ABSTRACT
Asian migration to the Gulf States constitutes the world’s largest temporary migration corridor. The six oil-rich countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) – Saudi Arabia, Oman, UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, and Kuwait – host over 25 million foreign citizens, drawn primarily from south and southeast Asia. Persistent mass migration since the 1970s has contributed immensely to economic transformation in the Gulf as immigrant labour has assisted the conversion of oil revenues into infrastructure and development projects. It has facilitated the spectacular rise of cities such as Dubai and Doha, while remittances and return migration have had deep and complex impacts on the migrant- origin countries. Migration to the Gulf States has also been associated with limited citizenship and labour rights leading to a dual structure between nationals and foreign citizens and frequent reports of harsh working conditions. This contradiction between sizable payoffs for the origin and destination countries and substantial concerns over citizenship and labour rights has been at the heart of the discourse on migration and development in the Gulf context. Lockdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated the vulnerabilities faced by temporary migrant workers since few were employed in jobs that could be done from home.
