Courtesy of Kate Phillipson
- Kate Phillipson moved from the UK to Bahrain in 2020 with her navy-sailor boyfriend at the time.
- Now single, she's since started a new career and loves her life in the tiny island nation.
- She says Bahrain is safe and sunny and she has a better work-life balance than she did in London.
When Kate Phillipson told her family she was moving to Bahrain, they were shocked, as it's a conservative country whose state religion is Islam and near war-torn areas of the Middle East. "But the perception they had, that I had, about the area? It couldn't be farther from the truth," Phillipson told Insider.
The 31-year-old Briton arrived in 2020 with her then-boyfriend, a navy sailor, after he was transferred there, and she chose to follow him. Now single, she works in the luxury-interior-design business as a marketing manager.
Phillipson is part of a group of expats who've moved to this tiny nation, which sits 16 miles off the coast of Saudi Arabia. Many are lured by the sunshine and a lifestyle similar to Dubai's.
Phillipson describes life in Bahrain as idyll — as it is for many educated, mostly Western professionals who have arrived in Bahrain like her. The life of more than half of her fellow residents is very different, as that's the number estimated to be migrant workers from South Asia who hold jobs in the construction and service industries on low wages.
There's no legally mandated minimum wage for non-nationals and one estimate indicated that more than 70% of those working in the private sector there earn less than $530 per month. Many arrive under private sponsorship — a system known in the region as "kafala" — which creates greater potential for abuse, an issue that's an ongoing area of concern for non profits like Human Rights Watch.
Work is very different in Bahrain — not just how to find a job but also when you're on the clock
Phillipson said moving for her wasn't difficult — UK citizens, as well as US passport holders, can obtain a visa on arrival.
She had worked in marketing in London and assumed it would be easy to segue into a similar position. But she applied for several roles without success, so instead, she took a job as a VIP hostess at Solymar Beach, a St. Tropez-inspired beach club.
It was through a customer there that she networked her way in May into her current role at Lightex, which acts as an intermediary between high-end interiors firms in France, Italy, and the like and the local Bahraini market.
"It was a culture difference because I come from the world of grad schemes and formal processes," she said. "But here, it's very much who you know, not what you know. So many of my friends have ended up in these amazing jobs that way."
There's also a much-stronger work-life balance, she said, with less expectation to be on call outside office hours compared with her London life.
Her workweek runs Sunday through Thursday, as is typical in the Middle East.
"I'll be back at work, and my friends in England are having roast dinners, messaging me about what they're doing," she said. "But you get adjusted to it, and if we have a big project with a big deadline, we might take the odd work call from Europe on a Friday. You have to be fairly flexible."
There are 2 major upsides to living there: safety and sunshine
Courtesy of Kate Phillipson
Phillipson said the rest of her life is a marked improvement on her day-to-day in dreary London: "I see sunshine pretty much every single day, and I don't know anywhere in the UK that would be possible — it makes such a difference in your mood and energy levels."
She misses little about her former home, and it's a direct six-hour flight to see her friends and family, she said.
"My mum came to visit last year," she said. "She loved it, and she said, 'I understand why you love it here now.'"
She added that Bahrain is easier for a young woman than anywhere she'd been in Europe.
"I've never felt safer in my life," she said. "When I worked in hospitality, I might finish at 1:30 or 2:00 in the morning, and I'd walk back to my apartment and go for a run at 3:00 a.m. if I didn't want to sleep yet. There's not really anywhere in the UK I would feel comfortable doing that."
Phillipson said she regularly leaves her purse and keys on a café table when going inside to order or chat with the owner.
"I'd never in my wildest dreams worry about someone taking anything," she said, because punishments for crime are so severe.
On the weekend, Bahrain becomes the Middle East's answer to Las Vegas
A restrictive dress code for women is another Middle Eastern tradition that's much less widespread in Bahrain than in many adjoining, majority-Muslim countries, Phillipson said.
"I'm aware that I have to be a little more conservatively dressed than in London," she said. "But Bahrain is very liberal."
It's also a hot spot for many young Saudis each weekend.
"I remember a young Saudi guy saying to me, 'This is our Las Vegas,'" she said. "They come every weekend if they have the money. They want to be able to drink, have nice dinners, and dress a little bit more Westernized."
The country's attitude toward alcohol is markedly more relaxed than that of many nearby Gulf states with similar demographics. Alcohol is not sold in supermarkets and malls, Phillipson said, but there are designated stores where you can buy it to take home and drink at your house, and restaurants and bars sell alcohol, too.
Visiting rooftop bars is a big part of Phillipson's life. She said that she's found the international residents in Bahrain very welcoming and has easily made friends — in her close circle, she counts Turkish, Saudi, Azeri, and Ethiopian incomers, as well as fellow Britons.
Phillipson plans to stay long term
Phillipson said her salary is lower than it would be in a comparable role in Europe, but she has more spending power.
"My disposable income is a lot higher, so I feel better off even though I'm earning less," she said, adding that a two-bedroom luxury apartment like hers typically cost between $900 and $1,000 in rent a month. The average rent in London, in comparison, sits at about £2,700, or about $3,300.
"The pace of life is slower and more comfortable out here," she said. "I'd not even heard of it before I moved here, but I don't have any plans on leaving anytime soon."