Opportunity knocks. The sense of relief is obvious in some economic sectors in Lebanon that have suffered from a so-called brain drain, such as tourism, hospitality and engineering.

Roger Sabbagh, general manager of contracting company Betabat, wasn’t surprised to receive more than 60 responses in a month – 30 percent of them from Dubai – for a job advertisement he posted online in December. “Before the crisis, we would receive six or seven answers, nothing significant,” he says, adding he recruited two of these candidates. “Others had already been hired when we called them back.”

For several years, Lebanon had been suffering from a shortage of engineers. Most graduates were immediately hired in booming Gulf states. “It had reached a point where the quality of the work in Lebanon was affected,” says Sabbagh. “With expatriates coming back here, performance will improve.”

But in industries that have been most affected by the crisis, there’s simply no room for newcomers. Banking and financial services, and real estate are already overstaffed. Students who obtained degrees in banking or finance hoping to find jobs abroad, may not even be able to find one in Lebanon today. “Now they’re lost,” Chaaban says.

The same can be said for other areas. Lebanon’s tight employment market doesn’t have much to offer. Among the Lebanese being dismissed globally, al-Haj stresses that many are between 40 and 50 years old. “These are the people most hurt,” he says.

Many of those laid off by Dubai government-owned Emaar Properties were Lebanese, he adds. Some of them, “used to make salaries of $40,000 to $50,000 per month. They won’t find such salaries in Lebanon, and they won’t be able to go back to the Gulf as most countries there don’t accept immigrants aged over 45,” al-Haj says. “Nor should they expect to easily find a job in Lebanon.”

“Lebanon is dominated by family-owned corporations where positions are given according to kinship,” says Chaaban. “This is the kind of environment that made expatriates leave.”

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