Findings of the 2012 Expat Explorer survey reveal that the Middle East provides a more challenging environment in which to raise children, with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE ranking in the bottom half of this year's Raising Children Abroad league table.
Social integration is one of the areas where expat parents in the Middle East reported their children had most difficulty. Six out of ten expat parents in Saudi Arabia reported that the social integration of their children had become worse since relocating, as did those in Kuwait (40%) and the UAE (34%), all of which is well above average (26%).
With poor social integration comes a higher propensity for expat children in the Middle East to spend more time playing video games and watching TV. In Saudi Arabia, nearly half (47%) of children spend more time playing video games than they did in their home country, and the story is the same for the UAE (44%) and Kuwait (33%). The region also ranks among the highest for the amount of time spent watching TV, with Saudi Arabia taking the top spot (63%), closely followed by the UAE and Kuwait (48% respectively). This is compared to just 31% on average.
A possible explanation for this may be the severe temperatures that are common in the Middle East outside of the winter months where temperatures can often reach 40 degrees Celsius . The need to keep children indoors and away from the scorching heat could be a factor in the increasing likelihood of watching TV and playing video games. Perhaps as a consequence of the limited social integration and need to concentrate on indoor activities, expat children in the Middle East are likely to be missing home, especially in Kuwait (55%), Saudi Arabia (51%) and the UAE (38%).
When it comes to the cost of raising children abroad (childcare), expat parents in the Middle East are most likely to report an increase since relocation, especially in the UAE (77%), Saudi Arabia (70%) and Kuwait (67%) which forms the top three nations across all expat locations for this measure. Expat parents in the UAE in particular see the cost of children's education (86%) and the overall cost of raising children (87%) being more expensive when compared to the expat parents' home country.
