Dubai has been 'out' of oil for a while. Most of the petrochem coming out of the UAE is currently in Abu Dhabi and RAK. The whole idea of building all of this

Dubai has been 'out' of oil for a while. Most of the petrochem coming out of the UAE is currently in Abu Dhabi and RAK. The whole idea of building all of this up was to serve as a middle eastern city for the post-oil economy. The success of it is another story; the western expats have been leaving in droves of late and there's not much sign of it abating. The eastern expats (Indian and Chinese) keep coming in though. A lot of us western expats have headed to greener shores; the oil boom in Azerbaijan is one draw, a lot of the build-up in Qatar at the gas fields is another, and Western Australia is also helping things along quite a bit. Wage rates for expats have fallen through the floor in the middle east as well - where one once could make a king's ransom in a year or two in the sand trap, now it's not so much the case, even in Saudi Arabia.