport.  And before anyone jumps in; it's my personal opinion and yes I had a very big social circle and friends.

I realised this when I moved to Bahrain back in 2014.  After missing Dubai initially; today, I don't really want to move back - visiting is fine.  If you want my personal opinion as someone who has lived and worked in most of the countries of the GCC; I would rank them as (on quality of expat life) Bahrain followed by Oman followed by UAE and then all the rest.  The results of the HSBC Expat survey for me aren't a surprise; they have the same ranking listed.

That's interesting! Thank you for your input and sharing your experiences