Good life beckons for success-hungry Londoners in UAE

When Joanna Della-Ragione left the UK in March 2020, she did not know what lay ahead. Now she is part of the rapidly growing business community in the UAE.

Her husband, a UK citizen she met in the region, is a leading business consultant. A female pal of hers runs an AI start-up. She moved to the UAE as the country sharpened its focus on cutting-edge innovation. Another couple who are friends with Ms Della-Ragione are similarly doing well – he works in private equity and is benefitting from the UAE’s position as major international finance centre, while his partner is in real estate, profiting from the property boom.

They are among the foreigners seizing opportunities that were not available in their homeland, or at least not to the same degree. A poll for The National showed respondents in the UAE pointed strongly to opportunity, stability and quality of life as defining factors in their preference for the Gulf state. Questions on life in the UK revealed worries over the rising cost of living, concerns about crime, and a perceived decline in safety, even if they cherished symbols of Britain.

The UAE’s status as a global trading hub and the huge strides the country has taken across myriad fields – in the digital sphere, science, research, media, retail, transport, you name it – have enabled it to become a magnet for finance, commerce and innovation funding. The UAE was once largely perceived in London as a bridge for trade between Europe, the US and Asia. That is still true, but now it has a burgeoning dynamic, constantly evolving and entrepreneurial ecosystem behind it.

Ms Della-Ragione and her close circle of expat friends knew what they were leaving behind when they quit the UK. She was leading a full-on lifestyle in London, working, partying and living in a flat in the super-trendy, buzzing Shoreditch area.

Her departure to the Gulf coincided with the Covid pandemic and global lockdown measures. She had a job offer as a marketing director, and, keen for a change, she took it.

Now 38, she lives in the Al Zeina area of Abu Dhabi, near Yas Island. She’s a consultant and GCC communications specialist, while her husband, Lawrence Hunt, works for Deloitte Abu Dhabi. They have an 11-month-old son.

She is one of many to have taken the plunge and moved from the UK to the Gulf. Soon, depending on what the UK's Chancellor Rachel Reeves unveils in the budget this week, many others may be convinced to follow suit.

The flow of people in the UK seeking new opportunities in the UAE has increased, part