Hello all

I have been toying with the idea of moving to Dubai for the past 2 years now that we have a small family (our daughter will be two this summer) the call/longing for a slower pace of life than working in the City of london is getting stronger by the day...

I am a bicultural woman of mixed descent (Arab/white European) with limited knowledge of arabic (can get by- understand it and speak a little but thats about it) and 7 years experience of working in the city of London. My husband is Asian (Pakistani) with same experience in the city of london. We both plan to work for multinationals- having both blue chip experience (me-pwc my husband-american investment bank) so it is not an issue of how is it to work for a local UAE company? rather how will we fit in?

I have heard all sort of horror stories about women working in banking who are not white- after all, the bias towards white professionals is still engrained in their DNA... Well, I am half-white but my name still doesn't ring that white anyway... so am pretty sure I will not fit in the white category.

Maybe it just doesnt matter which I sincerely hope- people are professional enough not to judge you on background and it is like the city of london, where anything goes....

And does it matter to be honest to fit in at all? I've heard that in multinationals there will still be one or two locals and they may influence the working culture- putting a bias in recruitment and advancement/promotion in general, favouring white professionals even if they have exactly the same qualifications/work experience?

This is shocking to me after working in the City of London for so long.

Another question is regarding our biultural marriage: Is it true that he will get a hard time for not being married to an Asian woman? Is is true that we are likely to be ostracised by both Asian expat community and the locals?

Having both lived 10 years in London and worked for 6 to 7 years in the City of London at blue chip banks and accounting firms, should we expect a hard period of re-adjustment? Will people/locals perceptions make it difficult for us to have successful careers promotions etc?

A lot of the threads are about white women but am not sure that will apply to me> please enlighten me!!