Milan, Maldives, NZ?: Where expat escapees from Dubai are heading

by · Australian Financial Review

The Economist
May 20, 2026 – 2.51pm

Life in Dubai used to be about as blissful as white-collar expatriate existence gets. The private schools are good, beaches pretty, flight connections plentiful and booze legal (so long as you are not Emirati or Muslim). Expats face no income tax, so no pesky inspections of their finances; no ostracism, so Chinese crypto millionaires and Russian oligarchs can mingle with Western bankers, Arab property moguls and Israeli entrepreneurs; and no rain, so the only thing they need to worry about is the SPF factor of their sunscreen.

All that remains true nearly three months after America and Israel attacked Iran across the Gulf. But those advantages must now be weighed against the risk of Iranian missiles and drones raining down on hotels, condos or, as appears to have been the case on May 18, the sole Emirati nuclear power plant.

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