Histories of Migration to the Gulf

Omar AlShehabi

Understanding Gulf Migration

This introductory chapter discusses the historical roots and evolution of the extreme reliance on temporary migrant workers in the six states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). It focuses, in detail, on the most important changes that the region's population structure has experienced from the start of the oil era up to the first decade of the twenty-first century. Hence, this chapter aims to lay out the historical backdrop that underpins much of the analysis covered in subsequent chapters. Particular attention is given to areas of similarity within the individual experiences of each of the GCC states. The intention is to present a broad framework for understanding the rise of a demographic system between citizen and non-citizen populations that could be best summarised as 'restricted citizenship with unrestricted migration', and to shed light on the most important factors that contributed to its development.

The main focus will be on detailing the mutually constitutive relationship that exists between the GCC's modern population structure and the oil revolution that took place in the Gulf. Indeed, the economic and political system that accompanied the oil revolution formed the very foundations of the demographic dynamics we find in the region today. The chapter's main thesis is that the demographic structure was the result of two often overlapping but sometimes conflicting projects: the construction of a 'petro-modernist state' in each of the GCC countries, combined with the establishment of capitalism as the dominant (but not the only) economic mode of production. Both of these projects were to be driven by rising oil revenues and migrant labour flowing into the region.

The GCC economies are firmly embedded within the global economy, based primarily on the region boasting the largest and cheapest proven global reservoir of crude oil. Ever since commercial exportation of Gulf oil took off in the latter half of the twentieth century, the region has received the highest windfall of petrodollars of any oil producers in the world. This centrality to the global economy is mirrored domestically by the dominant role the state plays within the national economies of the GCC. The state, and particularly influential members of the ruling families, has large control over how the oil revenue is to be spent domestically. This is complemented with an elite class of investors, often also members of the royal families, who control the main economic opportunities that arose from the windfall of petrodollars.

The GCC's demographic profile came to reflect the internal and external aspects of this resultant economic and political structure, which, by opening the doors to unrestricted migration while restricting citizenship, segmented the population into groups of 'citizens' and 'expatriates', and used the region's population to service this political-economic configuration. From the perspective of citizens of the GCC countries, this post-oil historical period has been characterised by a decline in their political influence and their participation in economic production. This has reached a point where, by the start of the twenty-first century, nationals represented less than half of the workforce in any of the GCC countries, and their productive roles were primarily confined to employment in the public sector or financial services. However, the upside of this situation was that citizens, and only citizens, were provided with the benefits of an increasingly generous welfare state, providing free or subsidised services, opportunities for mass consumerism, as well as the ability to establish small and medium enterprises. These benefits were obtained through a notion of citizenship founded on loyalty to the state, which came to be largely identified with the ruling families, by now firmly embedded as the apex of the local political system.

In tandem, regional capital's growing need for labour was fulfilled by facilitating the entry of foreign workers. The GCC's doors were opened wide to migrant workers who not only became the central pillar of the region's workforce, but also came to form the majority of the population within most Gulf States. Strict measures, however, were put in place to control expatriate integration and to reduce their power in the region's economic and political activities. These measures served to prevent them, as non-citizens, from settling permanently, from forming trade unions, and from capital ownership. Thus, the population structure was formed by, and in service to, the demands of an economic and political structure that evolved in tandem with the discovery of oil in the region. This demographic restructuring continued until the region began to resemble what some scholars have called a collection of scattered 'labour camps', rather than a set of cohesive and integrated societies (Al Kuwari, 2004a).

The First Oil Boom, 1931–1973

The population in what came to constitute the GCC was estimated at the start of the twentieth century to be approximately two million, of which about 900,000 were concentrated on the western shores of the Gulf and Oman (Seccombe and Lawless, 1987: 4). The cultural, historical and geographical scope of the region sits within an Arab and Islamic identity, but within this overarching framework it is considered one of the most culturally, ethnically and historically diverse parts of the globe, encompassing three continents that formed the ancient world. By virtue of this hyper-connectivity to the rest of the world, the Gulf's economies developed predominantly around commercial and entrepôt trade posts. The region is also distinguished as an important religious centre, being the birthplace and containing the two holy sites of Islam. As an historic point of convergence between different cultures and civilizations, most of the region's settled communities developed based on exchanges with the wider world, which naturally...