Renad Ghanem
Saudi Gazette
Egyptians who traveled abroad for work in the early 1980s and 1990s typically were able to save relatively large amounts of money that provided them with a good living standard when returned home.
Many were able to buy houses or vehicles in Egypt with what they saved from their salaries in the Kingdom and other Gulf countries.
But nowadays, most of those who travel for work, whether to the UAE or Saudi Arabia, aren’t able to save as much for their futures.
Toady’s salaries are often only enough to pay for living expenses while abroad, with workers typically spending most of what they earn.
It’s seeing many Egyptian expatriates making the decision not to travel home as they believe they have a higher standard of living that they couldn’t maintain on a similar salary in Egypt.
Sarah Abdo has lived in Dubai since 2008, working in hospitality, and said that both herself and her husband are unable to save anything from their salaries.
“My salary is 10,000 dirhams, and my husband’s salary 16,000 dirhams, and we spend all on living expenses,” she said.
“Yes we don’t save anything, but we live well. When we found we can't save money here due to expensive life, we decided to enjoy our life here. We both have cars, we live in Jumeirah, our home costs so much, has a lovely sea view. We enjoy as much as we can as long as we will spend them anyway, people calculate our earnings by the Egyptian pound but they don’t understand that life here is expensive.”
Abdo added that their first reason of travel abroad for work was to save money, but they discovered that it was difficult.
The couple decided not to return to Egypt because they believe they would not find similar jobs with the same salaries, so they took the decision to enjoy their life and forget about saving.
Marwan Ahmed, an Egyptian who lives in Jeddah, works as a financial expert and said he believes that saving is an impossible mission.
“With a SR2500 house rent, car installments and three children at school, my salary of SR7,000 isn't enough for our living expenses. What kind of saving can I do? It’s impossible to save anything, my parents keeps asking me to save anything for my children's future, but it’s not in my hand,” he said.
“My parents lived in the UAE in the early 1990s. They both worked as teachers and saved a lot of money during this period because life was not that expensive.”
Mohmed Nazim, a 28-year-old engineer, lives in Dubai while his older brother lives in Jeddah.
Nazim said they both planned to travel only for five years to save money and return to Egypt, but they were shocked to find that saving was impossible as salaries stagnated and living costs increased.
“My salary is only SR4,000 and my brother’s salary is 8000 dirhams. I’m not married, but this salary is barely enough to cover my living expenses. I believe that most of those who live abroad hardly save any money for the future. It’s not that easy. If I got married I don’t know how I would live,” Nazim said.
“I can’t deny that I live good, and I love the city and my aim is to live good, not to save money as most think that we do,” he added.
“My brother is doing the same thing. He lives in Dubai in order to lead a good life. As I said, our main aim was to save money, but after the reality shock we decided to enjoy our lives in these beautiful cities as much as possible as we couldn’t achieve our aim of saving.”
