Where Middle East Nationals Go
Top & emerging destinations
Hover over a highlighted country for its complete category list.
Gulf Countries refers to Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.
Free movement, not labor migration
Gulf Countries
Under the 1981 GCC (Gulf Coast Council) Unified Economic Agreement, citizens of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE can enter and stay in any other member state for up to 180 days a year using only a national ID card, with rights to work and own property on par with local citizens. As a result, the expat experience for wealthy Gulf nationals looks less like labor migration and more like investment migration: Saudi and Qatari nationals have still been driving a documented rise in UAE Golden Visa applications and Dubai real estate purchases since 2023, seeking long-term legal certainty, tax-free income, and a diversification hedge beyond their home market. Regionally, Gulf nationals make up less than 18% of the roughly 32 million people working across the six GCC countries, reflecting how thoroughly the bloc's economies run on non-citizen labor.
Four countries, four distinct patterns
The Levant
Israeli-born emigrants specifically jumped about 50% between 2022 and 2024, with a notably more educated profile than earlier waves, alongside a large share of recent immigrants from the former Soviet Union re-emigrating onward. The U.S. remains the top destination, with Europe, Germany in particular, the fastest-growing destination. Israel's core immigration structure is around returning to Israel and not emigrating from it. However, Israel does allow dual citizenship and a temporary rule allowing dual citizens to enter and exit on a foreign passport rather than an Israeli one has repeatedly been extended since it was first introduced around 2022 and most recently through December 31, 2026.
Around 7,000 Palestinians leave the West Bank and Gaza each year due to educational opportunities, living conditions, and jobs, distinct from displacement due to conflict in the country and the region. Jordan is the most common destination, followed by the U.S., and then the Gulf. Of the Gulf countries, historically, Palestinians have overwhelmingly emigrated to the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Qatar; that trend continues with the exception of Kuwait post the Gulf War. Most Palestinians from the West Bank also hold Jordanian passports, enabling them to enter Gulf labor markets as Jordanian nationals on ordinary work-residency terms.
As of 2022, the latest available public information, Jordanians abroad are estimated at over 2 million spread across roughly 70 countries, with 75% of that population residing in Gulf countries — a pattern set in motion by the 1970s Gulf oil boom's demand for skilled labor from a country with far fewer natural resources of its own.
Syria's pre-2011 emigration saw an elite wave in the late 1950s, then much larger Gulf- and Lebanon-bound labor migration from the 1970s onward that had placed over 600,000 Syrians in Gulf countries by 2011. That labor-driven trend continues today to Gulf countries, Iraq, and Egypt, alongside Syria's far larger displacement due to conflict.
The Lebanese diaspora is almost triple the size of Lebanon's population and spans 96 countries with about 8% retaining Lebanese citizenship. The historic diaspora is concentrated mainly in Brazil then Argentina. Since Lebanon's 2019 economic collapse, more than 220,000 people left in 2025 alone with Canada, Germany, and France now the top preferred destinations.
Brain drain and a settled diaspora
Iran & Türkiye
Iran's loss of educated and skilled citizens driven by internal and external conditions is estimated to cost the country around $50 billion a year, among the largest brain-drain costs of any country in the world. Healthcare is a specific area of concern with roughly 100 to 150 nurses emigrating every month; 6,500 doctors and medical specialists left in 2022 alone. The U.S. is a destination for slightly more than 30% of all Iranians abroad. Nearly 60% of Iranian expats in the U.S. held at least a bachelor's degree as of 2019. There is a recent sharp acceleration in Iranian students and professionals moving abroad, reported within Iran as a serious concern for the country's long-term talent base.
The majority of expats from Türkiye are in continental Europe. The largest single community traces to a 1961 labor-recruitment agreement with West Germany, under which roughly 650,000 Turkish "guest workers" (Gastarbeiter) arrived over the program's 12-year run expecting to eventually return home; most did not. Family reunification and later naturalization resulted in those Turkish expats now forming Germany's largest ethnic-minority community. Significant Turkish communities have also formed in France and the Netherlands under similar mid-20th-century labor-recruitment programs.
Before you relocate
Planning in advance
Relocating abroad brings practical questions well beyond the move itself — from banking access and remittances, to healthcare coverage, tax obligations, and citizenship status. Dual citizenship policies vary sharply across the Middle East: Lebanon, Israel, and Türkiye permit it freely, while Iran does not recognize a citizen's foreign nationality at all while that person is in Iran. Five of the 6 Gulf countries — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman — prohibit dual citizenship outright while the UAE allows very limited exceptions permitting dual citizenship.
- Building credit history abroad from scratch is a common hurdle for expats, since credit profiles generally do not transfer internationally on their own. A secured card and consistent on-time payments remain the standard starting point in a new country.
- Since the 2019 financial collapse, Lebanese banks have restricted withdrawals from pre-crisis dollar deposits, effectively trapping savings inside the banking system at a steep informal discount to their real value. Expats with existing Lebanese bank accounts should treat those balances as largely inaccessible rather than as available funds for a relocation budget.
- Iranian and Syrian nationals relocating abroad often face bank account denials or closures as foreign banks, including major international ones, have closed or restricted accounts held by people with Iranian or Syrian ties as a compliance response to sanctions risk, i.e. "de-risking." This has even affected long-settled Iranians with no remaining Iran ties at all.
- Informal hawala-style transfer networks remain common for Iranian and Syrian expats specifically, largely because international sanctions have restricted formal banking channels into both countries; these networks operate on trust rather than a paper trail, which carries real counterparty risk that formal remittance services do not.
- Remittances make up an outsized share of GDP for Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine, about 17.7%, 9%, and 19% respectively. Transfer costs take a significant portion of remittances sent: fees plus the exchange-rate spread on bank-only or traditional-provider transfers commonly run 3–7% of the amount — meaning currency and banking instability at home directly affects how, and how much, expats can practically send back.
- Gulf countries levy no personal income tax on residents or citizens. GCC nationals moving to a country with income taxation should budget for a real, first-time tax burden rather than assuming their home country's rules carry over.
- Iran maintains strict currency and capital controls that complicate moving personal wealth out of the country ahead of relocation creating obstacles for expats from Iran looking to transfer funds. Consult a cross-border tax and currency-control specialist before relocating.
- Israel treats departure as a taxable event for emigrants: once someone stops being an Israeli tax resident, they are deemed to have sold their worldwide assets at market value on that date, triggering capital-gains tax of up to 35% on the resulting paper gain; the impact of this should be evaluated before departure.
- Türkiye has bilateral social security agreements with Germany, Austria, and Switzerland that extend to healthcare, not just pensions, letting long-term Turkish workers in those countries access the public health system rather than relying solely on private coverage. Turkey's agreements with France and the Netherlands primarily cover pensions and unemployment benefits.
- Israeli citizens living abroad who stop paying National Insurance (Bituach Leumi) contributions risk losing recognized resident status, which can mean a multi-month waiting period to regain public healthcare coverage if and when they return.