This is a fascinating and overdue book. It offers compelling arguments for expanding the research agenda to include the dynamics and ramifications of inter-regional migration. Zahra Babar has successfully brought together leading contributors whose extensive research and meticulous exposition highlight the continuing role of Arab migrant communities in shaping the Gulf's socio-economic and political developments.
Abdulhadi Khalaf, Professor Emeritus, ... Read moreLund University, and co-editor of Transit States: Labour, Migration and Citizenship in the Gulf In the expanding field of labor migration studies in the Gulf states, Arab migrants are a little-known population. Relying on figures as well as on ethnographic data, this book provides a rich and diversified analysis, showing common trends as well as the uniqueness of situations from one country to another. It is a timely and particularly useful addition to existing scholarship, a must-read for anybody interested in Gulf migration issues.
Laurence Louer This book is a reminder that Arab labour movements were at the origin of migration to the Gulf. It brings out their current specific characteristics, placing them in the broader contexts of foreign labour in the GCC and of international labour migration more generally. This book was long overdue. It will be a necessary reference for all researchers, instructors and students of international migration.
Professor Ibrahim Awad, Director Arab Migrant Communities in the GCC is an excellent and ethnographically rich exploration of the dynamics that shape the migration of other Arabs to the oil-rich states of the GCC. Long overdue, this volume draws our attention to the complex sets of socio-political and cultural forces that give shape to migrant choices and fears.
Jane Bristol-Rhys, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Zayed University Abu Dhabi; and author of Future Perfect/Present Tense: Migrant Workers, Expats, and Sponsors in Abu Dhabi Show Less