Morag From Manama

INVARIABLY, and without a doubt, I have been ‘ripped off’ throughout my expat journey more times than I care to remember.

In the early days I was oblivious to being overcharged, because I’m a foreigner in a strange land but boy, oh boy, try and ‘rip me off’ now at your peril!

It’s frustrating, rude, racist and quite frankly my tolerance over these expat years has grown so thin that I may spontaneously combust in front of any perpetrator.

I had one of my expat ‘light bulb’ moments when living in Asia whilst standing chatting with a local friend in our children’s school playground at pick–up time. My friend was relaying her plans to buy yet another property nearby our popular international school so that she could ‘rip off more expats’. I kid you not; those were the words that rolled off her tongue.

I asked her, why would you do that? She replied with a smile: “It’s easy, why not? Expats come and take our jobs and get paid too much,” she replied with a smile.

This was my moment to bring some clarity into my friend’s narrow-minded life so that she may view expats in a different light in the future.

In that particular posting, I pointed out that we paid her government’s 28 per cent tax whilst she paid zero tax, yet we received no benefits but contributed heavily to her local economy.

We also paid inflated rents to landlords (obviously) and were charged a higher rate for electricity and water than the locals, whilst paying for education and health care needs.

I continued, my mind now racing as I blurted out how much we spent in hotels, restaurants, bars, supermarkets, malls, taxis, plus the hire of drivers and maids, all of which fed the local economy and helped provide jobs.

Did my friend get it? Sadly, she didn’t, and, like many others, continued to think that expats were taking and not making them money.

Here in Bahrain, I’m starting to feel that expats are being penalised more and more and it’s such short-sightedness, in my opinion.

Bahrain needs expats. They have in the past and today expats still contribute heavily to the kingdom’s economy.

Reports suggest another increase in electricity costs for expats to make up for any shortfall from a reduction in costs to Bahrainis. I visualised expats fleeing Bahrain, never to return.

Bahrain, you need to look at your long-term plan and not just how to recoup some quick extra dinars from a hard-working expat community.