Living in Oman

Oman moves at a quieter pace than its Gulf neighbors, and that carries through to working life. The pay is high and none of it is lost to income tax, and while costs are not low, a salary still ends the month ahead, if not by a wide margin. Work for newcomers concentrates in engineering, healthcare, and construction, and landing a role usually means being recruited for it rather than finding it cold. English covers those fields, though Arabic and a little patience go further here than in the faster Gulf hubs.

Oman's population is shaped heavily by migration in: 2.1M foreign-born residents account for 39% of everyone in the country, a workforce drawn from South Asia — India (803.1K) and Bangladesh lead, with Pakistan next. That immigrant population, largely contract labor, has grown 25% over the past decade, while Omanis abroad number only about 17K.