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The world is getting ready to converge on the luxurious desert oasis of Dubai. With its world-renowned architecture, forward thinking business practices and year-round sunny weather, Dubai has become a major world player in less than a generation. This once sleepy trading port for the Middle East has evolved into a worldly hub of culture, tourism, trade and entertainment. Despite the current pandemic, Dubai is still liberalizing policies to entice more international business and growing because of it. Entertainment jobs are springing up all around Dubai. Working in Dubai can be lucrative for many freelancers, with high wages and low taxes, it is a mecca for anyone wanting to earn top dollar. However, Dubai is still an Arab city, situated within a Muslim country. With both tradition and law held in high regard, it is important for anyone living or working in Dubai to know exactly what they can expect and what will be expected of them.
This is not a democracy. The UAE is a federal constitutional monarchy made up of seven federations, or emirates. Each government is wholly run by the ruling family in each emirate. Each emirate has a King or Emir, and they can make their own ground rules within the regulations of the written constitution that was permanently accepted in 1996. Government matters are run by government officials, like any other country, but with much less bureaucratic oversight. The lack of oversight streamlines the process of doing business in Dubai. A person can even enter Dubai as a tourist, look for work, and apply for a work visa after they have secured an employer to procure the necessary work and residency visas. Some of the freedoms that you forfeit over here are made up in other aspects. Your freedom of speech is not unlimited, but your freedom to feel safe in the streets is pinnacle. Local resident and freelance lighting programmer Brendan Albrey says, “Life admin can be a real two-sided coin, a combination of world leading technological integration, and painstaking bureaucratic processes can lead to serious head scratching. One day you are paying all your utility bills, traffic fines, parking tickets, and booking taxis from a single app, to spending the next day submitting seven paper copies of a document, writing cheques and queueing for hours to perform basic banking of government tasks.”
The levels of decadence in the Middle East are almost unheard of around the world. Joseph Campbell said it best when he said, “If you want to understand what’s most important to a society, don’t examine its art or literature, simply look at its biggest buildings”. The largest buildings in Dubai are dedicated to tourism, residential bravado and international business. The mosque towers are still present, but they are dwarfed by the ever-increasing skyscrapers. Dubai is still expanding outwards and upwards. These expansions require a constant influx of foreign labor. Each new expansion requires a bigger party, more spectacle and multinational bragging rights. A large portion of the budget is set aside for immoderate parties but as you explore the town, you will see that little effort is put into maintaining the non-essential flare. It is not uncommon to see large video and lighting installations with only a few fixtures still blinking their last few blinks. Be prepared to sign large contracts for installations without any hint of a maintenance program.
For libertarian readers, you will be happy to know that some form of your utopia exists in the Middle East. Dubai does not utilize any form of income tax. Dubai even offers an array of free zones that don’t incorporate any personal or corporate taxation. There is no sales tax on most goods and services as well. Corporate taxes are primarily levied on oil companies and foreign banks in the UAE. Sadly, if you’re an American citizen like me, you will never fully enjoy the tax advantages on your personal income because you have pay tax on worldwide income to the IRS (over $90k/year). Because you don’t pay taxes, you have no say in how the government is run. While writing this, Albrey reminded me that, “The Dubai oil supply dried up around twenty years ago, hence the dramatic push for construction and tourism to become the driving financial forces in the region.” This move towards tourism and a tax-free paycheck were major factors in Brendan’s relocation to Dubai.
Most of the expats that live here are on residency visas that need to be renewed every three years. Acquiring citizenship is all but impossible. As of 2021, there are several choices to legally work for yourself across the UAE. Many free zones within the kingdom are offering freelancer permits which enable one to get a residency visa on their own merit and to sponsor their family. Anyone who is working internationally can live and work in Dubai if they can prove an income. Most local working environments are very diverse. Every major culture is represented to some degree. This can lead to some interesting miscommunications and some shockingly inventive ideas. Because Dubai has a lot of expats, you may never feel like you don’t belong. Simultaneously you may never feel like you do belong. Life here can only be temporary. Employees are always on the verge of having to leave on short notice. People will always refer to “back home” to mean another country. Although Arabic is the official language of the UAE, English is the most spoken language in Dubai. You will have no trouble getting a job or maneuvering the city in English.
Labor laws are still in their infancy in the kingdom. According to the Federal Labor Law, there is no minimum wage limit in Dubai. Some of the other emirates disagree though. The extreme heat and local conditions have made certain labor laws necessary. The mid-day break rule bans laborers from working outdoors directly under the sun during the afternoon in summer when temperatures can soar above a hundred and twenty degrees. A level of employee protection does exist within the law. For example, people are not supposed to work more than nine hours per day, employees are entitled to a payout if terminated without cause. Still, the legislature is grey, and the court system antiquated, so most expat employees are not aware of their rights and certainly would never have the time or finances to chase reparation.
The wide-open skyline of Dubai affords designers the freedom to be as extravagant as they like. Every new outdoor innovation is welcomed here. Recently, I discovered that red and green does not signify Christmas in Dubai. Christmas is not celebrated to the same degree in Muslim countries. Conversely, red and green are the colors of the UAE flag. Lighting buildings with red and green, instead of being holiday colors, are now patriotic colors. Normally, I would avoid red and green the same way anti-vaxxers avoid a flu shot, but in Dubai I can embrace these complementary colors the same way that epidemiologists embrace public health records.
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Chris Lose is an international touring lighting director and programmer who has dedicated his life to solving problems through pragmatic decision making and calming techniques. He strives to invoke emotion through color, atmosphere and beauty. Chris’s most recent clients include Fleetwood Mac, Don Henley, Calvin Harris and Corporate Events around the globe.
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