ABSTRACT
This chapter examines those high-end workers who not only cross national boundaries, but are also crossing broad social, economic, and cultural boundaries. The experiences of non-Western expatriates in the West are highly varied. Some come as managers or high-end consultants earning six-figure salaries, no different from high-end Western expatriates. Others come in on the bottom rungs of the professional hierarchy. Professional Chinese women from elsewhere in China also enjoyed going to clubs and hanging out with expatriates, rather than with Shanghainese men, as they essentially share with expatriates a lifestyle and status as outsiders. For Western expatriates, Dubai and Shanghai and most other cities they go to are places for short-term financial and/or professional gain, and a place to try out a different lifestyle, essentially an extended holiday in a foreign locale where they can also earn money well in excess of what they received back home.
