About 100 children die in the US every year in accidental shootings

@Cynosure

Some of those countries require assuming that Bourbon53 is a certain age group, and has certain views towards women and human rights (women still struggle for the right to choose what man to marry).

Bahamas, Marshall Islands, and Switzerland (low-income), and Hong Kong are more possibilities.

The problem with being vague on the internet, Bourbon53, is you make people curious. It's much easier to lie, which is why I'm a swedish chef meditating on new ways to freeze food in Antarctica with my husband, an arctic penguin.

True, that's a good point, I was assuming a certain rate of pay. In the UK, he would technically be on a 0% tax rate if he earned less than £10,600.

I do not think the Bahamas, Marshall Islands, or Switzerland are as realistic, however, as an expat in the Middle East. I say that, because I know of another poster here who fits this scenario exactly...

I can think of a lot of reasons someone would want to ex-pat to the middle east, none of them are good ones.

Can someone who is actually an ex-pat in the middle east educate me on some of them?

I like how cynosure almost pinpointed my exact location :P
I really don't care if people do find out i just like a bit of privacy :P.

@Sofi, a lot of people expat to Kuwait or Qatar, the gulf countries (kuwait, qatar, emirates ) aren't as backward as you make them out to be. besides that, the salaries are quite high.

P.S I may be biased as i'm not an expat but a local

@Bourbon53

My brother went to the Emirates and I researched the country's history extensively.
They're certainly much better than countries such as Pakistan, Saudi, Iraq, Iran, Etc., which give the rest of the middle east a horrible reputation.

However, I am aware of several humanitarian issues (I have two friends who left the Emirates, one is a woman who escaped an arranged marriage, the other was a labourer), so that does change how I see the country, and it makes me wonder why someone would expat from countries like the USA, UK, or Canada.

I would not call the Emirates and Kuwait backwards -- I would call them mixed, or troubled, like Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, Russia, USA, Etc.

My curiosity is what good reasons there are to expat to "troubled" countries such as Kuwait, UAE, Croatia, USA, etc. from Canada/UK/Germany/Etc., not including family or heritage.

I don't think salary is a good reason to expat. I'd rather be broke in Norway than rich in India.

@bourbon53

My brother's reasoning was not good, by the way.

Also, the USA should not be on the "expat from" list - the USA is pretty "troubled" itself and ex-pat makes more sense from there because of the lack of safety net.

Wait, your friend is an expat and was in an arranged marriage?
arranged marriage usually happen to preserve the family's wealth/heritage, so no expat should ever be worried about that :P.

Moving to Middle east may not be ideal, but i understand the reasons people chose so. the health system here is also undoubtedly better than the US.

No - My brother was an expat, my friend was in an arranged marriage.

I wasn't expecting you to be a local. I have perhaps, almost accidentally, by using information I assumed more likely, guessed where you live despite having the entirely wrong assumptions - I suppose I didn't expect - and still don't really expect, a local from the 0% tax rate countries that I know to speak such fluent English (exempting Sark/Jersey), despite the good standards of education (especially in the Middle East).

#64, the lives of expats is almost completely different to that of locals. Expats in the Middle East are a very useful commodity to the local markets. Growth, especially in petrochemical companies and engineering projects requires expertise that the local infrastructure cannot yet support, so experts must be flown in. They are given very attractive and generous pay packages.

From experience, I know that this will include world class health insurance, free gym memberships in exclusive members only clubs, free education or daycare for your children, and support finding suitable accommodation for 6 months. In addition to this, the pay is exceedingly generous, much more so than in many Western nations. An engineer in my family works for a large engineering company in the UAE, and earns 3x as much as he could in the UK.

As a law student, I have been tempted by UK law firms which work over there, as they have very attractive packages including - for example - a rate of pay which is £100,000 starting, beating the £32,000 average for a lawyer by a massive degree.

I am of course aware of the humanitarian and fundamental issues which divide my culture from the Middle East, however modern and progressive they may appear politically or diplomatically. But it is also very difficult to argue with a rate of pay which is sky high, with free gym membership, excellent health care, a bonus for moving, plus the employer matching what you pay into your pension at a 1.5x what you put in rate.

For every crime that is committed with a gun (about 500 000/yr in the US), about 4 million or so are prevented. As criminals tend not to obey laws, gun control tends to lead to more crime, not less, especially with a population that is an easy target due to a lack of effective self-defense measures (i.e. a gun).

Also, gun-free zones are magnets for school shooters (upwards of 90% of massacres in the US since 1980 have been in gun free zones).

John Lott is an academic who has done a ton of work on this over the years, www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMZtPj9xdN8 is a short Q&A that covers a lot of gun-control stuff.