ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to review what is presently understood about labor migration to the Middle East, taking the perspective of the Asian labor-sending countries, and adopting a predominantly empirical stance. It aims to establish in broad terms the present situation with regard to the stocks and flows of Asian migrants working in the Middle East. This situation report is followed by a review of migrants’ characteristics and an assessment of some of the repercussions of the process in the labor-sending countries. A more alarming consequence of contract migration for human capital accumulation in the sending countries is the finding by Mansoor Ahmad that contract migration removes, albeit in the short run, those who best impart skills to others. The rationing process that results from the excess supply of workers seeking overseas jobs at the wages offered is likely to first draw off the better qualified workers, including those who serve as trainers in the informal sector.
