Transnational Generations in the Arab Gulf States and Beyond

This book examines the recent migration phenomenon in the Arab Gulf states for work and residence. It sheds light on the transnationality of diverse groups of migrants from different generations, and unpacks how migrants’ multiple senses of belonging, orientations and adaptive strategies have shaped contemporary migration in the Gulf region. In turn, the analysis presented here shows how the Arab Gulf states’ citizenship and educational policies affect second-generation migrants in particular. Through a series of fine-grained ethnographic case studies, the authors demonstrate the ways in which these second-generation migrants construct their identities in relation to their putative ‘home’ country in the Gulf as well as their complex relationship to their parents’ countries of origin. This is what underpins the deeply transnational character of their lives, choices and notions of belonging. While migration scholars often situate these groups as ‘temporary’, this does not in fact capture the reality of temporariness for the migrants themselves, their children or their dependants. The result is a complex and ongoing construction of identity that shapes the way of life for millions of migrants. Relevant to scholars of migration and international studies, particularly focused on the Middle East, Transnational Generations in the Arab Gulf States and Beyond is also of interest to social scientists researching student mobility in higher education, intergenerational families, identity politics and globalisation.

Kyoko Matsukawa is a professor at the Faculty of Letters, Konan University, Kobe, Japan. She majored in cultural anthropology and completed her PhD at Osaka University with a thesis on the multilingual situation in Goan society, India. Her current research interests are the globalisation of Indian performing arts as well as transnational community and citizenship of Indian expatriates in Kuwait. Her recent publications include: Transnational community networks of Goan migrant workers. In Asian migrant workers in the Arab Gulf states: The growing foreign population and their lives, ed. Masako Ishii et al. (2019); and ‘This is our home, but we cannot stay here forever’: Second-generation Asian youths in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. In International labour migration in the Middle East and Asia, ed. Lian Kwen Fee et al. (2019) (coauthored with Naomi Hosoda).

Akiko Watanabe is an associate professor of anthropology and area studies at the Faculty of International Studies, Bunkyo University, Japan. She has conducted fieldwork in the Philippines and the Arab Gulf states, mainly in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, over a period of 10 years. Her research looks into normativity and connectedness of both Muslim converts and people born as Muslims in the Philippines in relation to overseas labour migration, the place of belonging of Asian women who have intermarried, and the representativeness of interethnic and interfaith relations. Her publications include: Intimacy and estrangement: Narratives of Filipino women workers married to foreign Muslims abroad. In Dynamics of marriage migration in Asia, ed. Kayoko Ishii (2014); Does religious conversion transcend the boundaries of multiple hierarchies? Filipino migrant workers’ embracing Islam in the UAE and Qatar. In Asian migrant workers in the Arab Gulf states, ed. Masako Ishii et al. (2019); and The complexities of social inclusion and exclusion among intermarried Filipino migrant workers in the United Arab Emirates. In International labour migration in the Middle East and Asia, ed. Lian Kwen Fee et al. (2019).

Zahra R. Babar is Associate Director for Research at the Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS), Georgetown University in Qatar. She has published widely on areas of her research expertise, most recently: The vagaries of the in-between: Labor citizenship in the Persian Gulf. International Journal of Middle East Studies 52(4) (2020); Improving the evidence on health inequities in migrant construction workers preparing for big sporting events. BMJ 374 (2021, with Andreas D. Flouris et al.); The 2022 World Cup and migrants’ rights in Qatar: Racialised labour hierarchies and the influence of racial capitalism. The Political Quarterly (2022, with Neha Vora); Qatar, the World Cup, and the global campaign for migrant workers’ rights. In Football in the Middle East: State, society, and the beautiful game, ed. Abdullah Al-Arian (2022); and Skilled migration to emerging economies: The global competition for talent beyond the West. Globalizations 19(2) (2022, with Michael C. Ewers et al.).