In Dubai, you can find everything except old people. I remember how I clearly caught myself thinking after several months of living here that I simply do not see old people on the streets of the city. There are none! More precisely: there were none. The government of the country announced a program to attract pensioners and decided to issue special visas to the older generation. Let’s figure out whether it is possible to meet old age here.
Where do elderly people disappear from Dubai?
It is no secret that Dubai is the largest financial, trade and tourist centre of the Middle East. To keep the local economy moving, specialists of different nationalities come here from all over the world. Immigrants already make up almost 88 percent of the total population of the UAE.
In general, the country and the city of Dubai with a population of over a million are waiting for hard-working people who are ready to toil 12 hours a day, six days a week. Yes, one day off and such a work schedule for these latitudes is normal.
In the Emirates, everything is tied to work in one way or another: the employer is responsible for the visa, compensates for housing costs, pays for health insurance. Plus there is a salary, without which in expensive Dubai, for example, it is simply impossible to survive. There are no unemployment benefits or other financial support for expats here. If you have not acquired a solid bank account or investments, losing your job means one thing: it’s time to go home. All visitors here are on visas that need to be extended.
The same goes for retirement. Reaching retirement age in most cases means flying home to your small homeland. This is confirmed by statistics: now, from a demographic point of view, Dubai is a city of the young. Almost 70 percent of the population is between 20 and 44 years old. But there are less than one percent of elderly people over 65 here.
About special visas for pensioners
Over time, more and more visitors expressed a desire to stay in the Emirates on a long-term basis. And there were changes in the legislation: the country’s authorities approved a law on the introduction of a five-year renewable visa for retirees. This happened two years ago, just before the pandemic. But the conditions of the law are such that I don’t even know who can afford to live out their old age in the UAE.
What kind of pensioners are expected in Dubai? Wealthy ones, of course! Those who have either real estate worth half a million euros, or savings of 230 thousand euros, or a guaranteed income of at least 4600 euros can apply for a special visa. A normal pension of 380 thousand rubles! Who has that?
In short, with our pensions, Dubai can only be seen in pictures or on TV. The whole program is aimed, rather, at those pensioners who can travel around Europe non-stop, settle in Tenerife or Palm Beach. Now they can also choose to live near the Persian Gulf.
And even if you worked your whole life in the Emirates, you still won’t have a pension. There simply isn’t one here, you’ll have to rely on your hard-earned savings in old age. And the salaries of many newcomers here aren’t great, you can’t put much aside. That’s how it is.