Asianization of Migrant Workers in the Gulf Countries

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, citizenshipand 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.

S. Irudaya Rajan, PhD, is Professor at the Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala (India). He has thirty-five years of research experience. Professor Rajan has coordinated eight major migration surveys in Kerala since 1998 (with Professor K C Zachariah), Goa migration survey 2008, Punjab Migration Survey 2009 and Tamil Nadu Migration Survey 2015. He played an instrumental role in conducting the Gujarat Migration Survey 2011 and in the process of initiating Andhra Pradesh, Telegana and Bihar migration surveys. Professor Rajan has published extensively in national and international journals on social, economic, demographic, psychological and political implications of international migration.

He has undertaken projects on international migration with European Union, International Labour Organization, World Bank, International Organization of Migration, South Asian Network of Economic Institutes (SANEI), Rockefeller Foundation, United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organizations (UNESCO), Migrant Forum Asia, Department of Non-Resident Indian Affairs, Government of Goa, Department of Non-Resident Keralite Affairs, Government of Kerala, Commissionerate of Rehabilitation and Welfare of Non-Resident Tamils, Government of Tamil Nadu, Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, Government of India, India Centre for Migration of the Ministry of External Affairs, Canadian Institute of Health Research and International Development Research Centre. He is the editor of the Annual Series India Migration Report since 2010 and also founder Editor-in-chief of the international journal Migration and Development.

Ginu Zacharia Oommen is currently a Member of the Kerala Public Service Commission, Trivandrum. Prior to this he was a Senior Fellow at the India Centre for Migration, New Delhi. Oommen has held numerous fellowships and has been visiting faculty at MIGRINTER (the Centre for International Migration), University of Poitiers, France; Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi; Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin; Gulf Studies Programme, JNU; Fondation maison des sciences de l'homme (FMSH), Paris; Indian Council for World Affairs, New Delhi; and Centre for South Asia-West China Cooperation, Sichuan University, China. Oommen was also a Hermes Post Doctoral Fellow at MIGRINTER, University de Poitiers France and Visiting Graduate Fellow at the Rothberg International School, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. Besides, Oommen was also offered two other prestigious fellowships: the Swedish Institute Guest Post Doctoral Fellowship at Uppsala University Sweden and the Visiting Senior Fellowship at MACIMIDE, University of Maastricht University, Netherlands, both of which he declined.

His major publications include Ethnicity, Marginality and Identity: The Jews of Cochin in Israel (Manak, 2011) and South Asian Migration toGulf Countries: History, Policies, Development (Routledge, 2015). Oommen has conducted extensive field research in Israel, Palestine, Kuwait, France and Kerala.