How expat ‘goodwill ambassadors’ could help the UAE

The millions of expatriates who have called this country home have the potenial to be great ambassadors for the UAE, writes Peter Hellyer

Those people that have called the UAE home in the past can be great adovcates when they return home. Kamran Jebreili / AP Photo

Last week, I heard from two friends that they would be leaving the UAE after many years of living in Abu Dhabi. I’ll be sorry to see them go. I wish them well as they head towards what I hope will be a long and successful retirement in Britain, but didn't feel able to chide them for going. I can't blame them if they feel that the challenges that brought them here and kept them here are somehow no longer sufficient for them to resist the call to return home.

I also met last week, for the first time in decades, an acquaintance from India whom I first encountered more than 35 years ago. He moved on and is now an elder statesman in his profession.

He hadn't been to Abu Dhabi for years and was keen to share his views on the progress that has been made over the years since he left. It was clear that his years here had left an indelible and favourable impression on him.

All can be broadly classed as “Expatriate ex-Emiratis”, a term I've invented to apply not to UAE citizens who are living abroad, but to members of the expatriate communities who, after living here for years, have moved on to pastures new or who have decided to return to their homeland.

Such people have demonstrated their commitment. They have helped to build the country of today, some have been born here and many have a deep and abiding love for it. How, I wonder, can that be nurtured at long distance? And are there ways in which that affection for the UAE can continue to contribute to the country in the years ahead?

I have observed with interest how Ireland, a country that counts its people among its best-known exports, has worked to foster the feeling of national identity among Irish men and women working overseas. In trade, in commerce, in culture and, yes, in political relations, that process has benefited the home country.

My “Expat ex-Emiratis” aren't quite in the same category – they are, of course, not UAE citizens. That doesn’t mean, however, that the UAE has not become part of them, or that the affection they have developed over time is not something of real value, to them and also to the country in which, for many years, they have made their home.

They will serve, like others before them, as advocates for the Emirates – advising the expatriate UAE residents of the future, sharing ideas on how to do business here, perhaps quietly informing the communities in which they reside or the politicians, academics and others whom they know.

In Britain, there is a proud, but sadly dwindling, number of veterans of the old Trucial Oman Scouts and the Abu Dhabi Defence Force who spent time here 40 or 50 years ago.

I have read their memoirs, I have heard the way in which they continue to be passionate supporters of the country, decades after they ceased to live here.

As the years have passed, the number of my “Expat ex-Emiratis” has grown exponentially. There are now millions of people who have spent years here, have helped to build the UAE and who, having returned home, still sing its praises.

I have no simple suggestions to offer. I have no easy solution for how we can tap into the fund of goodwill that they represent. I just believe that there is much that can be done, for the country's benefit, if these former residents can be turned into expat ambassadors to spread the word of how far the UAE has come, how much it has achieved over the past 45 years and how much, whatever shortcomings may still exist, they recall, with pleasure, their contribution to its development.

Peter Hellyer is a consultant specialising in the UAE’s history and culture