ABSTRACT
South Asia’s long historical and cultural links with the Gulf goes back to ancient times when West Asian ports were a key element in maritime trade. The discovery of oil and the economic rise of the GCC countries attracted a huge influx of migrant workers from South Asian countries, particularly India, to the Gulf. At present, out of 15 million expatriates in the Gulf region, South Asians constitute around 9.5 million (Ozaki, 2012). Of these, Indians are the largest group. The historical linkages, colonial domination, religious and cultural proximity, poverty, unemployment, political instability and insurgency in the South Asian countries are some of the factors that have led to this large influx to GCC states. Kapiszewski (2006) argues that at the international milieu West Asia has been always a major destination of labour migration, particularly the GCC countries. At present, in the Gulf countries, migrants constitute nearly 48 per cent of the total population (GLMM, 2014). In the 19th century, the British administration recruited skilled work-
ers from the Indian subcontinent to the Gulf region at the clerical and secretarial positions for the smooth functioning of colonial administration (Jain, 2006). Later, with the development of the oil industry, it had provided an additional need for workers in the clerical as well as skilled and semi-skilled manual occupations. As the local labour available in the region was scarce, or had limited experience in industrial employment, oil companies were obliged to import large number of foreign workers in the above said categories. The South Asia region, especially India, receives the largest amount of remittances, particularly from the Gulf.
