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Hello everyone! Greetings from Qatar! 🌍✨
I am writing this because today I am feeling quite emotional. Life as an expat worker here in Qatar is one big rollercoaster, honestly speaking! It is a complete melting pot of cultures. Literally everyone from every corner of the world is here. Because of my job in the banking sector, I am always getting to meet new friends from the Philippines, Kenya, Egypt, Nepal… everywhere! Now I can proudly say that I am having friends all over the globe. If I visit any country tomorrow, I have someone to call up for a coffee.
But you know, Qataris keep to themselves mostly. It is very difficult to mix with them. At the end of the day, we are considered as the working class only, even if we are doing good corporate jobs or working in IT. We are just the outsiders who are here to do the work and go back. Though I must say, I do have one Qatari friend at the bank! He works in a different department. We bonded because we both love computer games. He is a bit quiet compared to the others, but he is actually very ambitious. He plans to start his own tech company one day, and sometimes we sit and discuss ideas. But he is a rare exception – mostly, the locals and expats live in completely different worlds.
And that is where the real heartbreak happens. In this life, making friends is easy, but saying goodbye is the hardest part. Every few months, someone’s contract is getting over, or they are shifting to another country. Today my close friend left back to Manila. It is a genuine heartbreak, yaa. You get so close to people like family, and then suddenly they vanish.
It makes you feel very uncertain about the future also. Qatar has very strict nationalisation laws. No matter how many years you are staying here and working hard, you can never get citizenship or settle down permanently. One day, you must go back. The future is always like a question mark hanging over your head.
Because of this uncertainty, thinking about relationships and children gives me a lot of tension. If you fall in love with someone from another country here, what happens if visas get cancelled? And if I marry and have children, they can grow up in Doha, but they can never call it their own country. They will have to leave eventually just like me. It is a big stress to think about building a family on a foundation that can disappear any day. But I try my level best not to overthink all these things now! Otherwise, I will just sit and worry. I just tell myself to live in the present moment.
Every month on salary day, the first thing I do is transfer money back home to my parents. It takes up a major chunk of my earnings, but when I know I can comfortably take care of their medical bills and home expenses, my heart becomes full. Ultimately, taking care of family back home is the main reason why we do this expat life.
Some days, the only thing keeping us going is the thought of home! I am very lucky because I get to go home to India every year to see my family. But some of my friends who are working in construction or hospitality can only go once in two years. The good thing is, by Qatar law, the employer must pay for the flight ticket home. So when that ticket comes, everyone is celebrating!
For now, I am keeping my spirits high, meeting new people, and enjoying this global life while it lasts!
