Bahrain, UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar Top List of Best Countries for Expats
Bahrain, UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have ranked among the top 10 best countries for expats, according to the Expat Essentials Index by InterNations.
Bahrain ranked number 1, followed by UAE in second place and Singapore in third place. Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar ranked in fifth, seventh and eighth places, respectively.
The Expat Essentials Index comprises of 52 destinations that make life abroad easiest and those that make life most challenging for foreign residents.
The index is based on data from the Expat Insider 2022 survey by InterNations, which showed that all top three destinations “offer easy communication with the lack of a language barrier, while also posing minimal bureaucratic issues.”
According to the report, Bahrain’s admin topics subcategory is a “highlight for expats”.
About two in three (67 percent) said that it is easy to deal with the local authorities, 27 percent points over the global average (40 percent).
The island country’s visa issues also pose very few problems, the report said, with 70 percent saying that it is “easy to get a visa to move there” compared to 56 percent globally.
In terms of ‘Digital Life’, Bahrain ranks “below the global average for unrestricted access to online services, such as social media but lands in a top 10 spot for the availability of government services online,” the report said.
In addition, majority of Bahrain expats said that it is “easy” to find housing, compared to expats globally. However, only 39 percent find housing in Bahrain affordable.
Expats’ perception of life in the UAE
As for the UAE, expats are able to transition smoothly through its various offerings. The nation’s ‘Language Subcategory’ is a major highlight for the UAE, with 40 percent of expats saying that learning the local language is easy.
In addition, 85 percent of expats also find living in UAE “easy” without speaking the local language(s).
The report also said that expats are “very pleased” with the way Admin Topics are handled in the UAE, voting the country as number 1 worldwide for the ease of obtaining a visa to move there.
Additionally, 61 percent also said that it is easy to deal with the local bureaucracy in the UAE, compared to the global 40 percent.
The UAE received mixed results in the ‘Digital Life Subcategory,’ however expats voted the country third out of 52 for the “availability of administrative services online, as well as 10th for the ease of getting high-speed internet access at home.”
However, in terms of unrestricted access to online services, the UAE ranks 49, the report said, adding this is the case for social media. “In fact, 19 percent of expats do not feel that they have unrestricted access there, almost triple the global average (7 percent).”
In terms of housing, 75 percent of expats consider it “easy” to find housing in the country, however, only 38 percent say that it is affordable.
The report also noted that expats struggle the most with getting started in Germany (52), Japan (51), and China (50), as they “struggle” with the local language and a lack of modern digitalisation.