The discourse on migration outcomes in the West has largely been dominated by issues of integration, but it is more relevant to view immigration in non-Western societies in relation to practices of exclusion and inclusion. Exclusion refers to a situation in which individuals and groups are usually denied access to the goods, services, activities and resources associated with citizenship. However, this approach has been criticised in relation to gender issues, which are very relevant to the situation of migrants. The authors in this volume address this criticism. Furthermore, when framed within a North–South discourse, it may be potentially ethnocentric to assume that the experience of exclusion is cross-culturally uniform. Indeed, work on migration issues has invariably been conducted within such a discourse. The contributors go beyond this binary discourse of ‘exclusion versus inclusion’ which has dominated migration research. They examine the situation of migrants in the Middle East and Asia as one that encompasses both exclusion and inclusion, addressing related concepts of empowerment, ethnocracy, the feminisation of migration and gendered geographies of power, liberal constraint and multiculturalism, individual agency, migrant-friendly discourses, spaces of emancipation and spaces of insecurity. The book highlights current research in the Arab Gulf states, and examines multiculturalism in Asia more broadly. It will be of particular interest to students and researchers in international labour migration studies in the Middle East and Asia.

The discourse on migration outcomes in the West has largely been dominated by issues of integration, but it is more relevant to view immigration in non-Western societies in relation to practices of exclusion and inclusion. Exclusion refers to a situation in which individuals and groups are usually denied access to the goods, services, activities and resources associated with citizenship. However, this approach has been criticised in relation to gender issues, which are very relevant to the situation of migrants. The authors in this volume address this criticism. Furthermore, when framed within a North-South discourse, it may be potentially ethnocentric to assume that the experience of exclusion is cross-culturally uniform. Indeed, work on migration issues has invariably been conducted within such a discourse. The contributors go beyond this binary discourse of 'exclusion versus inclusion' which has dominated migration research. They examine the situation of migrants in the Middle East and Asia as one that encompasses both exclusion and inclusion, addressing related concepts of empowerment, ethnocracy, the feminisation of migration and gendered geographies of power, liberal constraint and multiculturalism, individual agency, migrant-friendly discourses, spaces of emancipation and spaces of insecurity. The book highlights current research in the Arab Gulf states, and examines multiculturalism in Asia more broadly. It will be of particular interest to students and researchers in international labour migration studies in the Middle East and Asia.

Taking a wide-ranging view of international labour migration, Gardezi gives us deeper insight into the transfers of labour by analyzing the political economy of the countries where labour groups originate. He focuses on the conditions under which labour power is reproduced and used. The case study further reveals that the myth of migrants returning home with savings, knowledge and a longing for material success is more wishful thinking. While former studies on labour migration concentrate on its effect on GNP, and foreign exchange earnings, Gardezi refocusses attention on the migrant workers themselves, their hopes and aspirations, community life, and the working conditions both at home and abroad.

Labor migration from Asia to the oil-exporting countries in the Middle East has burgeoned in the last decade to a current level of over two million workers. Because foreign labor contracts have become a potent source of foreign exchange to the sending countries in Asia as well as a safety valve for high unemployment, the export of labor has become

During the recent Gulf War, the extent of the migrant worker phenomenon in the Middle East was highlighted by the plight of tens of thousands of Asian and North African men and women fleeing from Kuwait and Iraq. The harrowing images and reports spreading across the world from the hastily constructed refugee camps demonstrated the vulnerability of the economic and social position of this floating labour force, whose living conditions are the subject of this wide-ranging study. The authors of Labour Migration to the Middle East have mainly based their work on labour migrants from Sri Lanka, which shows a number of interesting characteristics when compared to other labour-exporting countries. No less than 1.3% of the Sri Lankan population work in the Middle East, of which 70% are women working mainly in the domestic sector. Solid sociological and anthropological research is the basis for a detailed examination of various social, economic and demographic aspects of the processes of labour migration from Sri Lanka to the Gulf States. The book opens with an introduction to the topic of labour migration, and presents the concept of survival migration, which is considered a main characteristic of the Sri Lankan case. The work goes on to describe the recruiting process and the level of fees which migrants have to pay for a job abroad; the policy of the Gulf States with regard to labour migration; the socio-economic conditions of the Sri Lankan migrant workers; the socio-economic position and religious status of Sri Lankan Muslim women migrating to the Gulf; the impact of labour migration on Sri Lankan society--specifically on social stratification, social mobility, household structure, marriage stability and the well-being of children--and conditions which lead to the early return of migrants. Labour Migration to the Middle East makes an important contribution to the scientific and social reflection on the global phenomenon of labour migration.

This edited volume contains sixteen chapters by eminent scholars on one of the largest migration corridors in the world i.e., between South and South-East Asia and the Gulf region. Asia’s trade and cultural contact with the Gulf date back to ancient historical times. Since the 1970s, the economic rise of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries owing to the discovery of oil has inspired a huge influx of migrant workers from Asia. At present, out of roughly 15 million expatriates in the Gulf region, Asians constitute around 12 million (80 percent). The chapters in this book look at migration from countries like India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia and Philippines to the different GCC countries. A few chapters also focus on migration from the India state of Kerala- a state where migration to the Gulf is prominent and where remittances make up over 36 percent of the state GDP. Furthermore, the issues covered range from labour practices and policies, citizenship and state protection, human rights, gender and caste as well as diaspora. This book explores the multifaceted nuances of the ‘Asia-Gulf migratory corridor’ and unearths future prospects and strategic implications. The book examines remittance behaviour, changing gender roles of immigrants, social-spatial mobility, migrant policies, human rights, sense of belonging and identity and perception, and the interaction between nationals and non-nationals. The book will be of interest to researchers in the areas of demography, migration and gender studies as well as social science researchers, policy makers, human rights lawyers, civil society institutions working on migration, Gulf studies programmes and centres on South-Asian and Middle-Eastern studies.