Five Things You Have To Know Before Working In Dubai

Working in Dubai can be lucrative for many, with high wages and low taxes, it is a mecca for anyone wanting to earn big bucks. That being said however, it is still important to bear in mind that Dubai is an Arab city, situated within a Muslim country. With both tradition and law held in high regard, it is important for anyone starting a new job abroad in Dubai to know exactly what they are walking into and what will be expected of them.

Burj Al Arab, Dubai UAE.

So if you plan on working in Dubai, or getting a finding a job in the United Arab Emirates in the near future, here are five things you need to know:

Clothing Is Very Conservative in Dubai

Although considered very liberal when put into context compared to other places in the Middle East, Dubai still maintains conservative dress codes. Any clothes that are somewhat transparent, low-cut, or short should be left at home and what’s more, it is absolutely imperative for women that the stomach, shoulders, and back are completely covered when in public.

Men must cover their chest, and all underwear should be out of sight. Such rules are more relaxed when it comes to the beach and at swimming pools owned by hotels, but topless sunbathing is a big “no” in any location.

Premarital Relations Are Illegal

Crime rates are particularly low in Dubai as the laws are strict and there are severe punishments for people who break them. One of these laws is sex outside of marriage, which can also be applied to expats and visitors from any country too. 

In fact, even if you have been living with your partner for decades, you cannot legally live together once you work abroad in Dubai – even in hotels. It is important that you do not take any risk in regards to this law as you can be jailed and then deported from the country.

Public Displays of Affection Are Rarely Tolerated

Although holding hands is generally okay (if you are married), kissing and hugging is not tolerated in public. In regards to dancing however, the rules are slightly different, as it is allowed in the privacy of your own home or at licensed clubs, but dancing in public is deemed to be provocative. It is deeply frowned upon for men to take photos of women without permission, be sexual or harassing in nature toward them, or even randomly speak to a woman.

Islamic Values Must be Respected, Some Things You Just Won’t Understand

Muslims pray five times a day, which is when mosques call people through their speaker systems. During this time, it is important that you turn off all music so that daily prayers can be given.

During Ramadan, it is also important to know that drinking, smoking, playing loud music, and dancing during daylight hours are strictly forbidden. Nothing can enter your body, not even your finger, so no picking your nose or nail biting. Breaking these observations can result in heavy punishments – even for non-Muslims. 

In general, any disrespect towards religious beliefs or practices is considered deeply offensive and is likely to result in a heavy fine and or imprisonment. Other religions are respected in Dubai and may be followed by expats working in the UAE.

Alcohol Consumption and Inebriation Is Illegal in Public 

It is forbidden to drink alcohol in Islam, although this was not always the case. At first Muslims were only forbidden to be intoxicated during prayer, until finally, some years later the Qur’an stated that, "intoxicants and games of chance" were "abominations of Satan's handiwork,” and so Muslims were ordered to abstain.

This means that public consumption and inebriation in public is illegal, though it is legal for non-Muslims to enjoy alcohol in licensed premises, as long as they themselves have their own liquor licences to drink. Non-Muslim residents must even attain a liquor licence in order to drink alcohol at home. What’s more, the licence that you are issued is only valid in the Emirate in which you applied for it.

If You Imbibe. You will be able to buy and consume alcoholic drinks within licensed hotels and clubs, but remember that doesn’t change the legality beyond the doors. It is strongly advised that if you are leaving the premises, you get straight into a taxi and do not wander around the area.

In Dubai the legal drinking age is 21, but this is not consistent throughout the Emirates. For example, the legal age to drink alcohol is 18 in Abu Dhabi (although a by-law allows hotels to serve alcohol only to those over 21). In Sharjah, drinking is totally illegal and it is also worth mentioning that passengers in transit through the U.A.E. under the influence of alcohol may be arrested.

Interestingly enough, the World Health Organisation has recently found that drinkers in the U.A.E. are consuming nearly twice the global average in alcohol per year, beating the UK, Ireland, the United States, and Australia

International Marriage and Relationships

1. International Marriage and Relationships
2. Common Issues in Mixed Marriages
3. Coping Strategies for Intercultural Marriage

In today’s globalized world, it has become very simple to meet people from all kinds of cultural backgrounds – and, sometimes, to fall in love. InterNations highlights common issues and different strategies to make your intercultural relationship or international marriage work!

An international marriage is not always easy. Although love is proverbially blind, those who are married to someone with a different cultural background know that these kinds of relationships are particularly challenging.

Religious and political differences, as well as language barriers can cause severe conflicts for couples in an international marriage. But even seemingly trivial points of discussion, such as your partner’s eating habits or how to celebrate certain holidays , may result in arguments.

Common Issues in International Marriage

Of course, the success of an expat marriage or relationship always depends on both people involved. Some may simply be more capable of handling and resolving conflicts than others.

However, there are certain issues which reappear in almost every relationship with an intercultural background or intercultural marriage. It is not just both partners’ cultural expectations that are a challenge. The approval of their respective families and friends and their desires are another factor which can make or break a marriage.

Gender Roles

In many cultures, women and men have made great steps towards equality, enjoying the same basic rights and responsibilities. This also influences their role in an international marriage or relationship.  Often, both partners are employed and share daily tasks, each of them taking responsibility for the well-being of the other. However, some cultures adhere to a more traditional concept when it comes to gender roles.

Liz (28) experienced this when she entered into an international marriage and followed her husband to Jaipur, India. Contemporary India is a large and mufti-faceted nation, where urban women in particular make their voices heard. After all, Indira Gandhi was the world’s longest-serving prime minister, and Indra Nooyi, a Chennai-born Indian and the CEO of Pepsi, is among the top 3 of Forbes’ most powerful women in the world.

However, Liz also found out that the older generation of northern India’s middle-classes may still have different views when it comes to the roles of husband and wife. Her husband had never expected her to be a traditional home-maker, but with his family at the door step, things quickly got complicated.

The situation caused many arguments between Liz and her husband Rajesh (31). “It’s clichéd,” Liz says, “but I really don’t get along very well with my mother-in-law.  I suppose she’d have preferred him to marry a Desi girl. I didn’t know all that much about Indian culture, to be honest, and now she keeps voicing her disappointment. I wish I’d known more about his family before I moved here.”

Tips for Buying Property Abroad

While most expats rent an apartment or house during their stay, you might be considering buying your own property abroad. InterNations has collected a number of tips for you on how to buy property overseas and what you, as a foreign buyer, might need to especially look out for.

The currently low property prices in many a popular location may tempt more than one expat into buying real estate in another country. However, such a big investment deserves to be well and thoroughly planned. To support you in this grand endeavor, InterNations has in the following collected some general pieces of advice regarding property purchases abroad, as well as an overview over what kind of reception you as a foreign buyer might encounter in different countries.

Get Professional, Legal Help

One could say that rule number one for buying property in another country is to get professional legal assistance. Having the advice of somebody who knows their way around the laws of both countries and speaks the local as well as your language is invaluable. Such a legal representative can make sure that everything is done right in regards to planning consent and license, property title, owner registration and every other legal matter that might crop up. When choosing your solicitor, you would do best not to follow any recommendations made by the person or company selling the real estate, for they will obviously have their own interest in mind.

Similarly, to minimize the chances of your being scammed, better use the services of professional real estate agencies during your search for a new home or only buy from reputable developers. With an independent property valuation you can also make sure that everything is in order with your future home. And last but not least, if you aren’t already fluent in your chosen country’s language, you should also have all relevant documents professionally translated.

Keep an Eye on Market Trends and Do Not Rush

Before choosing an apartment or house, you will of course have to pick a location first. Take a close look at local real estate markets and their recent development. Check how property prices have changed in the last few months or years and what experts predict for the future. Furthermore, compare prices with the local disposable income or local rents to get a feeling on whether properties generally tend to be under- or overvalued in that area.

Also keep the reason for your purchase in mind. Market trends will be extremely important for those who buy to invest and plan to rent out or resell in the near future. Others who are simply looking for a permanent place of residence overseas typically worry less about developments in the far future and more about where prices are at now. Whatever your reason for wanting to join the ranks of international homeowners, do not rush or let yourself be rushed into any decisions.

Expat Finance

“Money makes the world go round”, as the popular saying goes. However, managing your money wisely while you move around the world has its own pitfalls and issues. The articles linked below should give you an overview of all the key topics regarding expat finance. Our guide includes advice on banking and payment methods, taxation and property, as well as living expenses and financial planning.

More often than not, people avoid delving into monetary matters and spending lots of time on working out the details of their family finances. Expats are certainly no exception to this rule – quite on the contrary. Since they are often busy with all the other tasks that a long-term stay abroad requires, they may hesitate to sacrifice even more precious energy and effort on topics like taxes or cost of living. While this is completely understandable, they may literally pay for it later. Time is indeed money: If you invest in gathering information and planning ahead, you could cut down on expenses in the future.

Cultural Awareness

Remember a time when you went abroad and made some faux pas that caused amusement or dismay among local listeners? Knowing what exactly went wrong in this situation could help you understand cultural awareness. InterNations tells you more about cultural awareness and why it is so important for expatriates.

While living abroad, quite a few people inadvertently miss some social cues among their new colleagues, neighbors, or friends. They behave in what they think is a normal manner – and oops! Suddenly, other people seem amused, irritated, or simply confused.

You may not be able to explain what went wrong or, to ask an even more difficult question, why a certain type of behavior would be considered wrong in your host country. You did, however, notice that “normal” interaction and “common sense” failed you. Perhaps you even ended up upsetting other people.

First Steps

Now go a step further in your quest for cultural awareness: Start reading a brief “how to” guide or “dos and don’ts” list for tourists, expats, or immigrants coming to your country. You may be surprised or entertained by the descriptions of your own culture and its basic etiquette.

If you talk to foreign visitors and expatriates whom you know already well, they may share their thoughts on living in your country: the stereotypes they had before coming here; their first impressions; which differences confuse them; what they find great; what they don’t like at all, etc. Again, the answers might astound you and won’t fail to increase your sense of cultural awareness.

Of course, clichés, personal impressions, and random bits of advice will only get you so far. Now’s the point when you might want to dive a little deeper into the theoretical background of cultural awareness, intercultural competence, and intercultural communication. These two articles explain these theories in greater depth, so you might want to read them first before continuing here.

Culture – a Basic Definition

First of all, in the context of cultural awareness, we have to understand what culture refers to. For this purpose, let’s simply define culture as all the (often unspoken) standards and (mostly unwritten) rules that guide a certain group’s behavior. Such a group can be a sub-set of the general population (a sub-culture) or an entire nation – the culture of Hong Kong or Italian culture.

Culture, in this specific sense, is often compared to an onion with several layers. The outermost layer of the “onion”, i.e. of a foreign culture, is what you can see, hear, and touch: its artifacts, products, and rituals. The next layer of a culture consists of its systems and institutions. Systems and institutions, in turn, are based on certain beliefs, norms, and attitudes. These beliefs then stem from the core of the “onion”, the most basic values of any culture.

Getting to the Core of Culture

It’s that core of different attitudes and values that is both the hardest to get at and the most influential element of all. And yet it’s to understand this core that cultural awareness is all about. It’s very common to classify this core according to several dimensions, e.g. the prevailing social attitudes towards hierarchy and authority (called “power distance”).

Cultural differences – which begin at the core of the onion and spread upwards and outwards through the various layers – mean that the hidden rules of everyday behavior might change as soon as you set foot on a distant country’s soil. In seminars on cultural awareness, coaches like illustrating the emotional effect of such a drastic change with the so-called Barnga simulation.    

Playing the Game

The Barnga simulation is often used in intercultural competence training. The participants sit down at several tables in several small groups and start playing a simple card game with a certain set of rules. Once they have learned the rules at their table, they mustn’t speak anymore. As soon as they know their rules and have played a few rounds, two people from each table move over to a different one.

What they don’t know, though, is the fact that the rules at every table are slightly different. So when they start playing elsewhere, it will soon cause confusion and irritation, even frustration and helplessness among the players. This is what immersing oneself in a different culture may feel like – the disorientation of culture shock. Being exposed to these feelings in such a context may help participants to appreciate the importance of cultural awareness and competence.