ABSTRACT
The 1973 oil boom and the subsequent undertaking of an unprecedented number of development projects in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries led to an extremely rapid increase in the demand for foreign labour (Arnold and Shah 1986; Eelens, Schampers and Speckmann 1991; Shah and Menon 1999). As a result, people from relatively labour-surplus but capital-poor countries of Maghreb, Mashreq and South and South East Asia have joined the labour markets of the GCC countries since the early 1970s (Shah 1994; Simel and Smith 2004). Over the decades, the GCC countries (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, and the UAE) have emerged as a relatively permanent destination for migrant workers. In 2008, migrant workers were estimated to form nearly 77 per cent of the total labour force in the GCC countries (Baldwin-Edwards 2011: 9; Winckler 2010: 12).
