A number of Greeks are looking abroad for a better future. This time, however, they aren’t looking at places like Australia, America or Canada to retreat to but to the “new York of the East’. A number have already succeeded, winning the respect of locals. Three Greek women talk to Proto Thema about their decision to migrate to the “muslim Disneyland” and technical paradise that they have chosen to make their home.

Yiota Kanli, 31 years old
Selling Handmade Devices

Yiota Kanli held reception duties at the Hard Rock Cafe at Glyfada when the crisis struck. She traveled from Menidi to Glyfada daily for work which was hard enough, but delays in getting paid soon meant that she didn’t have enough money for gas. While trying to find another job, she whimsically also sent a CV to low-cost airline Fly Dubai that wanted attractive Europeans. She states that the interview with the airline didn’t lead to a recruitment, however she decided to stay. There were plenty of opportunities and within two weeks she was hired to manage a well-known store in Dubai that sells Handmade Mobile Phone Devices that are adorned with gold, diamonds and other styles. The starting cost of each device is at around 2,000 euros with clients being rich Arabs willing to splurge well over thousands of euros for a phone.

“You learn a lot about their character and philosophy as you serve them,” she says, adding. “They see women like merchandise, especially good-looking ones. To attract you, they show their money because they feel that money can buy everything. Perhaps the problem is that most Europeans are willing to be bought in Dubai.”

Her Iranian manager who owns another ten companies gives her a salary of 1,600 euros per month. She also gets bonuses that could lift her salary to 3,000-4,000 euros. She says that there isn’t the time or the inclination for true friendships and she misses home.

Milena Martinou, 31 years old
Personal trainer at palaces

She trains rich wives to protect themselves in the street while also giving their bodies a good workout. Her clients learnt he basic techniques of kick boxing and martial arts and as a result they even win the respect of their hardcore husbands. She states, however, that real respect was not forthcoming from the moment she set foot on the rich persian rugs of the palaces of Dubai and it took a lot of time and sweat.

“Arabs, especially the more conservative ones, initially look at you with hesitation,” she says. “When they trust you, however, they invite you home to train their wives.”

Despite the difficulties she isn’t interested in returning to Greece, especially bearing in mind that a trainer in Dubai gets 70 euros per hour whereas in Athens the amount is half and even less, provided the trainer even finds people willing to pay money for a personal trainer.

Apart from personal training she works at a state company that leases yachts and luxury jets. She states that these public sector jobs are reserved for the locals rather than foreigners, but “if you manage to get recruited after passing a number of interviews then you know what it is like to work in a practically perfect work environment as far as conditions are concerned.”

Katerina Yiatagani, 26 years old
Magazine Corporate Saleswoman

The young woman says it was love at first site with Dubai in 2008. Her first job was working as a nanny for a businesswoman who had invited her to the city. She had trained in Business Management at the Technical Education Institute of Athens and Fashion & Luxury Product Management at the European School of Economics in Milan and soon found her niche in the rich country. She currently works as a saleswoman and handles the social media marketing of fashion brands via Facebook on the page Funshion.

She states that she is the only European in the company. She said that she got the job for that reason. “You look Lebanese but you are European and we need the European mentality,” her boss had said when she was recruited.

Regarding the role of women in Arab society, Ms. Yiatagani has a lot to say. “Many things have happened from time to time,” she says. “The peak happened with a family from Pakistan. A man sent his wife, that had their children with her by the way, to tell me how much her husband likes my hair and ask me if I was interested in being his girlfriend!”