"We will stay here three years or longer if the situation in Greece does not get better," says Nikolas Tsimidakis, the executive chef of the Majestic Hotel in Bur Dubai. Jeff Topping / The National
"We will stay here three years or longer if the situation in Greece does not get better," says Nikolas Tsimidakis, the executive chef of the Majestic Hotel in Bur Dubai. Jeff Topping / The National

UAE the land of opportunity for Europe's struggling jobseekers



Tough austerity measures and rising unemployment in the single-currency bloc have forced many Europeans to look to the UAE for healthier job prospects. While some must leave their families behind, others have relocated with their spouses and children to join fellow expatriates. We profile some of the individuals who have left Greece, Portugal, Ireland and Spain.

Greece: Fewer tourists meant chef faced being laid off or having pay cut

Tom Arnold

When Nikolas Tsimidakis's daughter was barely a month old, he made one of the hardest decisions of his life.

Leaving his wife and child in Greece, he uprooted to Dubai to work as an executive chef.

It a was painful move, but he had little choice. Hotels in Greece were hit by a decline in tourism as the country's fiscal crisis scared off visitors. As a result many places were laying off staff or cutting wages.

"The opportunities in Greece were very bad," Mr Tsimidakis says. "I didn't have a job and salaries and insurance were going down and many were offering no pensions. The option was stay in Greece and get hungry or move overseas and find a better life."

A month and a half on, Mr Tsimidakis plans to bring his family to join him in Dubai in September. "We will stay here three years or longer if the situation in Greece does not get better," says Mr Tsimidakis, 33, who works at the Majestic Hotel in Dubai.

He is one of a growing number of Greeks who have switched from their homeland to the UAE in an effort to escape the impact of tough austerity measures and economic problems.

More than 1,000 Greeks have left for the Emirates during the past year, bringing the total expatriate population from the country to more than 3,000.

Stella Giasta, 30, made the same move nine months ago to a job at the Majestic Hotel, where she works as a revenue manager.

"The main reason I came here was a chance to grow my career but the crisis made the reason to leave more urgent," she says.

Panos Psaltakis, a lawyer, relocated to Dubai after the pharmaceuticals company he worked for set up an office in the emirate.

"I made my decision to come in December 2010," he says. "At the time, 70 or 80 per cent of people I spoke to in Greece said, 'You should stay.' When I returned recently 99 per cent of them said, 'You've done the right thing.'"

Mr Psaltakis, 30, blames Greece's problems on successive governments using money from the European Union to grow the public sector to unsustainable levels.

Ireland: Young economic exiles put down roots in a thriving network

Sean Cronin

It may not be the most obvious place to watch Irish national sports but there are now an estimated 150 people playing regular Gaelic football and hurling in Dubai alone.

The numbers have doubled from five years ago, while other teams are growing in Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Al Ain as an exodus of young Irish graduates arrives in the UAE.

Many are exiles from an economic crisis in a country where unemployment is now touching 15 per cent as a result of severe austerity measures imposed by the government after an €85 billion (Dh394.59bn) bailout from Brussels in 2010.

Off the playing field the growing Irish presence in the Emirates can also be seen in the burgeoning numbers of members at the Irish Business Network (IBN).

Dubbed “The Murphia” in other countries where Irish exiles have thrived, the UAE’s relatively new IBN has grown to some 300 signed-up members in less than two years.

“We are definitely seeing more Irish companies land here,” says the IBN chairman Brian King – as close as it comes to a godfather for networked Irish business professionals in the Emirates. “There are a lot of highly educated 25 to 35-year-olds arriving.”

Similar Irish business networks are also under development in Doha, Riyadh and Cairo.

“Young people like the lifestyle here,” says Donal McCarthy, a 20-year veteran of the Gulf of Arabia who acts as a consultant to Irish firms setting up in the region.

“In the old days you would see teachers coming out for two or three years before returning to Ireland to take up a teaching job at home. But that teaching job isn’t there any more and they are staying longer.”

Colm Kelly, a project manager from Ballina in County Tipperary is one of a new wave of economic arrivals from Ireland. He quickly secured work with a Dubai construction company and found the local Irish business and sporting networks extremely supportive.

"Back home everyone is obsessed with the fiscal pact, interest rates, property prices. It's just an onslaught," he says. "Here there is none of that negativity."

scronin@thenational.ae

Portugal: Mum-of-two shuts up shop in Portugal to find new life in Dubai

Gregor Stuart Hunter

When Portugal's economic crisis convinced Lurdes Silva, 34, to close down the furniture design company she had managed for nine years, she took a path not commonly travelled by her compatriots.

In 2010, along with her husband and two daughters, Mrs Silva relocated from Porto to Dubai to take advantage of greater economic opportunities available in the Emirates.

"In Portugal, I had my own company but we closed the company and we came here," she says. "Now it's a new challenge."
Within a year, Portugal was forced to apply for a €78 billion (Dh362.09bn) bailout from the European Union, becoming the third euro-zone victim.

Mrs Silva is among 1,200 Portuguese expatriates living in the Emirates, whose numbers are slowly but surely increasing.
"Few people think to come to the UAE," she says. "Most people think of France and Spain and they're not as open to working outside."

For the time being, Mrs Silva has no plans to return to Portugal.

“As of right now I’m not thinking about this, because I’m not seeing any opportunities there,” she says. “It’s not easy, people don’t have jobs and companies are closing down every day.”

Portugal’s government is looking towards the Arabian Gulf to bolster its flagging economy.

The country is hoping to attract more GCC tourists as Emirates Airline begins direct flights from Dubai to Lisbon next month.
"Dubai opens the door for two important markets – the Middle East and the Asian markets," said Cecilia Meireles, Portugal's tourism minister, on a visit to Abu Dhabi last week.

About 14 million visitors travelled to Portugal last year, accounting for 9.2 per cent of the country’s economy. But it has been forced to look to new markets.

Francisco Moser, the chief operating officer of Altis Hotels, hopes to attract wealthy Middle East travellers as the euro depreciates.
"We're trying to rebuild our economy, with a lot of effort from everyone," he says.

"I think the next year, or the next two years, will get better."

ghunter@thenational.ae

Spain: Spaniards with good qualifications forced to find work overseas

Tom Arnold

Gonzalo Gaspar hopes to start a business in Spain one day.

But the economic turmoil raging in his homeland is one of the major reasons he’s staying put in the UAE for now.

“I have a few extremely well-qualified friends of mine in Spain who have been searching for good jobs for a while. That shows how tough the situation is,” says Mr Gaspar, 47, from Santander, who has lived in the UAE for five and a half years.

Working as a regional agent for the IE Business School, he has seen a growing number of young and educated Spaniards move to the Emirates as job opportunities in his homeland have dried up.

“They’re the lost generation as a lot of these people are leaving the country and may not come back,” he says. “You will emigrate, maybe meet a wonderful girl and get a good job and enjoy working and playing hard in Dubai.”

The number of Spaniards in the UAE has almost doubled since 2008 to reach more than 2,200 people, according to the Embassy of Spain.

While the rise is an indication of Spain's unemployment challenge it also reflects the country's growing links with the UAE. Spanish exports to the Emirates rose 36.6 per cent last year compared with the previous year. In addition, more than 100 Spanish companies operate in the UAE.

Mariano Andres has seen a growing number of Spanish people chomping down paella and tapas at Seville’s, the Spanish restaurant he manages in Dubai’s Wafi centre.

He returned to Dubai two years ago after initially overseeing the launch of Seville’s 12 years ago. “I was around the 50th Spanish person in Dubai when I came and now there’s a lot more of us,” says the 40-year-old.

Mr Andres sees his immediate future in Dubai.

“The main problem in Spain has been in the last 15 or 20 years we were building like crazy and too much of the economy was based on construction. When the crisis came no one was investing in property any more and now we have 4 million people out of work in construction,” he says.

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MATCH INFO

Liverpool 3

Sadio Man 28'

Andrew Robertson 34'

Diogo Jota 88'

Arsenal 1

Lacazette 25'

Man of the match

Sadio Mane (Liverpool)

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
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Company%20Profile
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Libya's Gold

UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves. 

The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.

Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.

COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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Our legal consultant

Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.

How to come clean about financial infidelity
  • Be honest and transparent: It is always better to own up than be found out. Tell your partner everything they want to know. Show remorse. Inform them of the extent of the situation so they know what they are dealing with.
  • Work on yourself: Be honest with yourself and your partner and figure out why you did it. Don’t be ashamed to ask for professional help. 
  • Give it time: Like any breach of trust, it requires time to rebuild. So be consistent, communicate often and be patient with your partner and yourself.
  • Discuss your financial situation regularly: Ensure your spouse is involved in financial matters and decisions. Your ability to consistently follow through with what you say you are going to do when it comes to money can make all the difference in your partner’s willingness to trust you again.
  • Work on a plan to resolve the problem together: If there is a lot of debt, for example, create a budget and financial plan together and ensure your partner is fully informed, involved and supported. 

Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching

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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Final scores

18 under: Tyrrell Hatton (ENG)

- 14: Jason Scrivener (AUS)

-13: Rory McIlroy (NIR)

-12: Rafa Cabrera Bello (ESP)

-11: David Lipsky (USA), Marc Warren (SCO)

-10: Tommy Fleetwood (ENG), Chris Paisley (ENG), Matt Wallace (ENG), Fabrizio Zanotti (PAR)

The specs

Engine: Dual 180kW and 300kW front and rear motors

Power: 480kW

Torque: 850Nm

Transmission: Single-speed automatic

Price: From Dh359,900 ($98,000)

On sale: Now

COMPANY PROFILE

Company: Bidzi

● Started: 2024

● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid

● Based: Dubai, UAE

● Industry: M&A

● Funding size: Bootstrapped

● No of employees: Nine

Joker: Folie a Deux

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson

Director: Todd Phillips 

Rating: 2/5

Moon Music

Artist: Coldplay

Label: Parlophone/Atlantic

Number of tracks: 10

Rating: 3/5

LIVING IN...

This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.

Ziina users can donate to relief efforts in Beirut

Ziina users will be able to use the app to help relief efforts in Beirut, which has been left reeling after an August blast caused an estimated $15 billion in damage and left thousands homeless. Ziina has partnered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to raise money for the Lebanese capital, co-founder Faisal Toukan says. “As of October 1, the UNHCR has the first certified badge on Ziina and is automatically part of user's top friends' list during this campaign. Users can now donate any amount to the Beirut relief with two clicks. The money raised will go towards rebuilding houses for the families that were impacted by the explosion.”

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
 
Started: 2020
 
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
 
Based: Dubai, UAE
 
Sector: Entertainment 
 
Number of staff: 210 
 
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
Tree of Hell

Starring: Raed Zeno, Hadi Awada, Dr Mohammad Abdalla

Director: Raed Zeno

Rating: 4/5

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: ARDH Collective
Based: Dubai
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Sector: Sustainability
Total funding: Self funded
Number of employees: 4
Jigra
Director: Vasan Bala
Starring: Alia Bhatt, Vedang Raina, Manoj Pahwa, Harsh Singh
Rated: 3.5/5
Company%20Profile
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Stats at a glance:

Cost: 1.05 billion pounds (Dh 4.8 billion)

Number in service: 6

Complement 191 (space for up to 285)

Top speed: over 32 knots

Range: Over 7,000 nautical miles

Length 152.4 m

Displacement: 8,700 tonnes

Beam:   21.2 m

Draught: 7.4 m

Company%20profile
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The biog

First Job: Abu Dhabi Department of Petroleum in 1974  
Current role: Chairperson of Al Maskari Holding since 2008
Career high: Regularly cited on Forbes list of 100 most powerful Arab Businesswomen
Achievement: Helped establish Al Maskari Medical Centre in 1969 in Abu Dhabi’s Western Region
Future plan: Will now concentrate on her charitable work

Key fixtures from January 5-7

Watford v Bristol City

Liverpool v Everton

Brighton v Crystal Palace

Bournemouth v AFC Fylde or Wigan

Coventry v Stoke City

Nottingham Forest v Arsenal

Manchester United v Derby

Forest Green or Exeter v West Brom

Tottenham v AFC Wimbledon

Fleetwood or Hereford v Leicester City

Manchester City v Burnley

Shrewsbury v West Ham United

Wolves v Swansea City

Newcastle United v Luton Town

Fulham v Southampton

Norwich City v Chelsea

A%20QUIET%20PLACE
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ETFs explained

Exhchange traded funds are bought and sold like shares, but operate as index-tracking funds, passively following their chosen indices, such as the S&P 500, FTSE 100 and the FTSE All World, plus a vast range of smaller exchanges and commodities, such as gold, silver, copper sugar, coffee and oil.

ETFs have zero upfront fees and annual charges as low as 0.07 per cent a year, which means you get to keep more of your returns, as actively managed funds can charge as much as 1.5 per cent a year.

There are thousands to choose from, with the five biggest providers BlackRock’s iShares range, Vanguard, State Street Global Advisors SPDR ETFs, Deutsche Bank AWM X-trackers and Invesco PowerShares.

Zidane's managerial achievements

La Liga: 2016/17
Spanish Super Cup: 2017
Uefa Champions League: 2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/18
Uefa Super Cup: 2016, 2017
Fifa Club World Cup: 2016, 2017

Fixtures

50-over match

UAE v Lancashire, starts at 10am

Champion County match

MCC v Surrey, four-day match, starting on Sunday, March 24, play starts at 10am

Both matches are at ICC Academy, Dubai Sports City. Admission is free.

Afro%20salons
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AUSTRALIA SQUAD

Steve Smith (capt), David Warner, Cameron Bancroft, Jackson Bird, Pat Cummins, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh, Tim Paine, Chadd Sayers, Mitchell Starc.

Thank You for Banking with Us

Director: Laila Abbas

Starring: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum

Rating: 4/5

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Defending champions

World Series: South Africa
Women’s World Series: Australia
Gulf Men’s League: Dubai Exiles
Gulf Men’s Social: Mediclinic Barrelhouse Warriors
Gulf Vets: Jebel Ali Dragons Veterans
Gulf Women: Dubai Sports City Eagles
Gulf Under 19: British School Al Khubairat
Gulf Under 19 Girls: Dubai Exiles
UAE National Schools: Al Safa School
International Invitational: Speranza 22
International Vets: Joining Jack