Asianization of Migrant Workers in the Gulf Countries [1st ed. 2020] 978-981-32-9286-4, 978-981-32-9287-1

Table of contents :
Front Matter ....Pages i-xvii
Asianization in the Gulf: A Fresh Outlook (S. Irudaya Rajan, Ginu Zacharia Oommen)....Pages 1-17
Labour Migration in the Gulf Cooperation Council: Past, Present and Future (George Naufal, Ismail Genc)....Pages 19-35
Understanding Labour Migration Policies in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries (Zahra R. Babar)....Pages 37-53
South Asian Labour Unrests and Non-Citizenry Aspects of Popular Politics in the Gulf (M. H. Ilias)....Pages 55-67
Contemporary Forms of Slavery, Citizenship and Human Rights of Migrant Workers in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries (M. V. Bijulal)....Pages 69-82
A Portrait of Low-Income Migrants in Contemporary Qatar (Andrew Gardner, Silvia Pessoa, Abdoulaye Diop, Kaltham Al-Ghanim, Kien Le Trung, Laura Harkness)....Pages 83-102
Determinants of Future Indonesian Labour Migration to the Gulf (Graeme Hugo)....Pages 103-125
The Rise of the Philippine Emigration State: Protecting Migrant Workers in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries (Neil G. Ruiz)....Pages 127-149
Nitaqat – Saudi Arabia’s New Labour Policy: Is It a Rentier Response to Domestic Discontent? (Zakir Hussain)....Pages 151-175
Bangladeshi Fishermen in Oman: Migration as a Gamble (Marie Percot)....Pages 177-187
Labour Migration from Pakistan to the Gulf Countries: An Investigation of Regional Disparities in Outflows of Workers, Remittances and Poverty (G. M. Arif, Shujaat Farooq, Nasir Iqbal)....Pages 189-217
Labour Migration from Sri Lanka to the Gulf: Current Status and Future Outlook (Bilesha Weeraratne)....Pages 219-231
Migrant Domestic Workers in the GCC: Negotiating Contested Politics and Contradictory Policies (S. Irudaya Rajan, Jolin Joseph)....Pages 233-246
Gulf Migration, Remittances and Religion: Interplay of Faith and Prosperity Amongst Syrian Christians in Kerala (Ginu Zacharia Oommen)....Pages 247-266
Indian Trade Diaspora in the Arabian Peninsula: An Overview (Prakash C. Jain)....Pages 267-280
The Future of Asian Migration to the Gulf (S. Irudaya Rajan, Ginu Zacharia Oommen)....Pages 281-286

Citation preview

S. Irudaya Rajan Ginu Zacharia Oommen Editors

Asianization of Migrant Workers in the Gulf Countries

Asianization of Migrant Workers in the Gulf Countries

S. Irudaya Rajan  •  Ginu Zacharia Oommen Editors

Asianization of Migrant Workers in the Gulf Countries

Editors S. Irudaya Rajan Centre for Development Studies Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India

Ginu Zacharia Oommen Kerala Public Service Commission Trivandrum, Kerala, India

ISBN 978-981-32-9286-4    ISBN 978-981-32-9287-1 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9287-1 © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore

Preface and Acknowledgement

The idea to bring out this book was conceived owing to the success of the International Conference on Gulf Migration held at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML), Teen Murti Bhavan, New Delhi, in October 2014. Due to the overwhelming response of participants and other scholars from around the world, we decided to bring out this edited book as an essential volume on Gulf migration, with contributions from participant scholars as well as other scholars invited to write for this volume. The conference was organized by the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML), New Delhi, whilst Dr. Oommen was an NMML Fellow at the Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, where Prof. Rajan is a Professor. Our journey of collaboration on Gulf migration studies started with our introduction which was unbelievably facilitated by the eminent scholar Mr. S. Krishnakumar, Associate Professor, Venkateswara College, New Delhi, and we are highly obliged to him for his sincere efforts. To organize this conference, the wholehearted support we received from the former Director of NMML Dr. Mahesh Rangarajan and staff was invaluable, and we are very grateful. We are also indebted to our mentors Prof. Prakash C. Jain and Dr. K. C. Zachariah for years of guidance in research in the topic of Gulf migration. We would also like to thank our organizations, the Centre for Development Studies and the administrations and our colleagues for their support and encouragement to pursue research on Gulf migration. Dr. Oommen is also highly indebted to his former organization MIGRINTER, University of Poitiers, France. We also express our gratitude to our research team, mainly Nikhil Panicker, Sreeja K. S. and Anu S. Nair, for their sincere efforts in putting this work together.

v

vi

Preface and Acknowledgement

It would be remiss if we do not acknowledge our families for their love and care throughout the years. Dr. Rajan thanks his wife Hema and his three children Rahul, Rohit and Mary Catherine, and Dr. Oommen thanks his wife Suvarna and his daughter Rebecca. Last but not least, we thank Springer Nature for the timely publication of this book. Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India  S. Irudaya Rajan   Ginu Zacharia Oommen

Contents

1 Asianization in the Gulf: A Fresh Outlook��������������������������������������������    1 S. Irudaya Rajan and Ginu Zacharia Oommen 2 Labour Migration in the Gulf Cooperation Council: Past, Present and Future ������������������������������������������������������������������������   19 George Naufal and Ismail Genc 3 Understanding Labour Migration Policies in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries������������������������������������������   37 Zahra R. Babar 4 South Asian Labour Unrests and Non-­Citizenry Aspects of Popular Politics in the Gulf��������������������������������������������������   55 M. H. Ilias 5 Contemporary Forms of Slavery, Citizenship and Human Rights of Migrant Workers in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries��������������������������������������������������������������   69 M. V. Bijulal 6 A Portrait of Low-Income Migrants in Contemporary Qatar������������   83 Andrew Gardner, Silvia Pessoa, Abdoulaye Diop, Kaltham Al-Ghanim, Kien Le Trung, and Laura Harkness 7 Determinants of Future Indonesian Labour Migration to the Gulf������������������������������������������������������������������������������  103 Graeme Hugo 8 The Rise of the Philippine Emigration State: Protecting Migrant Workers in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries������������  127 Neil G. Ruiz

vii

viii

Contents

9 Nitaqat – Saudi Arabia’s New Labour Policy: Is It a Rentier Response to Domestic Discontent?����������������������������������  151 Zakir Hussain 10 Bangladeshi Fishermen in Oman: Migration as a Gamble������������������  177 Marie Percot 11 Labour Migration from Pakistan to the Gulf Countries: An Investigation of Regional Disparities in Outflows of Workers, Remittances and Poverty������������������������������������������������������������������������  189 G. M. Arif, Shujaat Farooq, and Nasir Iqbal 12 Labour Migration from Sri Lanka to the Gulf: Current Status and Future Outlook������������������������������������������������������  219 Bilesha Weeraratne 13 Migrant Domestic Workers in the GCC: Negotiating Contested Politics and Contradictory Policies��������������������������������������������������������  233 S. Irudaya Rajan and Jolin Joseph 14 Gulf Migration, Remittances and Religion: Interplay of Faith and Prosperity Amongst Syrian Christians in Kerala��������������������������  247 Ginu Zacharia Oommen 15 Indian Trade Diaspora in the Arabian Peninsula: An Overview ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  267 Prakash C. Jain 16 The Future of Asian Migration to the Gulf�������������������������������������������  281 S. Irudaya Rajan and Ginu Zacharia Oommen

About the Editors and Contributors

Editors S.  Irudaya  Rajan, PhD, is Professor at the Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala (India). He has 35 years of research experience. Professor Rajan has coordinated eight major migration surveys in Kerala since 1998 (with Prof. 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, Telangana 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 Asia Network of Economic Research Institutes (SANEI); Rockefeller Foundation; United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); Migrant Forum in 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 Institutes of Health Research; and International Development Research Centre. He is the Editor of the annual series India Migration Report since 2010 and also founding Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Migration and Development.  

Ginu  Zacharia  Oommen, PhD, is a member of the Kerala Public Service Commission, Trivandrum. Prior to this, he was a visiting professor at the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’homme (FMSH), Paris. 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,  

ix

x

About the Editors and Contributors

New Delhi; Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin; Gulf Studies Programme, JNU; Indian Council for World Affairs, New Delhi; Centre for South Asia–West China Cooperation, Sichuan University, China and India Centre for Migration, New Delhi. Oommen was also a Hermes Postdoctoral 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 Postdoctoral Fellowship at Uppsala University, Sweden, and the Visiting Senior Fellowship at MACIMIDE, University of Maastricht University, the Netherlands, both of which he declined since it coincided with other fellowships. His major publications include Ethnicity, Marginality and Identity: The Jews of Cochin in Israel (Manak, 2011), South Asian Migration to Gulf Countries: History, Policies, Development (Routledge, 2015). Oommen has conducted extensive field research in Israel, Palestine, Kuwait, France and Kerala.

Contributors Kaltham Al-Ghanim  is Professor of Sociology, Qatar University. G. M. Arif  is a demographer and currently he is the Joint Director at the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), Islamabad. He has been member of various government commissions and study groups on poverty reduction and migration. Zahra R. Babar  is Associate Director for Research at the Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS), Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar. M. V. Bijulal  is Assistant Professor at the School of International Relations and Politics, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam. Abdoulaye  Diop  is Associate Research Professor and Head of the Research Department at the Social and Economic Survey Research Institute (SESRI), Qatar University (QU). Shujaat  Farooq  is working in Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), Pakistan, as Director of Monitoring and Evaluation. Andrew Gardner  is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington. He is the author of numerous articles, book chapters, books and essays.

About the Editors and Contributors

xi

Ismail Genc  is Professor of Economics and the Head of the Economics Department at the American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. Prof. Genc received his PhD in Economics from the Texas A&M University. Laura  Harkness  is Freelance Researcher and she was a research associate at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar. Graeme  Hugo  was ARC Australian Professorial Fellow and Director of the Australian Population and Migration Research Centre, University of Adelaide. Zakir Hussain  is Research Fellow at the Indian Council of World Affairs, Sapru House, New Delhi. M. H. Ilias  is Professor at the India-Arab Cultural Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. Nasir  Iqbal  is Director of Research at the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), Pakistan. Previously, Iqbal was Assistant Professor of Economics at Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE). Prakash  C.  Jain  is UGC Emeritus Fellow following his superannuation as Professor of West Asian Studies from the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Jolin Joseph  is Doctoral Scholar at York University, Canada. Kien Le Trung  is Associate Professor at the Social and Economic Survey Research Institute (SESRI), Qatar University. George Naufal  is Senior Research Associate at PPRI and a Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) at Bonn. He was also an Assistant/Associate Professor of Economics at the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. Marie  Percot  is an anthropologist and is associated with the Laboratoire d’ Anthropologie Urbaine/Institut Interdisciplinaire d’Anthropologie du Contemporain (EHESS), Paris, France. Silvia  Pessoa  is Associate Teaching Professor of English at Carnegie Mellon University, Qatar. Her areas of expertise are immigration studies and academic writing development.

xii

About the Editors and Contributors

Neil  G.  Ruiz  is a Senior Policy Analyst and Associate Fellow at the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program. His research focuses on regional and state economic development, innovation, international migration, high-skilled immigration as well as global economic issues. Bilesha  Weeraratne  is currently a Research Fellow, attached to the Labour, Employment and Human Resources Development Unit at the Institute of Policy Studies, Sri Lanka. She is also serving as an International Consultant to the Asian Development Bank, Philippines.

List of Figures

Fig. 2.1 Immigration number – all females (NB: 1960 value is equated to 100)������������������������������������������������������������������������������     22 Fig. 2.2 Immigration number – all males (NB: 1960 value is equated to 100)������������������������������������������������������������������������������   23 Fig. 2.3 Immigration number – all (NB: 1960 value is equated to 100)������������������������������������������������������������������������������   23 Fig. 2.4 Share of population as foreigners.����������������������������������������������������   26 Fig. 2.5 Nationals and non-nationals sex ratio.����������������������������������������������   26 Fig. 2.6 Age distribution by nationality: GCC countries.������������������������������   27 Fig. 2.7 Distribution of employed population by nationality.������������������������   28 Fig. 2.8 Share out of total foreign population in Kuwait (2012).�������������������   28 Fig. 2.9 Unemployment rate in Kuwait (2012).���������������������������������������������   29 Fig. 2.10 Labour force participation rate in Kuwait (2012).����������������������������   29 Fig. 6.1 Duration of low-income migrants’ stay in Qatar, 2012��������������������   88 Fig. 6.2 Living quarters for low-income labor migrants in qatar�������������������   94 Fig. 6.3 Monthly basic salary and migration costs, by nationality�����������������   95 Fig. 7.1 Indonesia: Migrant Stocks by Country of Destination.��������������������  105 Fig. 7.2 Number of Indonesian overseas workers processed by the Ministry of Manpower, 1979–2013.��������������������������������������  107 Fig. 7.3 Saudi Arabia: Arrivals and departures of non-Saudis with Indonesian country of citizenship, 2000–2011�������������������������  108 Fig. 7.4 Indonesia: growth of remittances, 1983–2013.���������������������������������  111 Fig. 7.5 Indonesia: age–sex structure of the population, 2010 (shaded) and 2030��������������������������������������������������������������������  117 Fig. 7.6 Example of a brokerage network for official migrants to Saudi Arabia.������������������������������������������������������������������  121 Fig. 8.1 Overseas workers welfare administration within the Philippine government. ��������������������������������������������������������������  134

xiii

xiv

List of Figures

Fig. 8.2 OWWA’s income in US dollars, 2002–2006.������������������������������������  135 Fig. 8.3 Philippine government emigration institutional organizational chart���������������������������������������������������������������������������  149 Fig. 9.1 History of Saudization in private sector (in per cent).����������������������  161 Fig. 9.2 Total and youth unemployment in Saudi Arabia, 2006–2010. ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  162 Fig. 9.3 Work permits issued to foreign workers to different enterprises, 2001.������������������������������������������������������������������������������  164 Fig. 9.4 Projected national labour force, 2010–2050.������������������������������������  166 Fig. 12.1 Skills of migrant workers 1994–2015.����������������������������������������������  221 Fig. 12.2 Gender distribution of migrants. ������������������������������������������������������  222 Fig. 12.3 Migrant Departure by Age and Gender: 2015.����������������������������������  223

List of Tables

Table 2.1 Annual growth rates of various expatriate groups at different time intervals (%)�����������������������������������������������������������  21 Table 2.2 Difference between male and female expatriate populations in the GCC��������������������������������������������������������������������  24 Table 2.3 Occupation by nationality and gender – Kuwait 2012���������������������  30 Table 6.1 Averages for key variables, by ethnicity�������������������������������������������  97 Table 6.2 Averages for key variables for South Asian migrants, by religion�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  97 Table 7.1 Indonesia: estimated stocks of overseas contract workers around 2013����������������������������������������������������������������������  105 Table 7.2 Estimates of stock of Indonesian female domestic overseas contract workers, 2011–2013�������������������������������������������  109 Table 7.3 Main Asian labour exporting countries: workers’ remittances relative to exports and imports in US$ million, 1980–2012������������������������������������������������������������  112 Table 7.4 Indonesia: Comparison of key economic and demographic indicators, early 1990s and 2010–2013���������������������������������������������������������������������  113 Table 7.5 Indonesia: labour force and unemployment�����������������������������������  114 Table 7.6 Indonesia: demographic variables, 1970 and 2010������������������������  116 Table 7.7 Indonesia: growth and projected growth of population aged 15–34���������������������������������������������������������������  116 Table 8.1 Number of OWWA welfare cases, January to September 1994��������������������������������������������������������������������������  131 Table 8.2 Post-1995 Philippine emigrant institutions������������������������������������  140 Table 8.3 Philippine legislation and policies dealing with emigration�������������������������������������������������������������������������������  141 Table 8.4 Recruitment and placement by recruitment intermediary, 1986��������������������������������������������������������������������������  143 xv

xvi

List of Tables

Table 8.5 Estimates of placement expenses, 1980–1987 (in Philippine pesos)�������������������������������������������������������������������  144 Table 8.6 Philippine remittance industry revenue estimate, 2004��������������  146 Table 9.1 Share of foreign workers in total Saudi labour force (in thousands)������������������������������������������������������������������������������  153 Table 9.2 Categories of business units under Nitaqat���������������������������������  154 Table 9.3 Nitaqat zones������������������������������������������������������������������������������  155 Table 9.4 Schematization of the Nitaqat provisions for business units under different categories���������������������������������������������������  156 Table 9.5 Percentage of Saudization under different Nitaqat zones����������������������������������������������������������������  158 Table 9.6 Saudization bands across the select business lines (in per cent)������������������������������������������������������������������������  159 Table 9.7 Average monthly wage to Saudis and non-Saudis in private sector in Saudi Arabia (in Saudi Riyal)����������������������  164 Table 9.8 Salary gap between Saudis and non-Saudis in select profession (in per cent)�������������������������������������������������  164 Table 9.9 Reasons for Saudi unemployment����������������������������������������������  165 Table 9.10 Share of Saudis in different business units���������������������������������  168 Table 9.11 Share of Saudis employed in different industries (July 2011)�����������������������������������������������������������������  168 Table 11.1 Migration to the Gulf and domestic labour market��������������������  192 Table 11.2 Workers’ remittances and GDP growth in Pakistan��������������������  194 Table 11.3 Comparison of two methods in district classification into very-low-, low-, medium- and high-migration categories������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  198 Table 11.4 District classification into low-, medium- and high-migration categories�������������������������������������  200 Table 11.5 Distribution of inflows of remittances (%) by migration status����������������������������������������������������������������������  201 Table 11.6 Share of self-employed (non-­agriculture sector) in total employed labour force by migration status��������������������  202 Table 11.7 Migration, poverty and deprivation��������������������������������������������  203 Table 11.8 Proportion of households (%) deprived in education dimension of multidimensional poverty by migration status���������������������������������������������������������  205 Table 11.9 Proportion of households (%) deprived in health dimension of multidimensional poverty�������������������������������������  205 Table 11.10 Proportion of households (%) deprived in standard of living dimension of multidimensional poverty by migration status����������������������������������������������������������������������  206

List of Tables

xvii

Table 11.11 Multidimensional poverty: Dimensions, indicators, weight and definitions (dimensions are equally weighted)������������������������������������������������������������������������  211 Table 11.12 Classification of districts into high-, medium-, low- and very-low-migration categories-based remittance share and incidence-of-migration methods���������������  212 Table 12.1 Departures by skills and gender—2015��������������������������������������  222 Table 12.2 Distribution of departures to GCC countries 2011–2015�����������  224 Table 12.3 Skills composition by destination: 2015�������������������������������������  225 Table 12.4 Composition of remittances: 2015����������������������������������������������  226 Table 12.5 Gender distribution of departures and complaints origins—2015�����������������������������������������������������������������������������  226 Table 15.1 Trading and entrepreneurial ethnic groups among overseas Indian communities������������������������������������������  268

Chapter 1

Asianization in the Gulf: A Fresh Outlook S. Irudaya Rajan and Ginu Zacharia Oommen

Asia’s historical contacts with the Gulf region date back to ancient times. Many historians have documented the existence of Indian settlements and merchant guilds in Aden and other prominent Gulf ports prior to the discovery of oil in the region (Secombe and Lawless 1986). In the beginning of the nineteenth century, the industrialization process, pearl trading, Haj and the requirement of skilled workers in the ports had prompted the flow of Indian migrants to the Persian Gulf region. These included ordinary artisans, masons, technicians, clerks and administrative personnel during the colonial times, largely to support the British colonial apparatus in the region (Kumar 2016). The colonial rulers used ‘Indian subjects’ as treasured resources to sustain and operate critical ventures like communication, education, health, bureaucracy, postal services and so on. Later, in the 1930s major Western oil companies like Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) and Aramco Gulf Operations Company Limited and Petroleum Development Qatar (PDQ) employed a substantial number of labourers from the subcontinent and a recruiting office was established in Surat (Kumar 2016). Thus, by late 1950s, Indian and Pakistani migrant workers constituted the largest workforce in many Gulf countries particularly in Kuwait and Bahrain. The discovery of oil in the 1970s and the economic rise of the Gulf Co-operation Countries (GCC) inspired a huge influx of migrant workers from Asia, in particular South Asia (Abraham and Rajan 2012; Rajan 2017a, b; Chowdhury and Rajan 2018). Therefore, the contemporary large-scale migration to GCC countries from India is not an isolated event connected to oil boom of the 1970s, as it dates back to the colonial policies and historic trade linkages. S. I. Rajan (*) Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India e-mail: [email protected] G. Z. Oommen Kerala Public Service Commission, Trivandrum, Kerala, India e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 S. I. Rajan, G. Z. Oommen (eds.), Asianization of Migrant Workers in the Gulf Countries, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9287-1_1

1

2

S. I. Rajan and G. Z. Oommen

At present, out of roughly 15 million expatriates in the Gulf region, Asians constitute around 12 million (Rajan 2018, 2019; Jain and Oommen 2016). The historical linkages, religious and cultural proximity, poverty, unemployment, political instability and insurgency in the Asian countries are some of the factors that have led to this large influx. The majority of expatriate workers in GCC countries are largely from South Asian and Southeast Asian countries. In GCC countries, massive developmental activities had forced the oil-rich monarchies to instate an ‘open door’ demographic policy encouraging large-scale migration from outside the region (Hussain 2011, 2014, 2016). The neighbouring Arab countries had failed to provide skilled workforce to the region to sustain this process of development. Although, in the beginning, the workforce came largely from neighbouring Arab countries like Egypt, Yemen and Sudan, by 1980s, the GCC countries shifted the preference of workforce towards Asian countries, particularly from the South Asian region, mainly to avoid the spread of radical and socialistic political ideologies in the Gulf region. Though, the composition of migrant workers has been changing in GCC, a consistent and a significant shift from Arab to Asian workers had started since late 1970s, mainly to safeguard the political interests of the oil rich monarchies. The Asian workforce became a preferred choice due to certain characteristics, specifically docility, political neutrality, flexibility, willingness to work at manageable wages and readiness to work hard (Kapiszewski 2006). In addition, Asians have not been looked upon as a threat to the political establishment of the GCC countries and the involvement of Asian governments in the recruiting process helps in attracting a monitored and filtered workforce. Thus, by the mid-1980s, Asian workforce in GCC had further expanded, beyond India and Pakistan, and countries like Philippines, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka also joined in the labour market (Rajan 2016). The flow of migrant workers from Asia, particularly South Asia, had given a stiff competition to the workers from West Asia (Kapiszewski 2006). Hence, ‘Asianization’ of migrant labour in the Gulf is the outcome of the ‘preference and choice’ of the receiving governments due to various economic–political considerations and these dynamics paved the way for the emergence of an Asia–Gulf Migratory Corridor in region. In an earlier work, Naufal and Genc (2014) observed that there is a structural break in remittances around the 1990s, where the largest portion of remittances there leaves the region, presumably heading to Asia. Asian female labour migrant population growth rate surpasses that of Arabs earlier than the 1990s. The extraordinary and unmatched movement of the people, remittances flow, developmental initiatives, voluminous trade, energy security, diplomatic and strategic overtures are the overt and outstanding results of the embryonic ‘Asia– Gulf Migratory Corridor’ in the region (Naufal et al. 2016). The Asian region, especially India, receives the largest amount of remittances and those from the GCC constitute the major external financial flow for these developing nations. The Asian migrant communities have made a remarkable contribution to the socio-economic and the cultural development of GCC countries and have become the dominant workforce in economy of the region. The strategic and

1  Asianization in the Gulf: A Fresh Outlook

3

e­ conomic implications of Asianization on migration and remittance flows are quite important for both sending and receiving countries. Remittances from GCC countries play a significant role in the foreign exchange reserves of the host country, alleviation of poverty and socio-economic development of recipient countries. Remittances from GCC countries have been a major source of influence on the annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita of the Asian countries, as is evident from the fact that it constituted one-fifth of the total flow to the region in 2008 (Oommen 2016). However, due to the economic crisis there was a slowdown of remittance flow to the Asian region in 2009, but it resumed to normal by 2011 (Rajan 2012). On the impact of migration in Pakistan, Arif (2009) noted that, ‘The social contribution of migration is even more encouraging in terms of improving children’s education, enhancing housing condition, eliminating child labour, empowering women of the migrant household’. The path-breaking prosperity of the ‘Gulf Pockets’ in the Asian countries can be highly contributed to the strength and dynamisms of the emergent ‘Asia–Gulf Migratory Corridor’. The flow of remittances to developing countries reduced in 2008 because of economic crisis, and it affected recipient countries adversely. By 2010, GCC countries had regained some of the economic growth, which had a direct impact on the remittance flow. The economic fluctuation did not affect the flow of migrants, but a shift in domestic economic policies of the Gulf countries are expected to affect the quantum and nature of migration patterns. The recent nationalization policies and the exodus of large number of migrant workers from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait did not make any impact on the flow of remittances (Rajan 2016). The Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (2012) data gives a clear picture of the enormous amount of remittances flown to India during the last decade, with a quantum jump from $14.8 billion in 2002–03 to $53.9 billion in 2009–10. India continues to be the top recipient of remittances with $80 billion in 2018 (Ratha et al. 2018). In 2008, India, China, Bangladesh and the Philippines were among the top 10 remittance recipient countries (Kelegama et al. 2011). Migration and remittances, particularly from the Gulf region contribute significantly in the overall developmental process of South Asia and Southeast Asian countries. The large flow of remittances has prompted the South and Southeast Asian countries (Arasaratnam 1970) to formulate policies to attract migrant workers and channelize maximum amount of remittances through the formal channels, mainly through banks, cheques and telegraph and post office transfers rather than informal channels. The informal flow of remittances through hawala/hundi is a major concern for the recipient countries. To block the inroads of informal remittance links, Asian countries have opened branches of major banks in GCC region, and also provide various schemes to deposit money in these branches of native banks. The Asian countries have formulated many financial schemes to attract the remittances such as Non-Resident Indian Account (NRI Account) in India, Non-Resident Foreign Currency in Bangladesh, Foreign Employment Bond in Nepal and Share Investment External Rupee Account in Sri Lanka (Thimothy and Sasikumar 2012). The job market in Gulf countries is not egalitarian in nature, and the wage differential is quite high between expatriates and the natives. However, the migration

4

S. I. Rajan and G. Z. Oommen

policies of all Asian countries, except India, promote migration. Interestingly, the global economic crisis, job cuts, anti-immigrant efforts of the GCC governments and socio-spatial isolation of the expatriates have neither reduced the steady flow of migrants from the Asian region nor has it created a ‘reverse migration’ back to the sending countries (Rajan 2012). However, the decision of the Saudi Arabian government in late 2014 to strictly implement nationalization of workforce was an unexpected setback in the free flow of migration to the Gulf region (Zachariah et al. 2014). Various domestic factors like high unemployment among natives, economic burdens due to the Gulf Wars, increase of the female participation in the labour market and Arab Spring have forced many of the GCC countries to introduce restrictive policies towards migration, implementation of ‘Nitaqat Law’ and active enrolment of natives in the private sector. Education, health, construction, manufacturing and care industry are highly dependent on the Asian workers, thus, the recent attempts made by GCC countries to implement the Nitaqat Law may not be successful due to the reluctance of the nationals to participate in blue collar and private sector jobs. Presently, a substantial number of migrant workers from Asia in GCC countries are in the construction sector (Rajan and Narayana 2012). Majority of the Asian migrants in GCC countries are semi-skilled or unskilled workers, mostly illiterate, single and male (Ozaki 2012). Since 1990s, the IT boom and the technological advancement have altered the skill composition of the migrants as well as the demand of the host countries particularly in the case of Indian expatriates (Srivastava and Sasikumar 2003). The majority of the Pakistani workers in GCC region are unskilled, followed by semi-skilled, skilled and highly qualified professionals (Arif 2009). The statistics on Bangladeshi immigrants show that majority of the migrants are from poor and downtrodden sections. Rita Afsar (2009) study on Bangladeshi migrants pointed that hunger and desperation, unemployment and debt traps are the main factors prompting them to migrate to oil-rich monarchies. According to job classifications, skilled categories include nurses, teachers and technicians; semi-skilled categories include masons, drivers, carpenters and welders; and unskilled categories include construction labourers, cleaners and domestic workers. The average age of migrant workers is nearly 32 years, and vast majority of the migrants are male (Bohra and Massey 2009). A study conducted by Williams et  al. (2010) shows that the vast majority of the Nepali migrants (90%) are working as labourers in GCC region and only 2% are engaged in professional jobs. The Asian migration to GCC countries is predominantly a male phenomenon. The relatively limited participation of women as a migrating workforce is attributed largely to the prevalence of patriarchy in the sending countries. According to the Asian Development Bank report, women migrants constitute nearly 15% of the total migrant workers from South Asia (Ozaki 2012, Tinker 1974; Winckler 2010; Sohan 2011). Not surprisingly, study on the Asian women migrant workers has received less attention both in the academic world and at the policy level. Migration of Women from South Asia to the Gulf (Thimothy and Sasikumar 2012), Indian Nurses in Persian Gulf (Percot 2006; Percot and Rajan 2007) and Sri Lankan Migration to

1  Asianization in the Gulf: A Fresh Outlook

5

the Gulf: Female Bread Winners (Gamburd 2010) are some of the notable academic works in this regard. In the context of international labour migration, majority of the women workers are from South Asia–Southeast Asia, and the majority are engaged in low skilled and semi-skilled jobs (Baldwin-Edwards 2011). The oil boom of the 1960s in the Gulf countries lowered the participation of the nationals in the workforce and brought a new form of ‘royal sheikh culture’ which heightened the demand for maids and domestic workers. Asian women are mostly employed as teachers, paramedics, nurses, assistants, in manufacturing, entertainment and care industry as maids and domestic workers (Ozaki 2012; see also Varghese and Rajan 2011; Kodoth 2015). Gamburd (2010) noted that the ‘army of housemaids’ represents the feminization of migration in South Asia. Initially, women workers migrated from India, Pakistan, Philippines and Bangladesh, but by the year 2000, Sri Lankan women migrants had emerged as the largest group in the GCC region. Factors that prompted Asian women to migrate were mainly poverty, hunger, debt traps, oppressive social system, marital discords, alcoholism of the spouse, aspiration for the betterment of life and so on (Gamburd 2010). Women migrant workers are often victims of patriarchy in both sending and receiving countries (Kabeer 2007). Sexual abuse, harassment at workplace and long working hours without proper payment are quite rampant in GCC countries (Rajan and Joseph 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017). However, the precarious issues related to women migrants have received less attention and more women-friendly policies need to be formulated by both sending and receiving countries in the future to safeguard the unprecedented movement of the migrant workers in the ‘Asia-Gulf Migratory Corridor’. It is interesting to note that policymaking centres in Asia have been focusing more on maximizing benefits out of this trend of international migration through the process of remittances than treading any confrontationist path with the generally repressive Gulf regimes (Panicker 2013). But this preoccupation has sometimes come at the cost of ignoring the pitiable conditions under which the labourers work in alien territories, bearing the wrath of a whole host of prejudice and discrimination meted out against them. However, the working conditions and protection of labour rights are relatively low in GCC countries. Irregular payment, withholding of wages, inconsistency between the promised and real wages, deduction of salary, non-­ payment of salary for long duration, denial of medical insurance and long working hours in hostile climatic conditions are quite rampant in the region. The spurious recruitment process, visa trading, harsh working conditions, autocratic nature of Kafala system and the high visa cost undermine the stability and economic structures of the migrant sending families. ‘The vast pool of cheap labour from India, Pakistan and other parts of Asia has been pivotal to the Gulf’s economic boom in recent years. But labour abuse is frequent. Recruiters often require workers to sign one contract in their home country, then instruct them to sign a new one at a far lower wage once they arrive in the Gulf’ (Surk and Abbotarch 2009). Therefore, both sending and receiving countries have to deliberate upon the plight of migrants more seriously and formulate policies which would safeguard rights of migrant workers.

6

S. I. Rajan and G. Z. Oommen

The exploitation of the recruiting agencies and the helplessness of sending governments to curtail the powerful recruitment private lobby are being raised on various high-level meetings on migrant workers (Rajan et al. 2011). At the same time, there are numerous instances of harassment committed by the employers on hapless migrant workers, like confiscating the passport, physical abuse, non-payment of wages and medical insurance and so on. Hundreds of migrant workers are living in pitiable conditions in labour camps without basic amenities, civic rights, insurance, proper working conditions, decent living conditions and sexual exploitation (Wickramasekara 2011; Zachariah et al. 2004). The circular migration to the Gulf, which has crossed over more than three decades, continues to be characterized by a serious deficit in migrant rights. The large commercialization of the recruitment industry has made migration in the region not only too costly, but also quite risky. The 2008 ILO Regional Symposium at Dhaka has highlighted the problem experienced by women migrant workers in general, and argued for a gender sensitive management policy. The initiatives with respect to the ASEAN Declaration on the promotion and protection of the rights of migrant workers are presented as an instance. Ironically, none of the Asian countries has so far signed the ILO conventions on migrant workers and only Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have signed the UN Convention on Protection of Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (ICRMW), 1990 (Wickramasekara 2011). Though there is a worldwide demand for labour force from the Asian countries, the risks involved in the process are very high and alarming. The major challenges before the migrant community are debt, racism and xenophobia, high migration costs, corruption, deceit, fraudulent recruiting agencies, sexual and physical harassment, hazardous working conditions and non-payment of wages, poor medical facilities, absence of grievance redressal mechanism and basic labour rights. In this context it is highly imperative that both sending and receiving countries have to formulate policies and legislations to ensure equitable and vigorous working atmosphere. Due to the heavy outflow migration, few Asian countries like India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Philippines have formed separate ministries/departments to administer the overseas labour migration and diaspora. However, loopholes in the governance of migratory process have been publicly acknowledged by the erstwhile Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, as it noted that ‘the system that government had put in place to regulate and streamline the emigration process itself has resulted in corruption and in the formation of a nexus between government and officials and recruiting agencies leading to increasing exploitation of poor’ (Rajan et al. 2011). Except India and Nepal, all the other major migrant sending Asian countries have vibrant and comprehensive policy to deal with emigration and migrant workers (Datta 2005). Interestingly, Sri Lanka and Philippines have the most outstanding policies to monitor and safeguard the right of overseas migrant workers (Wickramasekara 2011). The legislations such as ‘Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995,’ Sri Lanka’s ‘National Labour Migration Policy,’ Pakistan’s ‘National Emigration Policy: Promoting Regular Emigration and Protecting Emigrants’ and the ‘Overseas Employment Policy’ of Bangladesh are some of the outstanding

1  Asianization in the Gulf: A Fresh Outlook

7

migration policies enacted by the Asian countries to safeguard the overseas migrant workers. Ironically, India with a substantial overseas migrant population is yet to formulate a transparent and coherent migrant policy till date. Wickramasekara (2011) noted that ‘therefore origin countries in Asia are generally confronted with the dilemma between “promotion” and “protection”. Thus, the delicate balance between the promotion of foreign employment and the protection of national workers abroad is a continuous challenge.’ Though many origin countries have supported out-migration through institutional mechanisms, it did not result in protecting the rights and dignity of migrant workers. The strategic and economic implications of Asianization of migrant workers in GCC countries, particularly its impact in terms of migration and remittances are undoubtedly an important aspect in the context of the emerging Gulf–Asia strategic relations. The unprecedented and massive exodus of migrant workers to the oil-rich monarchies is surely a blessing in disguise for many of the Asian countries as remittances constitute the largest external financial flow. The Asia–Gulf migration corridor will emerge in the foreseeable future as a vital component in the Asia–Gulf strategic relations. For the past two decades, Asia has emerged as the largest trading partner of GCC countries accounting for more than 57% of its total trade (Tamimi 2013). GCC countries are the key global suppliers of hydrocarbons and they contribute around 42% and 24% of the world total oil and gas reserves respectively. The GCC countries, as part of their ‘Look East’ policy, are looking for non-­ western economies to invest their surplus funds and they are also keen on diversifying their petroleum-based economies. GCC exports more oil products to Asia than to Europe and both India and China are the largest buyers of GCC’s oil products. Gulf–Asia relations are multifaceted and multidimensional with strong emphasis on trade, human resources, agribusiness, economy, education and defence. Trade in crude oil forms the backbone of Gulf–Asia relations which is bound to continue in the future too. The cross-regional investments and engagements between both the regions particularly in the field of maritime security are yielding great results. The construction sector is one of the crucial areas in which both India and China’s private players have been engaged successfully (Calabrese 2009). The Gulf–Asian economic relations are multilayered, inclusive and diverse and have immense potential to expand (Calabrese 2009). The ruling establishment in GCC countries is very keen to diversify and invest their sovereign funds in both India and China, the emerging economies of Asia. The liberalization and uncomplicated investment policies have been formulated by both India and China in past two decades to tap the Foreign Direct Investment from GCC countries. The Gulf is an inseparable part of Asia’s foreign policy that serves mutual interests, confronts terrorism and extremism, as well as taps the investment potential. GCC–Asia relations have come a long way and diversified to accommodate new areas. The apolitical and passive approach of the Asian workers in the political sphere of the Gulf society and their hard-working attitude are highly attributed to the uninterrupted flow of migrant workers to GCC states. The social networking and the

8

S. I. Rajan and G. Z. Oommen

informal links have added additional impetus to the Asia-Gulf migratory process, and flow of workers to the Gulf would continue to flourish in future. Though Gulf migration is both transitory and circulatory in nature the ongoing demand for expatriate workers from the GCC states has contributed to the existence of both secondand third-generation migrants in the region. However, the flow of migration from Asia still revolves around certain geographical locations, communities, families and it is yet to permeate horizontally in the sending societies. However, the lack of a unified voice and the non-sensitive attitudes of sending countries have intensified the socio-economic uncertainties of migrant workers. Though remittances from GCC countries constitute the major portion of the external financial flows for recipient countries, the migrant workers have not been developed as core component in the strategic discerning of sending governments. The bilateral agreements of labour rights and minimum wages are quite inadequate to safeguard the social insecurity and gross human rights violations in the host setting. Therefore, both sending and receiving countries should approach the multifaceted concerns of Asian migrants more holistically and sensitively. In addition, issues concerning women workers should be dealt with utmost care and policies should be formulated without curtailing the basic rights and mobility of migrant workers, particularly women migrant workers. This book intends to explore the multifaceted nuances of the ‘Asia-Gulf migratory corridor’ and also would try to unearth the future prospects and strategic implications. The book examines remittance behaviour, changing gender roles of immigrants, the social-spatial mobility, migrant policies, human rights, sense of belonging and the identity, perception and the interaction between nationals and non-nationals and so on. George Naufal and Ismail Genc explore three periods of Gulf migration and the reasons for the emergence of Gulf countries as a lucrative destination for labour migration. The authors also focus on the contemporary labour market in Gulf region and highlight the opportunities and challenges for the future. Naufal and Genc argue that the large oil wealth, unavailability of labour in the local population, high labour compensation and the political stability are some of the major reasons for the large inflow of migrants to the GCC countries. The authors observe shifting of the labour market in favour of Asian countries by the 1990s and also the large flow of remittances towards South Asia and Southeast Asia. The large influx of expatriates has highly altered the demographic composition of Gulf region and the ruling establishment is quite concerned about this alteration. The initiatives by the local governments in Gulf region to create local human capital or the local workforce have not produced substantial results. Hence the authors predict that the uninterrupted flow of foreign migrant workers is likely to continue regardless of the anti-immigrant measures in the Gulf region. The uncontrolled and voluminous influx of migrant workers has created continuous formulation of labour migrant policies in the Gulf countries. Zahra Babar provides a detailed sketch of the migrant policies and legislations devised by the oil monarchies and its implications. She argues that migration policies of the host countries have invariably deprived the basic human rights of migrant workers. In the

1  Asianization in the Gulf: A Fresh Outlook

9

GCC, the policymaking and management of migration has evolved within each state’s national context, based on their national interests and needs. The Kafala and labour contracts have always been biased against the migrant’s rights and places the employer in an advantageous position. In spite of various migrant policies, she observes that the recruiting agencies have a key role in managing the lives of hapless migrant working class in the Gulf region. The author pointed that the ruling establishments are aware of the shortfalls of the Kafala system and have been systematically trying to devise mechanisms to rectify the loopholes, but it has not yielded anticipated results. Though the host countries have failed to formulate any equitable or reasonable policies, the participation of Gulf countries in Abu Dhabi dialogue and Colombo process underlines the acknowledgment of the migrant phenomenon by the ruling establishments. Finally, Zahra also highlights the valuable interventions of ILO and UN and other international agencies in recognizing and protecting the rights of migrant workers. Ilias Hussein’s article provides non-citizenry aspects of popular politics which was reflected in the general strikes among the South Asian migrant workers in Dubai in 2006. Hussein argues that the popular politics of migrant workers move around the notion of rights rather than around political power. This paper highlights the idea of popular politics among the migrant workers in the Gulf countries through a set of informal expressions. Popular politics among the expatriate workers is an outcome of a particular political context, which is informal in nature and does not take an institutional form. Hussein noted that these informal actions are within the context of ‘imagined politics’ that offers an escape from the political realities in the host country. Moreover, Hussein strongly asserts that the local population in the GCC countries perceives the existence of South Asians as a threat to their cultural heritage and identity. The socio-political dynamics of Kerala is directly transmitted among the expatriate workers in the Gulf as well and the popularity of new social movements among the migrant workers show the intrinsic connection between the developments in home and host societies. Hussein concludes that the development of popular politics in the Gulf revolves mainly around this sense of alienation. Bijulal’s article reflects on the implication of non-hegemonic form of human rights interventions to address human rights violations faced by low-skilled, underpaid expatriate Indian workers in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Bijulal argues that a rights-denying, growth-seeking development approach has emerged in governing the world of work. While authentic informal documentation of migrant workers elsewhere have led to changes in the policy framework, in the GCC countries, where the human rights violations have not been considered actively under the legal and political system, the conditions are extreme. Bijulal asserts that the expatriate/guest worker classification attached to the migrant workforce leads to a discriminatory legal status in terms of access and the right to judicial redressal. Theoretically, the requirement is to evolve a transnational rights approach in understanding and to resolve the problems and violations involved. Bijulal points that the migrant workers in the Gulf converses a condition of statelessness, similar to bondage and distressed labour. The migrant sending countries should evolve an intergov-

10

S. I. Rajan and G. Z. Oommen

ernmental mechanism to manage the large flow and life of migrant workers and also to protect the dignity and rights of migrant workers. Andrew Gardner, Silvia Pessoa, Abdoulaye Diop, Kaltham Al Ghanim, Kiene le Trung and Laura Harkness attempt to explore the multifaceted migratory experiences of low-income workers in Qatar based on an extensive and in-depth survey. The authors argue that the low-income labour force in Qatar remains a temporary and transnationally cyclical labour force. The data revealed that the low-income migrants in Qatar had little or no previous work experience outside their home country and wished to return to their home countries after the completion of the contract. Contradictory to the established notions, none of the migrant workers is keen to settle for a long duration of time in the Gulf region (see also Bedi et al. 2016). The recruiting process has become highly commoditized, which makes the migration process quite costly, debt-trapped and complicated. The survey shows that vast majority of the workers failed to sign an authentic work contract prior to departure and relies on verbal assurances. The authors finally reiterate that the misinformation, deception and unrealistic expectations continue to play an unfathomable role in the migratory process. The data reveal that the rough nature of the Kafala system and incessant passport confiscation continue to be a dreadful phenomenon amongst the lowest economic segment of the foreign workforce. Indonesia’s tie with the Gulf countries dates back to centuries, and Graeme Hugo vividly narrates the pattern, impact and future determinants of Indonesian migration to Gulf region. Hugo examines the contemporary socio-economic and demographic trends of Indonesia and argues that the slowdown in migration is due to the range of alternative opportunities. The informal migratory channels like social networks play significant role in the uninterrupted flow of migrants to the Gulf countries. Unlike other Southeast Asian countries, Indonesia was never involved directly in the recruiting process of Gulf migrants until the early 1980s. The startling Asian crisis in the late 1990s and lack of opportunities have steadfastly accelerated the flow of migrants to the Gulf region in an unprecedented manner. Hugo pointed that the dominance of women migrant workers was one of the notable characteristics of Indonesian–Gulf migration until the ban of female domestic workers going to Saudi Arabia by the Indonesian government. He argues that the remittances from the Gulf occupy a vital role in the development of remote rural areas and in the future, government is seeking strong policies to provide more protection to the migrant workers to the Gulf. Neil Ruiz, who was with the Brookings Institution at the time of conducting this research, examines how labour export became a well-established occurrence in the political and economic structure of Philippines’ polity. Philippine economy has increasingly depended on overseas migration with nearly 10% of the population working abroad, which has substantially reduced the unemployment among the educated youth. The unprecedented growth of labour migration and dependency on remittances has prompted the creation of vibrant emigrant institutions like Philippines Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) to safeguard the migration industry. Neil argues that over a period of time Philippines government has evolved many policies that extended beyond the ambit of nation-state to safeguard

1  Asianization in the Gulf: A Fresh Outlook

11

and manage the large-scale emigrants. The ‘Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipino Act of 1995’ is considered to be a paradigm shift in the realm of international migrant policies particularly in protecting the rights of hapless migrant workers. He highlights that prior to the departure all the Filipino workers must undertake mandatory deployment process mainly the pre-departure orientation seminar (PDOS) and subscribe the Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) identification cards. Moreover, the Dual Citizenship Act, 2002, allows natural-born Filipinos who have become foreign citizens to retain their Philippine citizenship and also encourages overseas Filipino population to participate in the Philippines’ political system. The Philippine case provided a picture of how emigrant institutions can give the state powers in areas that are normally considered a loss. The recent decision of the Government of Saudi Arabia to implement the Nitaqat Labour Law is a matter of great concern for the migrant-sending countries. The decision of Saudi Arabia that one out of every employee in business establishment will have to be a Saudi national, is leading to displacement and deportation of thousands of Asian migrant workers from the country. Zakir Hussein discusses the implications of Nitaqat on the South Asian countries and also the sustainability of Saudi Arabia’s present nationalization process. Hussein argues that the broad aim of Nitaqat was to showcase the government’s determination to reduce the existing and growing unemployment among the Saudi national labour force, and to force private sector to strictly adhere to the norms of Nitaqat. The statistics reveal that the private sector employs more than 90% of the total nine million expatriates in Saudi Arabia. Hussein observes that the failure of the past efforts of Saudization has been another important reason for implementing Nitaqat policy. Moreover, Nitaqat could be seen as a political strategy of the Saudi government to insulate itself from the severe impact of the Arab Spring and also to mitigate the socio-economic and political discontent. Hussein further argues that the triggering of nationalization policy will neutralize regional turbulence by reducing unemployment among the citizens. Moreover, it also aims at reducing dependence on expatriate workers and to ensure the precipitous participation of native workforce in the economy. Hussein opines that in the future higher wages in private sector will attract Saudis to seek employment in private enterprises. Bangladesh is one of the top 10 remittance recipient countries in the world. Interestingly, the country which started with modest migration of 6087 in 1976 has reached an astonishing figure of nearly four million at present. Marie Percot discusses precarious condition of Bangladeshi fishermen in Oman based on an extensive field research in both Oman and Bangladesh (see also Kanchana and Rajan 2014). She discusses the complex reasons and context of the Bangladeshi local fishermen for opting hazardous and risky profession in Oman. Marie reiterates that majority of the fishermen migrants in Oman have failed miserably to succeed economically in spite of their long duration of stay in Oman and ironically most of them have ended up in jail or debt-trapped. The field survey explores the absence of authentic and appropriate work contract prior to the departure and the majority has opted to migrate on the basis of verbal assurances. Marie discusses the exploitative nature of the Kafala system and narrates the methodical trails of illegality in the visa

12

S. I. Rajan and G. Z. Oommen

system which invariably traps the migrants in the unending web of miseries. Marie argues that the price of illegality is the constant fear of being caught by the police or landing in jail. The debt-ridden migrants are further ambushed in the interminable snares of debts and liabilities, and futilely stay back in Oman in the hope of repaying loans. Marie concludes that debt-ridden migrants and their families not only do not benefit from the efforts made to go abroad, but most often end up in enhancing poverty than reducing. The economic turmoil followed by partition, poverty, religious affiliation, geographical proximity and volatile political situation led to a large outflow of migrants from Pakistan to GCC countries. G. M. Arif, Shujaat Farooq and Nasir Iqbal focus on the uneven geographical pattern of migration to the Gulf from Pakistan and highlight the regional disparities in the utilization of remittance and also narrate its impact. Migration from Pakistan to GCC countries is not properly represented across the country as majority of the migrants to the Gulf are from central and north Punjab province followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, North-West Frontier Province and to a lesser extent from South Punjab. The authors argue that the migration from poorer regions of country, notably, Sindh, Balochistan and South Punjab is very low, which invariably affects the development of these regions. The uninterrupted flow of the young generation to the Gulf has substantially reduced the unemployment and level of poverty in higher migration regions of Pakistan. However, the authors opine that the higher level of poverty and underdevelopment in the poorer districts consistently coincides with the low level of overseas migration. The article pointed the preference of return migrants to shift from wage employment to self-­employment which invariably helps to create jobs for non-migrants as well in the higher migration districts. In addition, the article highlights the exemplary impact of migration in education and health sector largely in the migrant-dominated districts and alerts the lack of migration-promoting institutions in the poorer regions of the country. Finally, the article makes few policy recommendations to improve the skill-oriented overseas migration from the poorer regions and also for the stronger dissemination of information and opportunities. Bilesha Weeraratne examines the recent trends, current situation and future outlook of labour migration from Sri Lanka to the Gulf countries. Sri Lanka, the island country of South Asia, was a victim of ethnic conflicts and violent bloodshed for nearly three decades. The recent acceleration of migration to the Gulf is attributed to the political turmoil in Sri Lanka. She pointed that remittance is the single largest foreign exchange-earning component in Sri Lanka and 55% of the remittances have been received from the Gulf countries. While Sri Lanka is the main source for women domestic workers, the recent trend shows an overall decline in the flow of women migrant workers to the Gulf region from the country. Moreover, the mandatory requirement of Family Background Report since 2013 has also reduced the flow of female migrant workers from Sri Lanka. Bilesha highlights harsh working conditions in the Gulf region and pointed the frequent complaints of abuse against women workers mainly in Saudi Arabia. The author is quite cautioned about the volatile situation in the West Asian region and urges the government to formulate contingency plan to meet the unexpected repercussions in the future.

1  Asianization in the Gulf: A Fresh Outlook

13

Factors that prompted the Asian women to migrate to the Gulf region were mainly poverty, hunger, debt traps, oppressive social system, marital discords, ­alcoholism of the spouse and aspiration for the betterment of life. The women domestic workers are more likely to engage in precarious and perilous work while in the Gulf region (see also Kodoth 2015). Irudaya Rajan and Jolin Joseph explore the hapless and uncertain lives of the Indian domestic workers in Saudi Arabia, based on a broader study of low- and semi-skilled Indian migrants in Saudi Arabia carried out by the Centre for Development Studies, Kerala. Rajan and Jolin argue that despite the ongoing interventions at the origin and receiving states, domestic services within private households of Saudi Arabia remain among the world’s most undocumented, unregulated and invisible forms of employment. At the same time, these flows represent an important livelihood option for South Asian women. The authors systematically examine the migrant women’s structural and systemic frameworks that restrict their lives. Rajan and Jolin highlight that the accessible complaint mechanisms, enforcement of standards, recruiting agencies and sustained international cooperation with sending countries could greatly enhance the safety and security of the of the overseas domestic workers in the Gulf region. Finally, the authors appeal for a gender-inclusive migration policy to solve the vulnerabilities of migrant women in the Gulf region. The discovery of oil in the Gulf countries and the subsequent oil boom in 1970s initiated a huge wave of immigration from Kerala. The transnational nature of the Gulf migrants has also significantly influenced the class structure, social hierarchy, worship patterns, family structure and above all, religion and religiosity in Kerala. Ginu Zacharia Oommen attempts to explore how migratory movements and remittances affected the religion and religious practices in Kerala, thus, leading to a transformation of the society by examining the trajectories of Christians of Kerala. Oommen argues that the flow of remittances on the one hand, contributed to larger investments in churches/mosques/temples and religious establishments across Kerala, largely funded by migrants and Gulf-based associations; and on the other, to the prevalence of new and ostentatious religious practices, doctrines and rituals. Oommen pointed that reorientation of the lives of Christian immigrants living in the host country (Gulf countries) and the newly created wealth brings dramatic change in the lives and practices of Christians back home (in Kerala). The article focuses on the ‘remittances inspired’ social transformation of Kerala Christians and argues that the changes in religiosity and religious practices were in turn influenced by migrant experiences based on their religious beliefs in their host countries. The study asserts that migration-centred religious reorientation of Kerala Christians is abetting commodification of religion, assertion of communal identity, proliferation of radical religious groups and the emergence of new forms of worship in the Kerala society. The Indo-West Asian relations date back to antiquity and there had been close political, economic and cultural ties between the two regions throughout history. There was a significant presence of Indian trading communities across the Persian Gulf and there are evidences of regular visits of Indian scholars in the courts of Fathmids (Egypt) and Abbasids of Baghdad (Jain 1990, 1991, 2003). Prakash C. Jain presents a historical and sociological profile of Indian trade diaspora in the

14

S. I. Rajan and G. Z. Oommen

West Asian region. Jain pointed that Indo–Gulf ties had flourished in the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century and during this period that a number of Indian merchant c­ ommunities were firmly established throughout the Gulf/ Red Sea region. In the nineteenth century, Muscat hosted three distinct Indian business communities and Indian merchant communities also existed in Iran, Aden and the Trucial States. Jain noted that the Indians’ close proximity with the British had at times created problems and Indian merchants were viewed with suspicion and ‘as agents of British designs for Oman.’ Jain pointed that the age-old Hindu temples in Muscat reveal the historical and deep-rooted continuation of Indian merchant communities in the Gulf region (Allen 1981; Lorimer 1970; Mahajani 1960; Mangat 1969; Markovits 2000). What will happen to Asia–Gulf migration corridor in the future? During the global crisis, both migration and remittances were resilient in South Asia (Rajan 2012). The editors examine the future of Asian migration in the Gulf. At the time of writing this, the oil crisis has already set the minds of policy makers both in Asia and the Gulf. Will the same experience be repeated at least in the short run? We have to wait for the answer but the debate is on.

References Abraham, V., & Rajan, S.  I. (2012). Global financial crisis and return of South Asia migrants: Patterns and determination of their integration to local labour markets (Chapter 11). In S. I. Rajan (Ed.), Global financial crisis, migration and remittances: India migration report 2012 (pp. 197–224). New Delhi: Routledge. Allen, C., Jr. (1981). The Indian merchant Community of Masqat. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 44(1), 39–51. Arasaratnam, S. (1970). Indians in Malaysia and Singapore. Bombay: Oxford University Press. Arif, G.  M. (2009). Economic and social impacts of remittances on households: The case of Pakistani migrants working in Saudi Arabia (pp. 3–6). Geneva: International Organization of Migration. Baldwin-Edwards, M. (2011). Labour immigration and labour markets in the GCC countries: National Patterns and trend. Kuwait Programme on development, governance and globalisation in the Gulf States (Paper no. 15). London: London School of Economics. Bedi, S.A., Rajan, S.I., & Seshan G. (2016). Coming to Qatar: A snapshot of the experiences of Indian labour migrants (Chapter 8). In S. I. Rajan (Ed), India Migration Report 2016: Gulf Migration (pp. 106–121). New Delhi: Routledge. Bohra, P., & Massey, D. S. (2009). Process of internal and international migration from Chitwan, Nepal. International Migration Review, 43(3), 621–651. Calabrese, J.  (2009). The consolidation of Asia-gulf relations: Washington turned in or out of touch. Washington: The Middle East Institute Policy Brief. Chowdhury, M., & Rajan, S. I. (Eds.). (2018). South Asian migration in the Gulf. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. Datta, P. (2005). Feminisation of Nepali migration to India, International Migration Trends (pp. 47–61). Moscow: MAX Press. Gamburd, M.  R. (2010). Sri Lankan migration to the Gulf: Female bread winners  – Domestic workers. In Middle East Institute (Ed.), View points: Migration and the Gulf (pp.  13–15). Washington, DC: Middle East Institute.

1  Asianization in the Gulf: A Fresh Outlook

15

Hussain, Z. (2011). Immigration policies of the GCC countries: Implications and responses (Chapter 4). In S. I. Rajan, & M. Percot (Eds), Dynamics of Indian migration: Historical and current perspectives (pp. 93–163). New Delhi: Routledge. Hussain, Z. (2014). Nitaqat – Second wave of Saudization: Is it an answer to the domestic discontent? (Chapter 15). In S. I. Rajan (Ed), India migration report 2014: Diaspora and development. New Delhi: Routledge. Hussain, Z. (2016). GCCs immigration policies in the post 1990s: Contextualizing south Asian migrants. In P.  C. Jain, & G.  Z. Oommen (Eds), South Asian migration to Gulf countries: History policies and development. New Delhi: Routledge. Jain, P. C. (1990). Racial discrimination against overseas Indians: A class analysis. Delhi: Concept Publishing Company. Jain, P. C. (1991). The social implications of the Kuwaiti crisis: Refugees, returnees and peripheral changes. In A. H. H. Abidi & K. R. Singh (Eds.), The Gulf crisis. Delhi: Lancers Books. Jain, P. C. (2003). An incipient diaspora: Indians in the Persian Gulf region. In Bhikhu Parekh et al (eds) culture and economy in the Indian diaspora. London: Routledge. Jain, P. C., & Oommen, G. Z. (Eds.). (2016). South Asian migration to gulf countries. Routledge: History Policies and Development. Kabeer, L. (2007). Footloose’ Female Labour: Transnational migration, social protection and citizenship in the Asia region. International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Working Paper on Women’s Rights and Citizenship, IDRC, Canada. Kanchana, R, & Rajan, S. I. (2014). Indian migrant experiences in Oman and Bahrain (Chapter 14). In S. I. Rajan (Ed), India migration report 2014: Diaspora and development (pp. 193– 209). Ne Delhi: Routledge. Kapiszewski, A. (2006). In United Nations Expert Group Meeting on International Migration and Development in the Arab Region, Population Division, Beirut, United Nations Secretariat, 22 May (Ed.), Arab versus Asian migrant workers in the GCC countries. Kelegama, S., et  al. (Eds.). (2011). migration, remittances and development in South Asia (pp. 3–10). New Delhi: Sage. Kodoth, P. (2015). Stepping into the Man’s shoes: Emigrant domestic workers as breadwinners and the gender norm in Kerala (Chapter 3). In S. I. Rajan (Ed.), India migration report 2015: Gender and migration (pp. 26–43). New Delhi: Routledge. Kumar, K. (2016). Aspects of Indian migration in the Persian Gulf region, 1820–1947, in Prakash C Jain and Ginu Zacharia Oommen(eds) south Asian migration to gulf countries: History policies and development. New Delhi: Routledge. Lorimer, J. G. (1970). The Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia, Superintendent, Government Printing, Calcutta. Mahajani, U. (1960). The role of Indian minorities in Burma and Malaysia. Bombay: Vora and Co. Mangat, J. S. (1969). A history of Asians in East Africa. Oxford: Calrendon Press. Markovits, C. (2000). The global world of Indian merchants, 1950–1947: Traders of Sind from Bukhara to Panama. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Naufal, G., & Genc, I. (2014). Labour migration in the GCC countries: Past, present and future (Singapore Middle East Papers, no. 9, Vol. 2). Singapore: National University of Singapore. Naufal, G., Malit, F. T., & Genc, I. (2016). Contemporary Indian labour migration in the GCC region: Emerging challenges and opportunities. Chapter 5. In S. I. Rajan (Ed.), India migration report 2016: Gulf migration (pp. 63–74). New Delhi: Routledge. Oommen, G. Z. (2016). South Asian migration to gulf countries: Emerging trends and challenges. In P. C. Jain & G. Z. Oommen (Eds.), South Asian migration to gulf countries: History policies and development. New Delhi, Routledge. Ozaki, M. (2012). Worker migration and remittances in South Asia (South Asia Working Paper Series). Manila: Asian Development Bank. Panicker, K. S. (2013). Migration, remittances and development in South Asia. Diaspora Studies, 5(2), 219–224.

16

S. I. Rajan and G. Z. Oommen

Percot, M. (2006). Indian nurses in the Gulf: Two generations of female migration. South Asia Research, 26(1), 41–62. Percot, M., & Rajan, S. I. (2007). Female emigration from India: Case study of nurses. Economic and Political Weekly, 42(4), 318–325. Rajan, S. I. (Ed.). (2012). India migration report 2012: Global crisis, migration and remittances. New Delhi: Routledge. Rajan, S. I. (Ed.). (2016). India migration report 2016: Gulf migration. New Delhi: Routledge. Rajan, S. I. (Ed.). (2017a). South Asian migration report: Recruitment, remittances and reintegration. New Delhi: Routledge. Rajan, S. I. (2017b). South Asia-Gulf migration corridor: An introduction. In S. I. Rajan (Ed.), South Asia migration report: Recruitment, remittances and reintegration (pp.  1–19). New Delhi: Routledge. Rajan, S. 1. (2018). Demography of Gulf region (Chapter 3). In M.  Chowdhury & S.  I. Rajan (Eds), South Asian migration in the Gulf (pp. 35–59). Palgrave Macmillan. Rajan, S.  I. (2019). The crisis of gulf migration. Chapter 48, pp.849-68  in Cecilia Menjivar. In M.  Ruiz & I.  Ness (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of migration crises. New  York: Oxford University Press. Rajan, S. I, & Joseph, J. (2013). Adapting, adjusting and accommodating: Social costs of migration to Saudi Arabia (Chapter 9). In S. I. Rajan (Ed), Global financial crisis, migration and remittances: India Migration Report 2013 (pp. 139–53). New Delhi: Routledge. Rajan, S. I., & Joseph, J. (2015). Migrant women at the discourse–policy nexus: Indian domestic workers in Saudi Arabia (Chapter 2). In S. I. Rajan (Ed), India migration report 2015: Gender and migration. New Delhi: Routledge. Rajan, S. I, & Joseph, J. (2016). Gulf migration in times of regulation: Do migration controls and labour market restrictions in Saudi Arabia produces irregularity? (Chapter 12). In S I. Rajan (Ed.), India Migration report 2016: Gulf migration. New Delhi: Routledge. Rajan, S. I., & Joseph, J. (2017). Migration (in) flux: Impact of legislation on patterns and quantum of irregular mobility between India and Saudi Arabia (Chapter 14). In P. Fargues & N. M. Shah (Eds.), Skilful survivals: Irregular migration to the Gulf (pp. 269–292). Cambridge: Gulf Research Centre. Rajan, S. I., & Narayana, D. (2012). The financial crisis in the Gulf and its impact on south Asian migration and remittances (Chapter 5). In S.  I. Rajan (Ed.), India migration report 2012: Global financial crisis, migration and remittances (p. 74). New Delhi: Routledge. Rajan, S. I., Varghese, V. J., & Jayakumar, M. S. (2011). Dreaming mobility and buying vulnerability: Overseas recruitment practices and its discontents in India. New Delhi: Routledge. Ratha, D., De, S., Plaza, S., Seshan, G., Yameogo, N.  D., & Kim, E.  J. (2018). Migration and remittances: Recent development and outlook (Migration and development brief 30). World Bank: Washington, DC. Secombe, I. J., & Lawless, R. I. (1986). Foreign workers dependence in the Gulf and the international oil companies 1910-50. International Migration Review, 20(3), 548–574. Sohan, F. (2011). South Asia migrant commission. In S. Kelegama et al. (Eds.), Migration, remittances and development in South Asia (pp. 3–10). New Delhi: Sage Publications. Srivastava, R., & Sasikumar, S. K. (2003). An overview of migration in India: Its impact and key issues. Paper presented at the regional conference on migration, development and pro-poor policy choices in Asia, jointly organised by DFID, UK and RMMRU, 22–24 June, Dhaka. Surk, B., & Abbotarch, S. (2009). India steps up pressure for minimum wages for its Workers in the Gulf, International Herald Tribune, Dubai, 27 March. Tamimi al Nasser. (2013, June). Asia- GCC relations: Growing interdependence. ISPI, No. 179. Thimothy, R., & Sasikumar, S. K. (2012). Migration of women workers from South Asia to the Gulf. Research Project, NOIDA, V V Giri National Labour Institute, pp. 84–88. Tinker, H. (1974). A new system of slavery: The export of Indian labour overseas, 1830–1920. London: Oxford University Press.

1  Asianization in the Gulf: A Fresh Outlook

17

Varghese, V.  J., & Rajan, S.  I. (2011). Governmentality, social stigma and quasi-citizenship: Gender negotiations of migrant women domestic workers from Kerala. Chapter 7. In S.  I. Rajan & M. Percot (Eds.), Dynamics of Indian migration: Historical and current perspectives (pp. 224–250). New Delhi: Routledge. Wickramasekara, P. (2011). Labour migration in South Asia: A review of issues, policies and practices, international migration paper-no.108. Geneva: ILO. Williams, N., et al. (2010). Nepali migrants to the Gulf cooperation countries: Values, behaviors and plans. In M. Kamrava & Z. Babar (Eds.), Migrant labour in the Persian Gulf. New York: Colombia University Press. Winckler, O. (2010). Labour migration to the GCC states: Patterns, scale and policies. Washington, DC: Migration and the Gulf, The Middle East Institute. Zachariah, K. C., Prakash, B. A., & Rajan, S. I. (2004). Indian workers in UAE: Employment, Wages and Working Conditions. Economic and Political Weekly, XXXIX(22, May 29), 2227–2234. Zachariah, K. C., Rajan, S. I., & Joseph, J. (2014). Kerala emigration to Saudi Arabia: Prospects under the Nitaqat law (Chapter 16). In S. I. Rajan (Ed.), India migration report 2014: Diaspora and development (pp. 229–248). Routledge.

Chapter 2

Labour Migration in the Gulf Cooperation Council: Past, Present and Future George Naufal and Ismail Genc

Abstract  In a relatively short period of time, the Gulf region has positioned itself as the third most important labour-importing region in the world. Embarking on ambitious development projects and taking advantage of regional factors, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries were able to provide a safe haven for millions of workers over the last four decades. The movement of workers to the region was so large that it altered the demographic structure of the GCC countries. Foreigners constitute on average more than half of the population in the region and in some countries, they are more than 80%. This chapter examines three periods of this migration phenomenon. First, we briefly summarize the history of labour migration to the region focusing on what made the Gulf a lucrative destination for many. Second, we provide an update on the current situation of the labour force in the region. Finally, in the third part, special attention is given to future opportunities and challenges that labour markets in the Gulf region are most likely to face.

Introduction The Gulf region consists of six countries which make up the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), namely, the Kingdom of Bahrain, the State of Kuwait, the Sultanate of Oman, the State of Qatar, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the State of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).1 The Council intends to unify the member coun-

 For a macroeconomic analysis of the GDP of the GCC countries altogether, see Genc and Termos (2011). 1

G. Naufal (*) Public Policy Research Institute (PPRI), Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA IZA Institute of Labor Economics, Bonn, Germany I. Genc The American University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 S. I. Rajan, G. Z. Oommen (eds.), Asianization of Migrant Workers in the Gulf Countries, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9287-1_2

19

20

G. Naufal and I. Genc

tries on a range of political and economic issues of which labour, especially foreign labour forms the most prominent concern.2 This is because all of these countries rely on the foreign labour force to man their tremendously large economies compared to indigenous populations. Not only are the countries relatively new in the international political landscape, but they lack educated and competent talent to handle the challenges and opportunities that a natural resource economy presents.3 For example, other than Saudi Arabia, the remaining countries gained their independence in 1971 (Oman in 1964). The large oil wealth, the insufficient local population, relatively high labour compensation, and stable political environment in the GCC have come together to open the door to one of the largest movement of people in recent history. These are some of the most frequently cited reasons for migration in the literature.4 Although the reliance on the expatriates is less severe in Saudi Arabia and Oman with under 30% of the foreign labour force, the percentage of expatriates hovers around 90% in Qatar and 70% in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait. These figures have built up over time thanks to the conditions mentioned above. However, the stock of the expatriate labour force evolved over the course of history with the addition of people from different national backgrounds. The researchers have identified two main waves/strands of migration to the Gulf region, which can be stated in the form of the following hypotheses5: H1. Before 1990s, there were large numbers of Arabs in GCC. H2. Arabs used to come as families. The next section discusses migration trends to the GCC countries in more detail and specifically explores the two hypotheses listed above.

Trends in the Migration History of the GCC We collect data on migration to the GCC from the World Bank’s World Databank covering Global Bilateral Migration for the period of 1960–2000 decade by decade. We concentrate our attention to two different regions of the world which send  For legal reasons, foreign labourers are called expatriates in the GCC as they are not allowed to immigrate to the countries they work. They are there at the status of ‘guest workers’ for which reasons a better term is ‘expatriates’ to convey the transitory nature of the work environment. Nevertheless, we will use all these concepts for academic purposes only as they are understood in the literature. 3  The GCC crude oil production as a share of the world’s production in 2010 is 21% (Naufal and Genc, 2012). 4  For a review of the literature on migration, including to the Gulf, over several decades refer to Todaro (1969), Harris and Todaro (1970), Bartel (1979), Stark (1984), Birks, Seccombe and Sinclair (1988), Russell (1989), Khalaf and AlKobaisi (1999), Posel (2002), Fargues (2004), de Haas (2007), Richards and Waterbury (2008), Adams (2009), Naufal and Termos (2009) and Naufal and Vargas-Silva (2010). 5  See Naufal and Genc (2012) and references therein for a detailed discussion on the issue. 2

2  Labour Migration in the Gulf Cooperation Council: Past, Present and Future

21

Table 2.1  Annual growth rates of various expatriate groups at different time intervals (%) Period 60–90 90–2 K

Female Arabs 13.68 1.05

Asians 14.18 2.23

EB 9.90 1.28

Male Arabs 14.21 1.23

Asians 13.53 2.32

EB 8.60 2.52

All Arabs 14.06 1.18

Asians 13.73 2.29

EB 9.01 2.09

Notes: Period refers to the beginning and the end of the years for which the growth rate is computed. The 60–90 is the 1960–1990 period while 90-2 K refers to the 1990–2000 period. EB stands for Eastern Bloc. Source: World Bank

labourers to the GCC countries, that is, the Asian countries (Group 1), Arab countries (Group 2), and Eastern Bloc countries (Group 3). These are the most frequently cited labour-sending regions of the world to the Gulf.6 The first group (Group 1) includes Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. The second group (Group 2) has Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Sudan, Yemen, Morocco, and West Bank and Gaza (as Palestine). And the third group (Group 3) includes Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Moldavia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. It goes without saying that this is not an exhaustive list of the countries which send labour to the region. For example, there are guest workers at many levels of business and academia from the Western countries, as well. Nevertheless, the list for which we gather data is pretty comprehensive.7 Immigrant population is firstly divided into groups of males and females, and secondly totalled by the country groupings indicated above. As we lack a frequently observed dataset, we resort to the growth rate, gX, formula for a variable of interest, say X, which allows non-consecutive observations yielding annual growth rates: 1



æ X ö t -s g X = ç t ÷ - 1, è Xs ø

where t and s are two dates (years), which are not necessarily consecutive but where t > s. The next subsections examine the empirical validity of the two hypotheses listed above as they are portrayed by literature on migration. H1. Before the 1990s, there were large numbers of Arabs in the GCC To test our first hypothesis, we compute the annual growth rate of various expatriate groups who were in the GCC at different time intervals based on the aforementioned formula. The results are in Table 2.1. Arabs and Asians were the major immigrants in the region due to historical, geographical, and cultural reasons. This trend continued well into 1990s supported by the economic windfall of the region

 Genc and Naufal (2013).  Further, these countries are at the heart of the migration and development research agenda that Clemens (2013) passionately called the GCC countries to consider. 6 7

22

G. Naufal and I. Genc

thanks to its natural resources, in particular, the oil and natural gas. This phenomenon is clearly observed in Table 2.1 as the growth of Asians and Arabs are almost identical prior to the 1990s. Eastern Bloc countries are latecomers to the labour markets in the Gulf as the table attests. Nevertheless, there is a dramatic shift in the source of labour in the GCC in the 1990–2000 period. Although all immigrant categories suffered heavy losses in the latter period, the decline in the Arab group is much more pronounced than in other groups. Naufal (2011) and Naufal and Genc (2013) also arrive at the same conclusion by studying the change of direction in the remittances in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Given that the GCC constitutes a significant portion of the remittance-sending countries in the MENA, the non-GCC countries are the major beneficiaries of the operation. The authors observe that there is a structural break in remittances around the 1990s, where the largest portion of remittances thereof leaves the region, presumably heading to Asia. This finding is anything but the anomaly as shown in the existing literature. For example, Choucri (1986), Birks, Seccombe and Sinclair (1988), and Kapiszewski (2004) have all made similar observations around this time frame. To reiterate our point, we display the immigration data in Figs. 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3. We equate the initial observation in 1960 to 100 to discern the pattern of growth over time. In the female category of workers, Arabs make up the majority until the 1990s after which Asians take over. Asian female labour migrant population growth rate surpasses that of Arabs earlier than the 1990s. We conjecture that the earlier shift in the labour policy of the Gulf as stated in Choucri (1986) must be due to the impact of the change in the female population. Those who find the shift in later

7000 6000 5000 4000 3000 2000 1000 0 1960

1970 Asia

1980 EB

1990 Arab

NB: 1960 value is equated to 100. Fig. 2.1  Immigration number – all females (NB: 1960 value is equated to 100)

2000

2  Labour Migration in the Gulf Cooperation Council: Past, Present and Future

23

7000 6000 5000 4000 3000 2000 1000 0 1960

1970 Asia

1980 EB

1990

2000

Arab

NB: 1960 value is equated to 100. Fig. 2.2  Immigration number – all males (NB: 1960 value is equated to 100)

7000 6000 5000 4000 3000 2000 1000 0 1960

1970 Asia

1980 EB

1990

2000

Arab

NB: 1960 value is equated to 100. Fig. 2.3  Immigration number – all (NB: 1960 value is equated to 100)

times are probably observing the behaviour of the male migrant population whose growth rate among Arabs decline after the 1990s as compared to Asians. This claim is further supported by the same behaviour discerned for the All migrant graph. The migration literature lists political and economic causes behind the shift in the employment policies of the GCC countries (Russell 1989, 1992). Those who prefer the political explanation cite the First Gulf War which divided GCC and non-­ GCC MENA countries in, broadly defined, opposite camps. After the war, GCC

24

G. Naufal and I. Genc

countries retaliated with deporting citizens from countries which did not align with the position of the GCC. Those who advance economic explanations for the change in the labour policies cite the well-known financial portfolio theory which advocates the diversification of financial investment for the purposes of risk aversion (or at least risk minimization). By that logic, it is not wise to rely on a small number of countries to meet the labour needs of the region, which would mitigate the bargaining power of the Gulf in labour negotiations with labour-sending countries.8 On a side note, we would like to address a likely observation of readers regarding the tremendous decline in the growth rate of immigrants in the 1990–2000 period compared to before. There could be several explanations. One of them is that perhaps it took a long time for foreigners to come back to the GCC in the aftermath of the war in the Gulf in 1991. Or alternatively, we can say that the labour market in the region has attained a somewhat steady state given the more mature economic structure in the post-1990s period versus the earlier times. Therefore, the region now needs less growth in the labour force, especially foreign labour to satisfy the demand. All in all, one finds that the population growth rate of the region in the 1960–1990 period is 5.1%, whereas it is more than halved in the 1990–2000 period with 2.2%. Additional support for this observation comes from the UN migration data which find even negative net migration stock for the 1990–1995 and 1995–2000 periods. H2. Arabs used to come as families Our second hypothesis points to a typical family structure in the Middle East. Arab men do not travel abroad without the family, especially if the workplace is in the Middle East. Unfortunately, we do not have historical data on the family composition of the expatriates in the region. We proxy the family structure by computing the differences between the number of male and female migrants in the GCC region for the two largest groups – Arabs and Asians. No one would deny the fact that males and females do not necessarily represent families, but given Arab culture, chances are the foreign Arab women in the region are with their families. Hence, as shown in Table 2.2, the male–female difference among the two largest expatriate groups in the Gulf seems to be always greater/larger on the Asian side. We can guardedly say that there is at least some evidence that Arabs came to the Gulf with their families. Table 2.2  Difference between male and female expatriate populations in the GCC Year 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000

M–F Asia 35,157 110,761 583,272 1,360,446 1,726,037

M–F Arab 22,075 109,966 541,133 1,289,434 1,470,383

Source: World Bank  This could be thought as the typical case of a monopoly.

8

2  Labour Migration in the Gulf Cooperation Council: Past, Present and Future

25

Incidentally, some researchers emphasize a particular characteristic of the Arab labour force, which is their tendency to stay on in the region rather than leave. This, then, counters the notion of the ‘guest worker’ idea that the policymakers in the region have in mind when importing foreign labour. Therefore, Asian workers are more readily willing to come to the Gulf for a transitory period and return home after their visa expires.9 While the previous analysis has provided new data evidence on migration trends in the GCC countries, the next section provides a brief summary of current demographics of foreign workers in the Gulf region.

Current Labour Force Profile Since we discussed the migration trends in previous sections, we now would like to turn to the current picture in the region. Obviously, we need data on current statistics to conduct this analysis. However, one of the main difficulties in studying migration and labour markets in the Gulf region is the lack of data available. The GCC countries have not systematically collected and disseminated data on foreign workers residing in the region. With the advancement in the World Wide Web, several of the GCC countries have slowly started to share some information using their government institutions’ webpages.10 Although the data shared does not provide enough in-depth coverage of the foreign and local labour force and is difficult to match across the GCC countries, it is still considered a step in the right direction. Having said that, that step is still far from doing justice to the importance of the region in current international migration flows. To complement official efforts to disseminate existing migrant data, the Gulf Research Center (GRC) and the Migration Policy Centre (MPC) at the European University Institute (EUI) have just launched the Gulf Labour Markets and Migration (GLMM) initiative to collect, organize, clean and disseminate data on Gulf labour markets.11 The following section uses data from both official and GLMM sources in order to shed light on the demographics of the foreign population in the Gulf. Figure 2.4 shows the latest estimates of the share of foreigners from the total population in each GCC country in 2013 for Oman, Kuwait and KSA. In the case of Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE, the number reflects 2010 values. Foreigners constitute on average, 62% of the population in the Gulf region with the highest numbers  This should not, however, give the wrong impression that everybody duly obeys the law. See, inter alia, Kapiszewski (2001), Shah (2008) and Shaham (2008). 10  Some of these initiatives include Open Data Platform in Bahrain, government online in Kuwait, Omanuna initiative in Oman, Qatar census in Qatar, Saudi in KSA, and the National Bureau of Statistics in the UAE. 11  The Gulf Labour Markets, Migration, and Population (GLMM) website can be seen at www. gulfmigration.edu, at this moment it only includes data on Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and some aggregate statistics on the region. 9

26

G. Naufal and I. Genc

100

Percentage

80 60

88.5

85.7 68.5 54

43.7 32.4

40 20 0 Bahrain

Kuwait

Oman

Qatar

KSA

UAE

Fig. 2.4  Share of population as foreigners. (Source: GLMM database – demographic and economic database 2014)

569

Men per 100 Women

600

466

500

420

400 300

293

287 209

200 100

101

93

Bahrain

Kuwait

102

99

102

100

0 Oman

Men per 100 Women Non-Nationals

Qatar

KSA

UAE

Men per 100 Women Nationals

Fig. 2.5  Nationals and non-nationals sex ratio. (Source: GLMM database  – demographic and economic database 2014)

found in the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait. If one puts these figures in terms of absolute numbers, then the Gulf region is home to more than 30 million migrants. An interesting aspect of migration to the Gulf region is its distinct gender bias towards males. Most of the low-skilled jobs are manned by South Asian men while female migration from neighbouring Arab countries is more difficult due to traditional and cultural reasons. Fig. 2.5 highlights this gender imbalance by showing a ratio of more than four foreign men to one foreign woman in half of the GCC countries (Oman, Qatar, and the UAE).12 The smallest migrant gender disproportion is found in Kuwait but the number of men is still twice that of women. The gender  The data for Bahrain and the UAE reflect 2010 statistics, Kuwait and Qatar reflect 2012 and Oman and Saudi Arabia’s numbers are for 2013. 12

2  Labour Migration in the Gulf Cooperation Council: Past, Present and Future

27

distribution of migrant workers is consistent with the shift in the source of labour from Arab towards South Asian workers. The skewed distribution of migrant population by gender is also mirrored in the age distribution with more than 80% of foreigners being of working age (between 15 and 64) (Fig. 2.6). Interestingly, the share of the population above 65 is very similar across nationality, reflecting a very young local population. While Figs. 2.4, 2.5, and 2.6 have focused on the demographic side of the total population in the GCC countries, Fig. 2.7 presents the distribution of the employed population. In all GCC countries, working foreigners outweigh the number of working locals, with large differences in all of them (foreigners constitute at least 70% of the working population) except in Saudi Arabia. Out of the employed population in Qatar and the UAE, more than 90% are foreigners. All the previous statistics and figures divide the population into nationals versus non-nationals. Historically, most GCC countries did not publicly provide in-depth breakdowns between nationals, using instead a more generic distribution for national security concerns. We use Kuwait as a case study due to the availability of data that include the distribution of foreigners by ethnicity. Figure 2.8 presents the share of Arabs, Asians, Westerners and Africans out of the total foreign population. This means that 55% of the foreign population comes from Asian countries (mainly South Asian countries) while 41% comes from neighbouring Arab countries. In terms of gender, Asian females constitute 17% of the foreign population while Arab females make up 14%. Males constitute 66% of the foreign population. Finally, out of the total foreign population, 48% is the share of employed Asians while the figure is 20% for Arab workers. This suggests that 29% of foreigners in 90

84

80

Percentage

70

60

60 50 40

37

30 20

15

10

4

1

0 0-14

15-64

65+

Age Nationals

Non-Nationals

Fig. 2.6  Age distribution by nationality: GCC countries. (Source: GLMM database  – demographic and economic database 2014)

28

G. Naufal and I. Genc

93.8

100 90 80

82.8

92.9

77.4

74.8

Percentage

70

56.5

60

43.5

50 40 25.2

30

22.6

17.2

20

7.1

6.2

10 0 Bahrain

Kuwait

Oman

Employed Non-Nationals

Qatar

KSA

UAE

Employed Nationals

Fig. 2.7  Distribution of employed population by nationality. (Source: GLMM database – demographic and economic database 2014)

60%

55% 48%

50% 40%

41% Arabs Asians

30% 20% 10% 0%

14% 1% 3% Population

Westerners

20%

17%

Africans 1% 2%

Female

1% 2% Employed

Fig. 2.8  Share out of total foreign population in Kuwait (2012). (Source: GLMM database  – demographic and economic database 2014)

2012 were not employed. Although not reported in Fig. 2.9, out of the foreign Arab population, 49.7% were employed in 2012, while for Asians workers, this number was 86.8%. The large discrepancy between the percentages of Arabs versus Asians working is due to fundamental differences in migration patterns, skill levels and cultural distinctions; all documented in the Gulf migration literature. We next look at the unemployment and labour force participation rates in Kuwait for 2012. Figures 2.9 and 2.10 show that unemployment rates for both Kuwaitis and foreigners are very similar and vary between 1.2% and 3.6%. Female unemploy-

2  Labour Migration in the Gulf Cooperation Council: Past, Present and Future

3.6%

29

3.4%

2.6%

1.2%

Unemployment Rate for 2012 Kuwaiti Male

Kuwait Female

Foreigner Male

Foreigner Female

Fig. 2.9  Unemployment rate in Kuwait (2012). (Source: GLMM database  – demographic and economic database 2014)

84%

52% 36%

30%

Labor Force Participation Rate for 2012 Kuwaiti Male

Kuwait Female

Foreigner Male

Foreigner Female

Fig. 2.10  Labour force participation rate in Kuwait (2012). (Source: GLMM database – demographic and economic database 2014)

ment rates are higher. The picture is very different when one considers the labour force participation rates. Male foreigners have the highest participation rates (84%) while both male and female Kuwaitis have 36 and 30% rates of participation. Even foreign female participation rate is higher than 50%. It would be interesting to further examine the foreign female participation rate by Arab and Asian ethnicity, but unfortunately, the data are not available.

30

G. Naufal and I. Genc

Table 2.3  Occupation by nationality and gender – Kuwait 2012

Senior officials and managers Professionals Technicians Clerks Service/sale workers Agriculture workers Craft workers Production supervisors Regular work professionals Not stated

Kuwaitis Male Female

Arabs Male

Female

12% 15% 32% 31%

12%

29%

11% 19%

22% 14%

26% 15% 52%

10% 12% 20%

Asians Male

Female

24%

82%

27% 22% 21%

Notes: Authors’ calculations using data from the GLMM database – demographic and economic database 2014

We then focus on the occupation of the main three components of the population: Kuwaitis, Arabs and Asians. The last two constitute more than 95% of the foreign population living in Kuwait in 2012. Table 2.3 highlights the distribution of workers by occupation. We only show the percentage if it is at least 10% to avoid cluttering the table and to allow the reader to clearly distinguish the difference in occupations by nationality and gender. For instance, 32% of Kuwaiti males work as clerks. What is clear from Table 2.3 is the concentration of Kuwaitis in the upper-level occupations such as professionals, technicians and clerks while Arab and Asian males are found in the production sectors. Arab females work as professionals, service work or are not stated while Asian females are mainly found in service and sales work. While the above brief analysis has presented some data on the current population in the GCC and labour in Kuwait, one has to acknowledge the limitations of the data and therefore analysis. 13 What is available on the foreign (and local) labour force in the Gulf region is scarce at best and mainly descriptive. The data cannot be used to draw comparisons across different GCC countries since they either differ by definition, collection, year or availability (Naufal, 2014). Further, the data are not good enough to examine correlations and causal effects to draw policy implications. Despite the growing efforts in creating, organizing and disseminating data on migration in the Gulf, we are only at the beginning and there is still a lot left to do in order to be able to study the determinants and effects of migration and remittances in the GCC countries. Ultimately, these studies would bring policy recommendations to better deal with the challenges and opportunities that the region is facing. This is the main topic of the next section.

 For a more thorough analysis of the latest available data on the Gulf region, refer to Naufal (2014). 13

2  Labour Migration in the Gulf Cooperation Council: Past, Present and Future

31

Challenges and Opportunities of the GCC Countries The GCC countries embarked on ambitious development plans two decades ago, updating their infrastructure and building financial and tourist sectors. These projects have made the region one of the top labour-receiving regions in the world, second only to traditional and historical destinations (North America and Europe). These development projects, while significant and very ambitious, do not even come close to the ones the region is about to embark on in order to host the Dubai Expo 2020 and the World Cup 2022  in Qatar. With such tremendous expected growth, one has to wonder about future challenges and opportunities in its labour markets that the region might be facing. We first identify the current and future concerns for local governments, that is, the development of the local human capital. With cheap and abundant foreign workers available, the incentives for local labour to invest in its own human capital are weak. In fact, the GCC countries at this point can afford to be very meticulous and choosy in terms of whom to bring into the region, because they face an almost horizontal supply of labour. The Gulf region can import labour from all non-GCC Arab neighbouring countries that are suffering from political instabilities (Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria and Lebanon). In addition, other countries that are not struggling with instability are facing dire economic conditions. Difficult economic situations are being faced not only by neighbouring Arab countries but also by South and East Asian countries (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Nepal) and African countries. Even Western countries have struggled with the latest economic and financial crisis (Spain, Greece, Portugal among others) giving the GCC countries a huge potential pool of skilled western workers, not just unskilled workers. In fact, one can estimate the size of the potential pool of foreign workers to exceed two billion people. Even though the GCC countries have an unlimited supply of labour at their disposal, local governments have invested heavily in human capital development through education, training and initiatives to employ local labour in the private sector. So far, these initiatives have not brought the needed results (Naufal, 2014). In certain sectors such as health, the need for increased participation from the local labour market is very high. Due to the nature of migration to the region, most foreigners are temporary workers and therefore turnover is high. This brings additional costs and has long-term consequences on areas like business reputation and quality of service, to name a few. Another concern comes in the form of demographic changes in the local community. The GCC countries are experiencing declining levels of fertility in two decades that Western countries achieved over centuries. Late marriages and increasing levels of female education have contributed to this drop in fertility (Al Awad and Chartouni, 2010). With the exception of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the GCC countries have a total population of fewer than four million. The local population is actually less than one million for each of the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain and is less than

32

G. Naufal and I. Genc

two million for each Oman and Kuwait.14 Facing a growing economy with declining fertility levels and an already small local population means that the Gulf region will always be depending on a large population of foreign workers. Given that expectation, better data on migration are crucial to not only study the effects of mobility and remittances on local Gulf economies, but also to contribute to the international debate on the relationship between migration and development. A recent study by Seshan and Yang (2014) is a fine example of desperately needed empirical evidence from the region. Another consequence of demographic trends in the GCC countries is the changing role of women in the labour market. More local females are entering labour markets in the region. The increasing labour force participation rate of females in the Gulf does not only have implications on the fertility rate, but also on other social aspects such as the marriage market. More local females are not only marrying at a later age, but are also are marrying foreigners. This is contributing to a growing trend of local men choosing foreign women as wives. The GCC countries in the near future will face a growing generation of mixed locals, triggering a re-examination of national identity and belonging in the context of a population that is no longer as ethnically and culturally monolithic. In fact, the UAE government has not shied away from discouraging locals from marrying foreigners.15 While demographic concerns will bring serious challenges to the local populations in the region, other economic worries are also looming on the horizon. Most of the economic growth and improved standards of living are reflections of the large supply of natural resources that the Gulf region enjoys, specifically hydrocarbon resources. Gulf countries have always relied heavily on the oil sector and while they have spent significant efforts to diversify the local economy, the region is still far from oil independence. What could potentially bring more competition to the GCC countries is the emergence of shale oil in several countries, specifically large economies such as the US (Sultan, 2013). The implications of shale oil and shale gas extractions on the Gulf region are still not clear and may remain that way in the near future. However, the GCC countries have to take into consideration possible long-­ term repercussions on their budgets and the ability to maintain support for the local population.

Conclusions In a relatively short period of time, the Gulf region has positioned itself as the third most important labour importing region in the world. By embarking on ambitious development projects and taking advantage of regional factors, the GCC countries were able to provide a safe haven for millions of workers over the last four decades.

14 15

 Authors’ calculations using GLMM database.  See Al Sadafy (2012) and Sherif (2012).

2  Labour Migration in the Gulf Cooperation Council: Past, Present and Future

33

Large natural reserves endowment, significant and continuous political instability in the region, and weak economic performance of neighbouring economies all contributed to the status of the Gulf region as a labour destination hub. The movement of workers to the region was so large that it altered the demographic structure of the GCC countries. Foreigners constitute on average more than half of the population in the region and in some countries, they are more than 80%. The average male-to-­ female ratio is 3.7 across the Gulf and in some instances reaches as high as 5.6 (Oman). This article examines three periods of this migration phenomenon. Firstly, we briefly summarize the history of labour migration to the region focusing on what made the Gulf a desirable destination for many. Secondly, we provide an update on the current situation of the labour force in the region focusing on Kuwait due to data availability. Finally, in the third part, special attention is given to future opportunities and challenges that labour markets in the Gulf region are most likely to face. What we find is that the region was an attractive migration destination for non-­GCC Arabs for historical and cultural reasons until the early 1990s and they used to come with their families. However, the trend has changed thereafter. South Asians have become the most preferred source of foreign labour in the region, especially in the low-skilled labour market. While the source countries of labour differ over time, the reason for moving and the type of the move to the Gulf has not. People move to the region because of job opportunities and wage differential. The move is almost always temporary. The GCC countries do not offer an opportunity to permanently settle (citizenship). This historical trend seems to have taken root in the region in terms of changing dynamics of the population and more importantly, in the labour force. Not only is the concentration of non-locals increasing in the region, but it is also changing demographic and lifestyle tastes among the locals. Governments’ efforts to induce local labour force growth and participation have not yielded the desired outcome so far and face tremendous challenges in the future. On the one hand, foreign workers are simply cheaper to hire. They are more readily available, more flexible (in terms of geographical location), and are more experienced than their local counterparts. That said, every private business owner would have clear preference towards foreign workers versus local labour. On the other hand, working in the private sector is not appealing to the local labour force. The intensive job requirements (working hours and often work-related stress), and lack of job security relative to the public sector, coupled with generous welfare system have directed the interest of the local workforce towards the public sector. The key struggle of the GCC governments is to alter the incentives of both, that is, private business owners and the local labour force. The Gulf region offers a fantastic opportunity to study migration. On one hand, it hosts large numbers of foreign workers and is growing economically, but on the other hand, it is constrained by a small local population. These three factors lead to a potentially increasing demand for workers. In other terms, the opportunity is here to stay. Unfortunately, most of the current research is descriptive and therefore highly speculative and the need for policy-oriented academic studies should remain a priority not only for local governments but also for international organizations as well.

34

G. Naufal and I. Genc

References Adams, R. (2009). The determinants of international remittances in developing countries. World Development, 37(1), 93–103. Al Awad, M., & Chartouni, C. (2010). Explaining the decline in fertility among citizens of the GCC countries: The case of the UAE. Institute for Social and Economic Research, working paper 1. Al Sadafy, M. (2012, January 20). Emiratis advised to not wed foreign women. Emirates 24|7 News. Accessed on March 3, 2014. Bartel, A. (1979). The migration decision: What role does job mobility play? American Economic Review, 69(5), 775–786. Birks, J., Seccombe, I., & Sinclair, C. (1988). Labor migration in the Arab Gulf States. International Migration, 26(3), 267–286. Choucri, N. (1986). Asians in the Arab world: Labor migration and public policy. Middle Eastern Studies, 22(2), 252–273. Clemens, M. (2013). Seize the spotlight: A case for gulf cooperation council engagement in research on the effects of labor migration. Center for Global Development, Essay. de Haas, H. (2007). Remittances, migration and social development: A conceptual review of literature. Geneva: United Nations Research Institute for Social Development. Fargues, P. (2004). Arab migration to Europe: Trends and policies. International Migration Review, 38(4), 1348–1371. Genc, I. H., & Naufal, G. (2013, February 19). Women migrants, remittances and their impact in the GCC region: Towards a more supportive social and policy environment. The White Paper presented to Tamra for Western Union (WU), Sharjah, UAE. Genc, I.  H., & Termos, A. (2011). Is there a catch-up effect in the Gulf? The Middle Eastern Finance and Economics, 15, 197–207. Harris, J., & Todaro, M. (1970). Migration, unemployment, and development: A two-sector analysis. American Economic Review, 60(1), 126–142. Kapiszewski, A. (2001). National and expatriates: Population and labour dilemmas of the GCC states. Reading: Ithaca Press. Kapiszewski, A. (2004). Arab labour migration to the GCC states. Arab Migration in a Globalized World, Conference organized by International Organization for Migration in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2003. Khalaf, S., & AlKobaisi, S. (1999). Migrants’ strategies of coping and patterns of accommodation in the oil-rich gulf societies: Evidence from the UAE. British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 26(2), 271–298. Naufal, G. (2011). Labor migration and remittances in the GCC. Labor History, 52(3), 307–322. Naufal, G. (2014). The economics of migration in the Gulf cooperation council countries” forthcoming in Regional studies: Persian Gulf in the Handbook of the economics of international immigration edited by Barry R. Chiswick and Paul W. Miller, Elsevier B.V. Naufal, G., & Genc, I. (2012). Expats and the labor force: The story of the Gulf cooperation council countries. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Naufal, G., & Genc, I. H. (2013). Structural change in MENA remittance flows (July 2013), IZA Discussion Paper Series, IZA DP No. 7485. Also Naufal, G. and I. H. Genc. Structural change in MENA remittance flows. NEP-ARA Blog: Discussion about the latest research in the economics of the MENA – Middle East and North Africa, posted on August 5, 2013. The blog is hosted by the Editorial Board at NEP-ARA.  Paul Makdissi (Editor), University of Ottawa. Available at http://nepara.wordpress.com/ Naufal, G., & Termos, A. (2009). The responsiveness of remittances to price of oil: The case of the GCC. OPEC Energy Review, 33(3/4), 184–197. Naufal, G., & Vargas-Silva, C. (2010). Remitters in Dubai. Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, 146(4), 769–780.

2  Labour Migration in the Gulf Cooperation Council: Past, Present and Future

35

Posel, D. (2002). A review of current literature and recent research on migration in southern Africa. University of Witwatersand, Johannesburg: WISER  – Agincourt Programme of Migration Research. Richards, A., & Waterbury, J. (2008). A political economy of the Middle East. Boulder: Westview Press. Russell, S. (1989). Politics and ideology in migration: Policy formulation: The case of Kuwait. International Migration Review, 23(1), 24–47. Russell, S. (1992). International migration and political turmoil in the Middle East. Population and Development Review, 18(4), 719–727. Seshan, G., & Yang, D. (2014). Motivating migrants: A field experiment on financial decision-­ making in transnational households. Journal of Development Economics, 108, 119–127. Shah, N. M. (2008, October). Irregular migration and some negative consequences for development: Asia-GCC context. Discussion Paper prepared for the Civil Society Days of the Global Forum on Migration and Development, Manila. Shaham, D. (2008). Foreign labor in the Arab gulf: Challenges to nationalization. Al Nakhlah: The Fletcher School Online Journal for Southwest Asia and Islamic Civilization. Sherif, I. (2012, June 29). Think before marrying a foreigner: Study. Gulf News. Accessed on 3 Mar 2014. Stark, O. (1984). Migration decision making: A review article. Journal of Development Economics, 14(1), 251–259. Sultan, N. (2013). The challenge of shale to the post-oil dreams of the Arab Gulf. Energy Policy, 60, 13–20. Todaro, M. (1969). A model of labor migration and urban unemployment in less developed countries. American Economic Review, 59(1), 138–148.

Chapter 3

Understanding Labour Migration Policies in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries Zahra R. Babar

Abstract  In light of mounting international criticism over the living and working conditions for many migrant workers in the region, over the past few years, many of the Gulf Cooperation Council governments have initiated reforms in relation to their mechanisms for governing regional migration. Critical interventions have been initiated to address problems that have arisen as a result of the kafala or worker sponsorship system, as well as to mitigate shortfalls within regional labour law. This chapter will examine the evolution of Gulf labour migration policies, contentious areas which have come under criticism by proponents of migrant workers’ rights, and current reforms that are underway.

Introduction With the discovery of oil in the middle of the last century, the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates began a process of development which changed these countries at multiple levels. In addition to the transformation of the region’s physical landscape, manifesting in the mushrooming of sky-high cities of steel and glass, the other emphatic reminder of what petrodollars have brought to the Persian Gulf is glimpsed in the region’s distinctive demography. From about the 1960s onwards, the arrival of immense hydrocarbon wealth rapidly fuelled expansive development projects across the region, resulting in a demand for manpower that far outstripped what was indigenously available. With their small populations and low levels of citizen participation in the workforce, the GCC states began to import large numbers of foreign workers to meet their domestic labour needs (Kamrawa and Babar 2012). Over the course of the past five decades, there has been little indication that this reliance on an externally sourced labour supply is diminishing, and currently about 43% of the

Z. R. Babar (*) Centre for International and Regional Studies (CIRS), Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar, Ar-Rayyan, Qatar © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 S. I. Rajan, G. Z. Oommen (eds.), Asianization of Migrant Workers in the Gulf Countries, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9287-1_3

37

38

Z. R. Babar

population across the Gulf is made up of foreign workers (Fargues 2011; Edwards 2011). While determining the exact number of migrants at any given time is not simple, given both fluctuations in the number of arrivals and departures and the lack of easily accessible and transparent data, recent estimates indicate that there are about 20 million migrants present in the region (Lori 2012). According to the United Nations, all six of the GCC countries are listed amongst the top 20 nations in the world boasting on the highest proportion of migrants to nationals (Razgallah 2008). Foreign labour comprises a majority of five out of six of the GCC countries national workforces, and only in Saudi Arabia very recently have nationals begun to outnumber foreigners in the labour market (Lori 2012). Foreigners dominate the labour force, as well as constitute an absolute majority of the populations of Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) (Lori 2012). The demographic breakdown in some of these countries is quite unique – in Qatar and the UAE, for example, over 90% of the total population and over 95% of the workforce is foreign – a condition which is not replicated anywhere else in the world. Foreign workers in the Gulf come from a variety of countries, but in recent times the largest cohorts originate from the African and Asian continents (Kapiszewski 2006). While the majority of this foreign labour force consists of ‘unskilled’ or ‘low skilled’ workers, typically engaged in low-paying positions in sectors such as construction, skilled migrants also populate a host of professional positions, particularly in the private sector.1 Thus, oil wealth has turned this small, historically sparsely populated, arid corner of the world into the third largest hub of global migration. This region has also increasingly become a site of contestation for what are in fact globalized debates over migration. Much of the international discussion on Gulf migration fixates on regional specificities, and highlights the particularly egregious nature of local practices of migration management. Yet, these debates that draw attention to the lack of basic rights’ protections given to Gulf migrants, ignore the fact that migration policy and practice in the region is certainly informed by global migration policymaking and practices. Criticism of the Gulf migration system is equally relevant if applied in many other countries of destination. At the most fundamental level, the implementation of national immigration policies by all states often inherently clashes with the basic human rights of migrants. In recent years, of the multiple sites of contestation on issues of migration – for example, in the southwest of the United States, in Europe or in Australia’s territorial waters – the Persian Gulf region has emerged as an area of intense study and scrutiny by scholars and human rights’ advocates. The Gulf region, in fact, is receiving an inordinate deal of scrutiny insofar as the rights of migrants are concerned, and much of this scathing attention appears to be divorced from global migration policies and practices.  In Qatar, for example, where foreigners far outnumber locals in the labour market, non-nationals account for the bulk of jobs across most sectors. But in spite of this, 72% of the foreign population is engaged in lower-income categories or ‘elementary occupations’. The average ‘foreign worker’ in Qatar is male and works in the construction sector. For more on this please see: Fancoise De Bel-Air, “Demography, Migration, and Labour Market in Qatar”, Gulf Labour Markets and Migration Research Note, No. 8, 2014. 1

3  Understanding Labour Migration Policies in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries

39

Gulf Migration Policy and Practice In the GCC, the policymaking and management of migration has evolved within each state’s national context, based on their national interests and needs. As is the case in most other nation-states, each Gulf country maintains strict control over who has entry rights to its sovereign territory, and who can reside and participate in the domestic labour market. While migration policies have developed as per national requirements, the GCC policies reflect a degree of similarity due to comparable labour market conditions. Internal discussions of labour migration amongst GCC nationals and policymakers also reflect similar concerns. It needs to be stated that GCC policymakers have repeatedly asserted that viewing foreign workers based in the region as ‘migrants’ is in fact incorrect (Lori 2012). The GCC is not a destination for traditional migration leading to settlement, and region-wide, the system is structured to only grant foreign workers opportunities for temporary cycles of employment (Kamrava and Babar 2012). A common concern that frames much of the national debates on migration centres on the demographic ‘imbalance’ in the Gulf, with foreigners outnumbering locals in several of GCC states. Another common feature to GCC states’ migration deliberations is that this reliance on a foreign workforce is framed as a temporary condition, despite the fact that in reality the phenomenon has persisted for decades now and shows no indication of disappearing. Additionally, all six GCC countries stress their commitment to establishing a citizen workforce, and suggest that once they are successful in this goal they will no longer have an unhealthy dependency on foreign workers. It is within the context of these common themes or anxieties that Gulf migration policies have developed. For several decades, in all six GCC states the migrant labour population has been governed through the kafala, or worker-sponsorship system. This system was historically rooted in traditional Bedouin practices of tribe members standing as personal guarantors for visitors, and evolved out of local Gulf customs of hospitality and protection offered to strangers (Longva 1997). In its present-day rendition, the kafala creates a direct relationship between each labour migrant and his citizen-­ sponsor or kafeel, and binds each migrant worker to a particular job for a specified period of time. The kafeel maintains control over a worker’s mobility for the duration of his or her stay in the Gulf, and a migrant’s visa status is thus tied to his continued employment with his sponsor. Workers cannot change their place of employment nor exit the country without obtaining prior approval from their sponsor. In addition, the kafala is grounded by the contractual agreements which are signed between foreign workers and their sponsors. These contracts, particularly for the lower skill categories of migrants, are usually drawn up for a 2-year period of employment and residency, but may be renewed or extended. Upon the completion of the contracted period of employment, sponsors are responsible for ensuring that workers are immediately repatriated to their country of origin. Both the kafala and the labour contracts are structured so as to ensure that migrants’ stay in the Gulf States is of a temporary nature, and tied to their employment statues. There are

40

Z. R. Babar

almost no pathways to obtaining permanent settlement or citizenship. Migrants may choose to engage in repeated cycles of employment within one or more of the GCC states, interspersed with periods of repatriation home. Several of the Gulf States have instituted reforms to their citizenship laws to allow for processes of naturalization. However, the multiple and onerous conditions which must be met by applicants means that hardly any migrants qualify for naturalization (Babar 2014). The kafala and the labour contracts they are girded in have placed employers in an advantageous position vis-à-vis their sponsored employees at multiple levels. This system that privileges the needs and interests of citizen-employers in essence also provides them with a central role in managing regional migration (Gardner 2010). While the states and their apparatus of course administer much of this migration system, citizen-employers and private sector actors such as labour recruiters and manpower agencies have increasingly assumed a central role in governing the lives of migrants to the Gulf. Gulf States have often asserted that national labour laws provide the necessary corrective and are there to check bad practices. Employers are bound to comply with the labour laws that have been crafted to ensure that workers’ basic rights are protected. In each of the GCC states, labour law provides for a host of specific protections for foreign migrants and curtails the potential workers’ exploitation. Laws established include: stipulations that licenced recruiters are not allowed to receive any recruitment fees or costs from the migrant workers; that contracts should include details of the work that is to be undertaken and need to be signed in advance of the worker’s departure from his home state; that the wages that are to be paid for the same work are agreed to in the contract, and are to be paid in a timely manner. Regional labour laws also provide elaborate regulations on maximum working hours, paid leave, annual leave, sick leave, health and safety rights, and compensation for injuries sustained in the work place. The highly unequal power dynamics between worker and citizen-employer through the kafala arrangements, and the inability for labour laws to adequately protect migrants’ rights have been raised by international organizations. There have been frequent calls for Gulf States to dismantle the kafala, and for regional government to accept a greater degree of responsibility in ensuring that their labour law is complied with.

Reforming the Gulf Migration System Increasingly, GCC governments have acknowledged the limitations of the kafala, and over the past few years are showing a more vigorous engagement with addressing shortfalls in migration governance. Several of the GCC states have initiated reforms to tackle the most problematic elements of the kafala, but at this stage we have not seen a complete dismantling of the sponsorship system. In 2009, the government of Bahrain omitted one of the more restrictive practices of the sponsorship system, by enacting a ‘mobility law’ allowing migrants to change employers

3  Understanding Labour Migration Policies in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries

41

without requiring the approval or consent of their sponsors. In 2011, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates followed suit, and also allowed foreign workers to change places of employment without needing their sponsor’s permission or losing their visa status. In 2010, Kuwait also changed its labour law to establish minimum wages for foreign workers and domestic workers. In May 2014 Qatar announced a series of labour law reforms, which include a renaming of the kafala, the removal of restrictions on changing places of employment (in certain cases) and the establishment of a ‘Grievances Council’ as a space of mediation for foreign workers who are facing challenges from employers wishing to deny them the exit permits necessary to leave the country. Further to these, broader reforms to regional labour law and new programmes targeting some of the most frequently occurring infringements of workers’ rights have either been implemented or are in the process of being executed in several of the GCC states. The UAE pioneered a system for electronic validation and registration of workers contracts (Al-Ramahi 2014; Barakat 2014). The purpose of this is to bypass deceitful recruiters and Gulf employers who often misinform potential migrants in the sending countries about their job conditions. The electronic registration of workers contracts necessitates that UAE employers provide information of a worker’s contract through an online application which is vetted by the Ministry of Labour. This application process ensures a full disclosure of all the details of the work contract, including, information on wages, the sort of work that is to be undertaken, working hours and benefits. The Ministry of Labour in the UAE processes the application, and then passes the contract on directly to the responsible recruitment agency in the sending country. The agency in the sending country is required to obtain the worker’s attested consent, and a duly designated government agency also accesses the record for the purpose of reviewing the terms of employment prior to granting emigration clearance. Once these steps have been followed, the Ministry of Labour will register the legally binding work contract and issue a work permit. While the UAE was the first GCC to develop system, other GCC countries have committed to adopt similar electronic mechanisms for ensuring that contracts are transparent and open. The Wage Protection System (WPS) is another recent programme adopted by several of the GCC states, that is meant to ensure that workers are receiving their full wages and in a timely manner.2 Initially launched in 2009 by the Ministry of Labour in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have also adopted the system. Starting in December 2016, Qatar has also introduced a WPS, requiring employers to transfer salaries directly to employee bank accounts within 7 days of their due date to avoid fines; the requirement of online bank transfers is to ensure employer accountability as well as simplify both monitoring and employee complaints (Zahra 2016). The WPS creates a link between the citizen-employer, the country’s central bank

 For more on this, please see the United Arab Emirates Ministry Of Labor website: UAE, Ministry of Labor, Wage Protection System Guideline, 2009. http://www.mol.gov.ae/newMolGateway/english/wpsGuidelineEng.aspx#3 2

42

Z. R. Babar

and the Ministry of Labour to ensure timely and accurate payment of workers. Additional areas of reform under discussion by the GCC are as follows: • Adopting of a unified draft contract for domestic workers. • Establishing processes for direct recruitment and bypassing recruiting agencies. • Creating stronger mechanisms for dispute settlement between workers and employers. • Enhancing the capacity of the Ministries of Labour by increasing the number of labour inspectors; • Banning mid-day outdoor work during the summer months. • Increasing the financial penalties for the illegal confiscation of workers’ passports (Financial Times 2014; Al Jazeera 2014; Ministry of Interior 2015).3 Given that contract-related and salary issues are consistently the areas where migrant workers most frequently express dissatisfaction, such measures to address specific shortfalls are indeed positive. Developing standards and policies which serve to improve workers’ rights and also strengthen the role of the state in enforcing labour law are good steps forward. However, none of these reform processes are willing to actually consider a systematic reconfiguration of the status of migrant workers within the host state. Past experience with reform in the GCC has largely occurred as a result of domestic pressures and rather than external ones (Ehteshami and Wright 2007; Rathmell and Schulze 2000). While over the past 5 years, almost all the GCC states have taken measures to reform and realign the kafala, there continues to be strong domestic incentives to maintain some sort of system which carefully controls migrants’ entry into and participation in the local labour markets. For example, despite severe international criticism and pressure to address shortfalls in the labour migration system, the pace of change in Qatar has remained very slow. While there seems to be acceptance that reform is inevitable, the state is grappling with how to implement labour reforms without creating instability in the domestic political milieu. Beginning in early 2014, key Qatari government figures made public comments on proposed reforms to the kafala system, but these statements were made cautiously and indicated that the state was reluctant to challenge the status quo head-on (Booth et al. 2014; Bollinger 2014; Qatar Today 2014). Most recently, Qatar provided revisions to its labour law in December 2015 which were fully implanted by December 2016. Amongst other reforms, Law No. 21 of 2015, the ‘Law on the Regulation of Expatriates’ Right to Entry, Exit and Residence’ has withdrawn (the somewhat politicized) the use of the word kafala from labour law when identifying the designated employer/sponsor of a foreign worker (Zahra 2016). Instead being identified as a ‘sponsor’, the employer is now to be referred to  “Gulf States to reform contracts of domestic workers,” Financial Times, November 2014, http:// www.ft.com/cms/s/0/82c820aa-756b-11e4-a1a9-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3POyJ3hyL; “Qatar promises to reform ‘kafala’ labour law,” November 16, 2014, http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/11/qatar-promises-reform-kafala-labour-law-2014111661154969555.html; “Qatar Announces Wide-Ranging Labour Market Reforms,” May 14, 2015, http://www.moi.gov.qa/site/ english/news/2014/05/14/32204.html 3

3  Understanding Labour Migration Policies in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries

43

as the ‘recruiter’ of a foreign worker. This change in official terminology demonstrates the Qatari government’s keen sensitivity to the fact that the kafala system as whole has gained global notoriety. Law No. 21 modifies the previously existing full control that employer-sponsors maintained over the mobility of their employees. While previously foreign workers were unable to exit Qatar without the explicit permission of their employers, under the new reforms foreigners may now contest their employers’ denial of an exit permit at the newly established Committee on Expatriates’ Exit Grievances if they feel that the denial is unfairly grounded.4 Additionally, the law against employers’ rights to hold their employee passports (a common complaint made by many foreign workers) has been strengthened, with greater penalties and higher fines now established. These tighter laws also apply to cases where employers have provided written evidence to suggest that they have been holding passports because they are requested to do so by their workers (De Bel-Air 2015a). With respect to the transfer of sponsorship, the new law provides some amendments to previous legislation, primarily granting the Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Interior with a greater role in the process. While previously foreign workers could not change their place of employment without the explicit permission of their employer-sponsor (in the form of a No Objection Certificate), Law 21 allows foreign workers to change their jobs via directly submitting a request to do so to the Ministry of Labour, either after completing their fully contracted period of employment (if employed on a limited duration contract), or else after completing 5 years of employment (on an open-­ended contract). The reforms also allows for the Ministry to intervene and allow a foreign worker to change his or her job in cases where they have faced abuse and exploitation or if the transfer is ‘deemed to be in the public interest’ (Al Jazeera 2016). In addition to Law No. 21, the Qatari government has over the past several years adopted new measures to address some of the concerns around the treatment and care of foreign workers which have received international attention. In 2014 the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Decision No. (18) for the year 2014 was adopted specifically to address issues relating to the substandard living conditions of lower-income foreign workers. This decree has mandated that employers are bound to provide housing to their workers that is set to certain national standards. Decision No. 18 of 2014 provides detailed stipulations regarding what is considered adequate in terms of workers’ housing. Employers must provide basic furnishings such as a bed, mattress, air-conditioner, refrigerator, gas oven and a full water closet with a water heater for their workers. The decree also sets minimum standards for cleanliness and sanitation as well as safety and health standards for all workers’ accommodations. In addition, it is mandated that there must be an adequate number qualified resident nurses or doctors on site, if the number of workers in the accommodations exceeds 100. The decree does not allow employers to deduct any money from workers’ wages for housing equipment and maintenance. Another common feature of recent GCC labour reforms is the effort to increase the number of Gulf nationals in the labour force, with particular focus on expanding  Article 7, Qatari Law No. 21 of 2015.

4

44

Z. R. Babar

the hiring of citizen workers in the private sector. There is a variance amongst different GCC states in terms of how vigorously they are pursuing their plans to ‘nationalize’ their labour forces, based on internal pressures and the differing domestic contexts of the six states. The Saudi Arabian government, which faces a legitimate and grave challenge in providing public employment to its burgeoning youth population, has shown the greatest commitment amongst the GCC states in terms of prioritizing the expansion of citizens’ employment. This is clearly demonstrated through the 2011 ‘Nitaqat’ reforms adopted in Saudi Arabia, with the specific aim of expanding ‘Saudization’ of the labour force and gradually replacing foreign workers in the Saudi private sector (De Bel-Air 2015a). The programme is largely driven by concerns about Saudi dependency on foreign labour combined with increasing demographical pressures as a result of high Saudi population growth rates and anticipated increases in the coming years as a result of women’s growing participation in the work force (De Bel-Air 2015a). The underlying concern of the regime is that unless employment and economic concerns of the citizen population are met, social and political stability could be eroded through a growth in public anti-government sentiments (De Bel-Air 2015a). The Nitaqat both incentivizes and rewards Saudi employers who are able to increase their number of Saudi employees through a system of financial subsidies and tax cuts (De Bel-Air 2015a). Companies in Saudi Arabia are measured and scored based on the percentage of their employees who are Saudi citizens, and tiered along categories that are colour-coded from red to platinum, with red designating a company’s poor performance in terms of attracting/hiring/retaining citizen-­ employees and platinum companies demonstrating that they are top performers who are successfully hiring locals. The Nitaqat provides additional rewards to companies successfully applying affirmative action programmes that succeed in employing women, nationals with disabilities and other designated groups of citizens (De Bel-Air 2015b). Any company failing to meet the green status faces punitive measures, including fines for foreign workers deemed to be ‘redundant’ and limited ability to issue work visas for new foreign hires (De Bel-Air 2015b). From the perspective of the Saudi government, the initial results of the Nitaqat programme seemed promising, as between September 2011 and the end of 2013, the number of Saudi workers had increased by 1,063,669, about 430,000 (40% of which were women (De Bel-Air 2015b). Of this employment increase, however, around 40% of new job creations were in the public sector and while the rest were in private sector positions, during the same time frame, 67% of private sector jobs still went to non-nationals (De Bel-Air 2015b). The programme therefore largely failed to deliver the increase in Saudi-held private sector jobs. In response to these shortcomings, the Saudi government launched the ‘balanced Nitaqat’ in 2016 to address the failures of the original programme to deliver the desired reductions in unemployment among Saudi citizens, especially women. The new, revised programme hopes to increase Saudi women’s labour market participation from 22% to 30% as part of the Saudi Vision 2030 (Halligan 2016). The Nitaqat measures have, however, been met with apprehension from Saudi Arabia’s foreign workforce, especially those who are already working in the coun-

3  Understanding Labour Migration Policies in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries

45

try and whose career prospects are at risk under Nitaqat efforts to increase Saudi citizens’ employment figures. Exacerbated by the economic downturn brought on by low oil prices, 2016 saw reports of thousands of Indian workers left without a job, sufficient funds to buy food and the necessary exit permits to leave Saudi Arabia (Venkataramakrishnan 2017). The situation worsened to the point that the Indian External Affairs Minister got involved and vowed to help the unemployed Indian citizens unable to leave Saudi Arabia (Balachandran 2017). These issues have been partially attributed to the government’s Nitaqat reforms, which have encouraged employers to replace foreign labourer with Saudi nationals, leading to layoffs of foreign workers. There are concerns that the situation of the Indian diaspora in Saudi Arabia may become increasingly precarious now that the ‘balanced Nitaqat’ programme is set to expand the number of sectors included in the Saudization project (Kasim 2016). There is clearly a gender imbalance when it comes to Gulf migrants, and existing data clearly indicate that the vast majority of migrants present in the region are male.5 However, there is a discernible pattern that shows that female migration has also increased over the past few years (Manseau 2017). Migrating to the GCC is appealing to women as much as it is to men, as it offers them the opportunity to increase income generation to support their families and their communities, to potentially expand their skill-sets and broaden their horizons. While women migrate to the Gulf for a variety of employment opportunities, and increasingly we see that skilled and highly skilled foreign women are entering the labour markets, most of the existing research on female migrants to the region looks at female domestic workers. It is extremely difficult to assess the total number of female domestic workers in the GCC, and there are wide variations between official data released by the states estimates and put forward by international organizations. The estimates vary from suggesting that there are about one million to upwards of three million domestic workers currently working in the GCC (Fernandez 2014). Previous research demonstrates that female migrants to the GCC are even more vulnerable to violation of their rights, particularly if they are engaged in the domestic work sector (Fernandez 2014). Women are more likely to be exploited at pre-­ departure points in their states of origin, by recruiters who actively misinform them about wages and job conditions awaiting them in the Gulf (Philipose 2012; Nicola Piper 2003). Women tend to also not have the same economic resources as men do to cover the costs of formal migration, so may be more likely to migrate through irregular and thus unsafe channels. Upon arrival in the Gulf to take up occupation, women will find that as domestic workers they are excluded from protections afforded through national labour law. In essence what this means is that domestic workers are left completely to the mercy of their employer-sponsors and have little legal recourse should they face situations of exploitation and abuse. The only binding document that these women have in hand are the work contracts signed between  For example, the Qatar Statistics Authority released date in 2014 which indicated that only 17.6% of the foreign population in Qatar is female. Women migrants also make up only 11.4% of the foreign labour force. 5

46

Z. R. Babar

themselves and their employers. These contracts which are meant to specify responsibilities, duties and obligations of both parties are frequently problematic. Contracts often do not contain correct information on wages, maximum work hours, weekly days off, paid annual leave and other benefits. The GCC states have come under increasing pressure to address the outstanding problems relating to protection for domestic workers, and over the course of the past 2 years there have been regionwide discussions on reforming the regulation of the domestic work sector. There is little indication that the reform process will extend national labour law to cover the domestic work sector, rather efforts have been focused on strengthening workers’ contracts and enacting piecemeal legislation to address some of the areas of contention. For example, in 2013 Saudi Arabia introduced new regulations which stipulate mandatory daily rest hours for domestic workers, weekly holidays and paid leave on a bi-­annual basis (Fernandez 2014).

GCC Regional Migration Platforms Regional and international frameworks for managing migration are becoming a preferential route for states that wish to engage on the issue of migration and migrants’ rights, but are not willing to consider accession to the Migrant Workers Convention. While the GCC states have not to date formally harmonized policies for managing migration, they have begun to take a more proactive role in addressing the issue as a bloc. In 2005, GCC countries, as observers, attended the annual meeting held under the Colombo Process. The Colombo Process brings together a number of migrant-sending countries of Asia, and is primarily concerned with the protection of overseas workers. Building on this involvement, and spearheaded by the United Arab Emirates, all six of the GCC states in 2008 launched the Abu Dhabi Dialogue. The Abu Dhabi Dialogue is a regional consultative process on labour migration to the Gulf. It serves to bring labour sending countries from South and Southeast Asia together with labour receiving countries of the Gulf, with the aim of addressing the concerns of both. The Abu Dhabi Dialogue, however, evolved primarily as a response to increasing international sounds of alarm around migration management in the Gulf, as opposed to out of strictly GCC-based concerns. Efforts such as the Abu Dhabi Dialogue underlie the fact that in the GCC there is recognition that improvements in migration governance are necessary. The region continues to bring in scores of migrant workers on an annual basis, and these flows do not appear to be diminishing any time soon. Given the increasing scrutiny being given to the issue of migrants’ rights at the international level, maintaining their domestic requirements without drawing censure requires the regional leadership to show dexterity and skill. Importing non-national workers to meet domestic labour needs brings with it benefits as well as costs. Non-nationals can be brought in quickly – and in most cases cheaply – to meet labour needs as and when required on a project-by-project basis. They can also be easily released and sent back to their countries of origin when no longer needed. There is, however, considerable discus-

3  Understanding Labour Migration Policies in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries

47

sion amongst both state actors and local citizens about the potential costs of hosting such large numbers of non-nationals for long periods of time. These costs are not merely economic in nature, but are also potentially social and cultural as well. The massive influx of foreigners from all over the world is often seen as a threat to national heritage and cultural values, and even a latent threat to political stability.

International Migrants’ Protections From about the middle of the last century, international workers’ rights organizations began to acknowledge that unless migrant workers were included under national labour law, the climate for promoting the rights of workers in societies in general would be eroded. The International Labour Organization (ILO) pioneered the initial efforts towards including migrants’ rights within global discussions on workers’ rights. The preamble to the ILO’s 1919 constitution highlights this commitment by explicitly mentioning the organization’s interest in serving workers who are ‘employed in countries other than their own’ (ILO 1919). Over the decades, several international labour standards and migrants’ rights conventions have been put forward by the ILO, and adopted by a host of countries. In addition to the eight fundamental rights provided in the 1998 ILO Declaration on Fundament Principles and Rights at Work, specific instruments such as those which provide for wage protections, occupational health and safety, employment policies, labour inspections, social security provisions and domestic workers’ rights comprise the host of ILO conventions which address the needs of labour migrants. There are four migrant-specific instruments that have developed under the ILO’s aegis: (1) the 1949 Migration for Employment Convention, (2) the 1949 Migration for Employment Recommendation, (3) the 1975 Migrant Workers Convention and (4) the 1975 Migrant Workers Recommendation. These ILO migrant-specific instruments are complemented by a host of United Nations’ international human rights mechanisms, which are applicable to all people regardless of their nationality. Of the United Nations’ core human rights protocols, the one most relevant to migrant workers is the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1990 and entered into force in 2003. The United Nations convention broadens the discussion of migrants’ protections beyond the realm of securing their labour rights, already established through the ILO instruments, and strives to establish more holistic set of norms regarding migrants’ inclusion in national human rights agendas. While the ILO conventions focus primarily on securing migrants’ economic rights and protections within their working environments, the UN convention stipulates the more general needs of securing adequate social and cultural rights for migrants, and promotes the expansion of earlier views which conceived of labour migrants as purely economic agents. Increasingly, migrants’ rights agendas have built on this recognition and seek to address their social and cultural exclusion within host states. Within these global debates the remaining area

48

Z. R. Babar

of rights that migrants continue to still be excluded from are political rights; political rights are normatively accepted as been reserved for citizens alone. The evolution of special protections for migrants within the domain of international human rights discussions has not been a seamless one. There continues to be a persistent ambiguity within international norm-setting in terms of determining how and exactly to what extent the needs and interests of non-citizen populations are to be accommodated by sovereign states. In an environment of increasing surveillance and hyper scrutiny of interstate travel, and where a latent threat to states’ interests comes head-to-head with the cross-border mobility rights of individuals – state sovereignty seems to be trumping over multiple areas of migration governance. The ILO instruments, the UN convention and subsequent multilateral frameworks for migration all recognize that migration is a transnational phenomenon, impacting millions of individual migrants, countries of origin, countries of transit and countries of residence and seek to establish and harmonize basic principles around the treatment of migrant workers that take into account the needs and interests of different stakeholders. The UN convention highlights the particular situation of vulnerability to which migrant workers and their family members are exposed.6 Migrants’ designation as a category of persons of vulnerability arises in the first place from the fact that they are not in their country of citizenship, and thus do not enjoy the usual rights and protections that citizens are accorded. The convention is embedded in the understanding that the rights of migrants have been insufficiently addressed by states, and thus there is a need for supranational agreement to establish protections that are specific to migrants’ particular conditions. In themselves, conventions are to a degree structurally deficient, as they do not come with enforcement mechanisms, and it is largely left up to the signatory states to ensure their compliance. In terms of drafting national laws, states are left to their own devices, but with the expectation that having signed on to a specific convention, they will attempt to not undermine the spirit of the convention through the ways in which they implement it domestically. Parties to a United Nations convention are also provided with a loophole, in that they can become signatories to a convention while also inserting a ‘reservation’ or caveat which exempts them from certain commitments upheld in the agreement. A number of Arab states have on occasions inserted reservations upon becoming signatory to various human rights conventions, reserving their rights to not abide by the clauses or articles which are at variance with Islamic law or practice. Regardless of the limited enforcement capacity of international conventions within sovereign states’ domestic domain, becoming a signatory to universally recognized agreements such as UN conventions is a significant step forward in declaring a state’s intentions and obligations. Becoming party to such conventions does  For further elaboration of this point, please see: “The International Convention on Migrant Workers and its Committee”, Fact Sheet No. 24 (Rev.1), Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, (New York and Geneva: 2005), http://www.ohchr.org/ Documents/Publications/FactSheet24rev.1en.pdf 6

3  Understanding Labour Migration Policies in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries

49

impose upon the signatory state the commitment to recognize certain inalienable human rights. Several of the GCC states have taken active steps to become signatory to a host of UN agreements, including amongst them: the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; the Convention on Ending Discrimination Against Women; the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. However, none of the GCC states are signatories to any of the specific migrant conventions. Becoming party to international agreements on human rights may be problematic for many countries. These conventions propose a principle of universality, where it is accepted by all signatories that certain rights or protections are granted on a basis which supersedes the state’s sovereignty or authority. Many states dispute the principle of universality, and argue that this principle does not allow for the exceptional circumstances that some states may face, nor does it allow for differences in religious, social and cultural practices. The GCC states have grappled with how to appropriately incorporate or adopt many universal principles on human rights, and how to negotiate accession to the various United Nations conventions on rights and protections. It needs to be stated, however, that the Gulf region is not exceptional in its reluctance to adopt the Convention on Migrant Workers. Of the 47 countries that are party to the convention, almost all are labour-sending nations rather than host states. None of the Western migrant-receiving states, including the traditional immigration hubs of North America, Australia and most of Europe have signed on to the Convention, and as such, the treaty is not in effect in those parts of the world most heavily populated by labour migrants (The International Convention on Migrant Workers and its Committee 2005). The primary challenge to its ratification lies in the perception by most states that the Convention would encroach too deeply on their sovereign rights. It is an interesting fact that out of the eight core international human rights conventions, the Convention on Migrants Workers is the one that has been so strongly resisted in the West, and is often referred to as the ‘orphaned’ Convention. It is clearly the lack of political will in the domestic milieu of labour-­ receiving states that remains the primary obstacle towards the treaty’s ratification. This reluctance demonstrates that expanding the rights of migrants is universally a politicized issue. The contradiction seems to lie in how different stakeholders conceive of migrant workers’ rights in the first place. For the United Nations and assorted human rights organizations, migrants’ rights are largely conceived of as being essentially in the same basket as internationally recognized and accepted human rights. These rights arise from our common understanding that all human beings have a basic dignity which is to be protected above other considerations and regardless of their country of citizenship. However, from the perspective of labour-­ receiving states, migrants’ rights are considered to be directly linked to national immigration policy rather than to human rights platforms. As such, creating or broadening commitment to migrants’ rights impinges on the state’s ability to imple-

50

Z. R. Babar

ment policy decisions that best serve their national interest in terms of effectively managing migration.7 Growing levels of globalization coupled with increasing labour shortages in certain segments of the labour market in the developed world have led to a situation where many temporary jobs are being filled by labour migrants. As a result, for labour-receiving states throughout the world there is increasingly an interest in limiting the rights of temporary migrants to those rights that are most closely associated with their economic and employment status. There is a convergence in the development of immigration policies adapted to suit contemporary circumstances, with a growing set of restrictions being imposed on migrant workers’ access to important social and cultural rights, such as the access to education and skill training, health services, family reunification and social security. These restrictions are largely justified on the basis of the temporary nature of these workers’ residence in the host country. Governments have been searching for migration policies that suit their national interests, and significant attention has been directed at those programmes and policy frameworks that support the flow of temporary labour migrants rather than permanent ones. These policies address national labour shortages by importing workers for short periods of time, but remove the need for integration, marginalize pathways to citizenship and reinforce the concept of migrants existing in a host state solely as economic agents. Global ways in which labour migration are currently been discussed and thought of, such as the migration and development discourse promoted heavily by many international bodies, or the circular migration framework, continue to demonstrate that there is an evident disconnection between the promotion of universal human rights and the management of migrants’ rights. When viewed through the migration and development lens, migrants are conceived of largely as autonomous economic agents who, through the experience of entering foreign labour markets, are able to generate incomes for themselves, contribute to the development of their host country and through financial and social remittances also contribute to the development of their home states. Labour migration is thus conceived of as a structural necessity of the world we live in, and the role of states is to effectively and seamlessly manage migration flows to ensure that there are ‘win–win–win’ developmental outcomes for individual migrants, host states and countries of origin. Circular migration, which is currently being heavily promoted in Europe and whose language we are seeing used more frequently by GCC governments, also adopts a similar positivist posture of linking migration with successful economic outcomes for states and migrants alike. Positing labour migrants as independent economic actors who choose to take up temporary periods of employment overseas in order to meet certain economic goals before a return home, endows them with far greater agency and choice than they in reality have. Framing current patterns of temporary migration within the circular migration framework alleviate the anxieties of labour-sending states that have not managed to establish healthy economic opportunities to keep their citizens at home,  For elaboration on this argument please see Martin Ruhs, The Price of Rights: Regulating International Labor Migration, (Princeton University Press: 2014). 7

3  Understanding Labour Migration Policies in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries

51

while it also assuages the disquiet of host countries who wish to fill their labour market shortages through inexpensive pools of foreign labour, but without necessarily accommodating the needs or interests of these foreign workers beyond those linked with their employment conditions. Both the migration and development and circular migration frameworks conceptually reinforce the notion that according migrants limited rights which are associated with their ‘temporary-ness’ and linkage to their labour status is normatively acceptable.

Conclusion Almost all the labour reforms already established, underway, or under discussion in the GCC are largely tied to a common perception that it is migrants’ working conditions, relationships with their employers and structural status as ‘workers’ that is impinged upon through a lack of adequate state protections. This replicates the prevailing global discourse on migrant workers, which tend to view migrants’ vulnerabilities as located principally in their status as purely economic agents, and who are in need of economic protections and deserving of a protection of their associated economic rights. The broader human rights doctrine which conceives of migrants as human beings with agency, in need of broader social and cultural fulfilment, deserving of personal respect and human dignity, appears to lack salience not only at the regional level of the Gulf, but also at the international level. Labour migration is thus accepted as a practical necessity of the development demands of the region’s political economies, a positive contributor to the development needs of the labour sending states as well as a natural element of the global economic structure. While migration policy in the Gulf has developed in response to specific national and region-wide challenges, it is also informed by broader, global shifts in the discourse on migration. Throughout the world, peoples’ mobility across borders is more and more scrutinized and embedded in issues of state sovereignty and governance. Borders are being made less permeable, channels for permanent settlement for new migrants are being narrowed, pathways to inclusion and participation pared down and criterion for citizenship made more stringent. Beyond the impersonal machinery of the state clamping down on potential migrants, it is also the politicization of immigration debates and public sentiment in the developed world that indirectly supports these policies. Indeed, throughout the developed world, recent trends indicate public opinion moving sharply against migration. Much of this hinges on anxieties of governments and citizenry around the presence of new streams of migrants who could become eligible for rights of full citizenship and place added pressures on the socio-economic and political capacity of the state. Framing migration as a threat to the development of politically and economically viable societies is a global phenomenon that is leading to a global climate of migration fear. Invariably, regardless of a particular national context, enforcement of immigration laws encroaches on the human rights of migrants. There are multiple sites of contestation around the world, where states’ upholding of their immigration laws and the

52

Z. R. Babar

human rights of migrants are coming head to head. Be it in North America, Europe, Australia or in the Persian Gulf the overarching sources of tension remain largely the same. What is increasingly apparent to researchers studying the patterns of Gulf migration, is that the foreign labour force and its experience is more varied than ­suggested.8 Despite the rigid mechanisms and policies in place which are meant to ensure that the pool of foreign workers is constantly rotating, over time, in many parts of the Gulf, migrants are staying for longer and longer periods. Recent research has suggested that in addition to the longer duration of stay for Gulf migrants, family unification is also on the rise, as is the phenomena of mixed marriages between Gulf citizens and foreigners (De Bel-Air 2014). While these trends may cause palpitations in the breast of many a Gulf national, what they also demonstrate is that in this age of global migration, despite the intentions of states, controlling peoples’ mobility, their length of stay and the ways in which they impact a host nation is not so easily possible.

References Al Jazeera. (2014, November 16). Qatar promises to reform ‘kafala’ labour law. http:// www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/11/qatar-promises-reform-kafala-labourlaw-2014111661154969555.html Al Jazeera News Team. (2016, December 14). Qatar introduces changes to labour law. Al Jazeera English. Al-Ramahi, N.  J. (2014, July 12). UAE Ministry of Labour: e-contracts will be issued within 48 hours. Gulf News. http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/employment/ uae-ministry-of-labour-e-contracts-will-be-issued-within-48-hours-1.1358714 Babar, Z. (2014). The cost of belonging: Citizenship construction in the State of Qatar. The Middle East Journal, 68(3), 2014. Balachandran, M. (2017). Narendra Modi government scrambles to help 10,000 stranded and hungry Indians in Saudi Arabia. Quartz India, August 1, 2016. Accessed 2 Feb 2017. Barakat, N. (2014, July 5). UAE labour cards and contracts go electronic. Gulf News. http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/general/uae-labour-cards-and-contracts-go-electronic-1.1356047 Bollinger, S. (2014, May 15). Qatar announces changes to labor law. Al Jazeera Online. http://www.aljazeera.com/humanrights/2014/05/qatar-announces-changes-labour-system-2014513115014474205.html Booth, R., Black, I., & Gibson, O. (2014, Wednesday May 14). Qatar promises to reform labour laws after outcry over world cup slaves. The Guardian. De Bel-Air, F. (2014). Demography, migration, and labour market in Qatar (Gulf labour markets and migration research note, No. 8). De Bel-Air, F. (2015a). The legal framework of the sponsorship system in the Gulf cooperation council countries: A comparative examination. (Gulf labour markets and migration explanatory note, no. 10). De Bel-Air, F. (2015b). The socio-economic background and stakes of ‘Saudizing’ the workforce in Saudi Arabia: The Nitaqat policy. (Gulf labour market and migration explanatory note, no. 3).  For example, please see: Fancoise De Bel-Air, “Demography, Migration, and Labour Market in Qatar”, Gulf Labour Markets and Migration Research Note, No. 8, 2014. 8

3  Understanding Labour Migration Policies in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries

53

Edwards, M-B. (2011). Labour immigration and labour patterns in the GCC countries: National Patterns and trends (Research Paper No.15, Kuwait Programme on Development, Governance and Globalisation in the Gulf States). London: London School of Economics. Ehteshami, A., & Wright, S. (2007). Political change in Arab oil monarchies: From liberalization to enfranchisement. International Affairs, 83, 913. Fargues, P. (2011). Immigration without inclusion: Non-nationals in nation-building in the Gulf states. Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, 20(3–4), 273–292. Fernandez, B. (2014). Essential yet invisible: Migrant domestic workers in the GCC (Gulf labor markets and migration research note no. 4/2–14). Financial Times. (2014, November). Gulf States to reform contracts of domestic workers. http:// www.ft.com/cms/s/0/82c820aa-756b-11e4-a1a9-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3POyJ3hyL Gardner, A. (2010). City of strangers: Gulf migration and the Indian Community in Bahrain. New York: Cornell University Press. Halligan, N. (2016, June 12). Saudi Arabia plans new ‘Balanced’ Saudisation scheme. Arabian Business. Accessed 2 Feb 2017. International Labor Organisation Constitution. (1919). Preamble. Kamrava, M., & Babar, Z. (Eds.). (2012). Migrant Labor in the Persian Gulf. New York: Columbia University Press. Kapiszewski, A. (2006). Arab versus Asian migrant workers in the GCC countries. United Nations Expert Group Meeting on International Migration and Development in the Arab Region. Beirut: United Nations, Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Kasim, S. (2016, April 26). Indians expected to be hit as Nitaqat expanding to more sectors. Mathrubhumi English. Accessed 2 Feb 2017. Longva, A. N. (1997). Walls built on sand: Migration, exclusion, and Society in Kuwait. Boulder: Westview. Lori, N. (2012). Temporary workers or permanent migrants? The Kafala system and contestations over residency in the Arab Gulf States. Note d’Ifri. Paris: Center for Migrations and Citizenship. Manseau, G. S. (2017). Contractual solutions for migrant Labourers: The case of domestic Workers in the Middle East. Human Rights Law Commentary, 3, 25–47. Ministry of Interior. (2015, May 14). Qatar announces wide-ranging labour market reforms. http://www.moi.gov.qa/site/english/news/2014/05/14/32204.html Philipose, P. (2012, June 11). Global: Gulf journeys: Securing the lives of South Asia’s women migrants. Women’s Feature Service. Piper, N. (2003). Feminization of labor migration as violence against women international, regional, and local nongovernmental organization responses in Asia. Violence Against Women, 9(6), 723–745. Qatar Today. (2015). An announcement of labor reforms that are still to come. June 6, 2014. http:// www.qatartodayonline.com/an-announcement-of-an-announcement-of-labour-reforms-thatare-still-to-come/ Qatari Law No. 21. (2015). Rathmell, A., & Schulze, K. (2000). Political reform in the Gulf: The case of Qatar. Middle East Studies, 36(4), 47. Razgallah, B. (2008, June). The macroeconomics of workers’ remittances in GCC countries. (Economic Research Forum Working Paper No. 410). The International Convention on Migrant Workers and its Committee. (2005). Fact sheet no. 24 (rev.1). New  York/Geneva: Office of The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Venkataramakrishnan, R. (2017, January 3). The 10,000 starving Workers in Saudi will not be the last shocking story from the Gulf. Scroll.in. Accessed 2 Feb 2017. Zahra, M. (2016). Qatar’s legal framework of migration (Gulf labour market and migration explanatory note, no. 2).

Chapter 4

South Asian Labour Unrests and Non-­ Citizenry Aspects of Popular Politics in the Gulf M. H. Ilias

Abstract  This chapter examines how the idea of popular politics has flourished among a marginalized section of expatriate labourers in the Gulf society through a set of subtle informal expressions. Taking cues from the experience of Indian labourers in the Gulf, this chapter seeks to provide accounts of non-citizenry aspects of popular politics apparently manifested in the recent labour strikes. As it happens all over the region, popular politics of expatriate labourers revolves around the ideas and practices of rights rather than around ideas of political power which in the case of Gulf States is inaccessible for immigrant population. The ways in which values and practices of dissent and democracy become entrenched in popular politics and thereby in the political imagination of non-citizen labourers in a subtle manner are examined by  analysing the experience of protest movements of South Asian labourers.

Introduction One way or another, politics of non-citizen labourers has become the subject of intense debate in the Gulf today. The recent South Asian labour unrest in the UAE and Bahrain appears to be an indicator of politics of that sort gaining momentum in the region. What is more significant is the way in which these protests were

Some parts of this work have already been published in two earlier works of the author. See M. H. Ilias, Malayalee Migrants and Translocal Kerala Politics in the Gulf: Re-conceptualizing ‘Political’, Contextualizing the Modern Middle Eastern Diaspora, Anthony Gorman & Sossie Kasbarian (ed.), Edinburgh University Press, 2015, pp. 303–337 & M.H. Ilias, South Asian Labour Crisis in Dubai and the Scanty Prospects of Indian Policy in the Arab Gulf Region, Indian Journal of Politics and International Relations, Vol.4, No. 1& 2, 2011, 74–102 M. H. Ilias (*) India Arab Cultural Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 S. I. Rajan, G. Z. Oommen (eds.), Asianization of Migrant Workers in the Gulf Countries, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9287-1_4

55

56

M. H. Ilias

organized; it was previously unimaginable in a place where labour unions remain illegal and protests of any sort can end in termination and immediate deportation.1 However, unlike the region-wide Arab Spring-induced popular protests, in the specific contexts of Arab Gulf, the politics of immigrant labourers has been not necessarily about equal political rights as the aim of protestors not in any way is the recognition as full citizens by the state. Fully aware of peculiar social and political status, the migrant workers seek no citizenship rights and what figures in their demands are economic rights and a dignified life in the hosting countries. The political imagination in such cases is limited by the matters of legality and legal protection of labour.2 The protests demonstrations staged by them were not necessarily against the rulers or the system of ruling, but in most cases point to the inherent anomalies in the system which cannot be solved through the means of political reforms. These uprisings, therefore, did not make much of political resonance in the host society’s politics nor did gain any recognition by the other groups engaged in popular politics of various sorts. Often pitched against the employment providers, the state cannot fully comprehend the political content of such demonstrations. The limited recognition of the rights of foreign labourers and the narrowly defined non-­citizen rights often become more profound with the government effort to institutionalize it with complex sponsorship legislation, unequal compensation structure, selective nationalization of workforce and controlled access to opportunity for non-­nationals. The recent cases of labour unrest have brought into focus the inherent but not-soopen hostile relationships between the state institutions and non-citizen workers. The popular politics among Indian migrants based mainly on the discriminatory practices takes various forms: informal gathering with political undertones on specific occasions and not-so-open demonstrations and campaigns operating clandestinely. Strangely enough, most of these political expressions are not formal or apparent and, therefore, do not invite unfriendly and intolerant reactions from host states. The labour unrest of 2006 in Dubai in which Indian migrants had a greater role to play was the only exception, wherein the authorities noticed the content and assertiveness of expatriate politics. Massive open demonstrations raised many ­eyebrows and the UAE government became concerned by the demonstrations’ popularity. This was particularly significant when it happened in a country where all sorts of political organizations remain illegal and evidence of political associations of any sort can end up in imprisonment or immediate deportation for activists. This work examines how the idea of popular politics is flourished among a marginalized section of expatriate labourers in the Gulf society through a set of subtle informal expressions. Taking cues from the experience of Indian labourers in the Gulf, this chapter seeks to provide accounts of non-citizenry aspects of popular  M. H. Ilias, South Asian Labour Crisis in Dubai and the Scanty Prospects of Indian Policy in the Arab Gulf Region, Indian Journal of Politics and International Relations, Vol.4, No. 1& 2, 2011, 74–102. 2  Ahamed Kanna, ‘A Politics of Non-recognition? Biopolitics of Arab Gulf Worker Protests in the Year of Uprising’, Interface: A Journal for and About Social Movements, vol. 4(1), 146–164, May 2012. 1

4  South Asian Labour Unrests and Non-Citizenry Aspects of Popular Politics in the Gulf

57

politics apparently manifested in the recent labour strikes. As it happens all over the region, popular politics of expatriate labourers revolves around the ideas and practices of rights rather than around political power which in the case of Gulf States is inaccessible for immigrant population. The ways in which values and practices of dissent and democracy become entrenched in popular politics and thereby in the political imagination of non-citizen labourers in a subtle manner are to be examined by analysing the experience of protest movements of South Asian labourers.

Politics of Translocality There are many ways to understand the specific political context in which the popular politics of non-citizen workers of South Asia in the Gulf emerged. The nature of immigration, living conditions, work cultures and the relationship between the labourers and employers and discriminatory practices of the state institutions – all have contributed to the making of this. Without exception, foreign labourers in the Gulf are sojourners whose stay in the host countries lasts normally for a period specified in the labour contract. This sojourning nature of labour emigration along with at least once a year or once in 2 years trips to the ‘homeland’ makes expatriate labourers maintain links with their places of origin. Maintaining constant relationship with the ‘homeland’, especially in the case of ordinary labourers, offers an escape from the harsh economic ambiguities and uncertainties with regard to changing labour rules in the Gulf. As outsiders, migrant labourers in the Gulf live in a state of legal and political ambiguity, and the lack of involvement in the host country’s political and social processes drives them to seek shelter within the politics of their homeland. This lack of political involvement also contributes to the process of producing translocal political consciousness and affinities among the expatriate population in the GCC States. What seems to be happening is not simply the extension of political discourse beyond the boundaries, but this extension offers an avenue of subtle expression for the otherwise politically ‘silenced’ South Asian expatriates in the Gulf. Although it is placed mostly within an imaginative setting, translocal South Asian politics significantly touches upon the issue of identity. The expatriate labourers from the region look to this refashioned politics to give themselves a coherent identity and a ‘national’ narrative in order to compensate for the lack of political space in the receiving countries’ politics. The increasingly observable collective identity formation and diasporic political consciousness primarily reflect a response to the inhospitable climate and the social discrimination being faced by the South Asian labourers in the Gulf States. Several studies on the evolution of translocal political structures among Malayalee migrants argue that their form generally takes root in the struggles for civil rights in the host land.3 The new media that allow dias Nisha Mathew, ‘Between Malabar and the Gulf: History, Culture and Identity in the Making of the Transnational Malayalee Public Sphere’, Unpublished Paper, 2011., M.H.  Ilias, Malayalee 3

58

M. H. Ilias

pora communities to be involved in and influence the day-to-day political developments in their homeland play a significant role in order to maintain this identity. Furthermore, the translocal politics helps individuals and communities find positive and revitalizing sides to the experience of migration and gradually adjusts to new conditions and circumstances. In most of the cases, this refashioned identity may not directly address alienation from the host states’ political process, but it creates new forms of politics whose dynamics have, under translocality, brought forth a diverse set of popular political practices in the Gulf. As has been discussed earlier, the expatriate workers in the GCC Countries are the flashpoint of a series of uncertainties that mediate between everyday life and its fast shifting socio-political backdrop. They are represented by multiple criss-­ crossing divides and boundaries that give separate ethnicities their own national identification in the region.4 The harsh experience of migration and relocation always shapes a new national awareness of self and this awareness, under favourable conditions, can be riveting and transformative. This national awareness along with linkages with home country’s politics eventually metamorphoses into specialized polities within the host countries with the capability to create new forms of political space.5 With concern over the issues happening in both the host countries and homeland, this kind of informal politics is deemed to be private, existing outside the formal institutions, thus allowing one to create important forms of popular politics. They take many different forms and states in the Arab Gulf never fully containing the everyday experience of such spaces. Understanding various forms of informal associations and networks existing with minimum encounters with the political and social institutions of the host countries also constitutes a major means to study the nature and evolution of popular politics flourished among the South Asian immigrant labourers. As discussed earlier, this popular politics is, actually, a product of a particular political situation and the informal nature does not permit it to gather tangible institutional form. With complete departure from clear institutionally protected relations, this popular politics often tends to remain either as covertly operated political associations or as formal social, cultural or community organizations with unrevealed and subtle political agendas. While some of the community organizations are politically neutral, some enjoy the backing of major political parties in India like the Indian National Congress (INC), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPIM) and the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML). Migrants and Translocal Kerala Politics in the Gulf: Malayalee Migrants and Translocal Kerala Politics in the Gulf: Re-conceptualizing ‘Political’, Contextualizing the Modern Middle Eastern Diaspora, Anthony Gorman & Sossie Kasbarian (ed.), Edinburgh University Press, 2015 & Jose Itzigson, ‘Immigration and the Boundaries of Citizenship: The Institutions of Immigrants’ Political Transnationalism’, pp. 1126–54. 4  Sulayman Khalaf, ‘The Evolution of City Type, Oil and Globalization’, in J. Fox, et al. (eds.), Globalization and the Gulf, London: Routledge, 2006, pp. 244–266. 5  The distinction between citizen and immigrant is integral to these specialized polities. See Paul Dresch, ‘Foreign Matter: The Place of Strangers in Gulf Society’, in J.  Fox, et  al. (eds.), Globalization and the Gulf, London: Routledge, 2006, pp. 200–223.

4  South Asian Labour Unrests and Non-Citizenry Aspects of Popular Politics in the Gulf

59

The perceptions of South Asian expatriates in the Gulf States are generally influenced by a sense of alienation, which is deeply rooted in their relationships with the nationals. The informal associations stress on this alienation which results ultimately in a form of ‘imagined politics’ that offers an escape from the political realities in the host country and drifts away from the political constraints of the state. The feeling of cultural suspicion is another issue being faced by the South Asian expatriates.6 Nationals in many of the Gulf States clearly began to see the large South Asian workforce as a threat to the cultural identity of their nation.7 South Asian community’s pattern of earnings and relatively low spending has become a major cause of displeasure for the GCC States.8 Although the cultural national identity debates in the GCC Countries have generally been revolved around prominent ‘others’ (mainly ethnic and religious minorities like Iranians and Shias9), the increasing cultural influence of South Asian expatriates becomes a source of acute socio-economic concerns.10 The new demographic composition, which previously was neither so menacing, has generated a great deal of debate over the huge presence of South Asian workers, whose population outnumbers locals in some of the Gulf States. Making up 90% of the total work force,11 they constitute nearly four to one in every Gulf society. A large part of the worry is about the Indians who outnumber locals in places like Qatar, and the GCC authorities have changed the way they look at the overwhelming presence of the Indian expatriates.12 There is the issue – perhaps must be the most significant of all – seeing the foreign presence as a threat to national culture and identity. In a ministerial meeting of  Due to the particular nature of their job (domestic workers, house drivers, caregivers, schoolteachers and babysitters) and greater access to women and children in the Gulf societies, nationals in most of the Gulf countries see South Asians as a group with a potential to alter the local culture. This has been shared by many nationals during my field visits held between 2008 and 2010. 7  This worry was echoed in the GCC’s meeting held in Doha in 2008 in which participants openly shared their uneasiness and warned about the possible repercussions. See Gulf News, 29 November 2008. 8  Most of the GCC States are now more concerned about the large amount of money being sent out by the Indians. A substantial amount of hard currency earnings is flowing to the home country as direct remittances. 9  The religious and political dimensions of Iran–GCC conflicts often leave a mark on the treatment of Shias in the GCC states barring UAE, where Shias are an affluent group. The ill-treatment of Shias has resulted in Shia uprisings in Bahrain and Saudi. 10  Niel Patrick, ‘Nationalism in the Gulf States’, Kuwait Programme on Development and Globalization in the Gulf States, 2009, no. 3. 11  www.news.bbc.uk/2/hi/middle-east/7266610.stm. Accessed on 24 September 2013. 12  As per the recent statistics published by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, New Delhi (www.moia.gov.in), nearly 5.5 million Indians work in the Gulf. The new demographic composition has become a matter of serious concern for some of the Gulf States. In order to deal with this issue of growing Indian presence, the governments in the GCC countries have taken some controlling measures and administrative regularizations. The UAE, for instance, fixed matriculation as the minimum requirement for Indian labourers, while Bahrain put in practice a quota system for Indians. 6

60

M. H. Ilias

GCC members held in 2005, Abdul Rahman Al-Attiya, General Secretary of the Organization, had openly shared his uneasiness and warned about the possible repercussions of the situation. He stressed on ‘the need to look at the massive presence of expatriate workers basically as national security issue and not merely as an economic matter…’13 This worry was also echoed in the Gulf Cooperation Council’s meeting held in Doha in 2008. Along with serious regional issues of security, common energy policies, joint nuclear energy plant and currency union, this issue topped the agenda of talks.14 The formation of a collective political identity and solidarity can also be seen as a response to this cultural suspicion. The popular politics among the South Asian migrants, perhaps, may also be seen as an expression of political nostalgia that motivates ordinary workers to maintain their political affiliations left behind in the homeland. Sometimes, this nostalgia becomes a norm which is required to be reproductive for a group in order to survive in a political atmosphere of complete alienation.15 This is very evident in the case of labourers from Kerala. While the politics in the Gulf, by and large, remains alien to them, Malayalee expatriates find refuge in some nostalgic events of the past in Kerala politics. With certain elements of emotional identification, this nostalgia is being used strategically by the Malayalee organizations for mobilizing expatriates. The reinvention of the past in the form of nostalgia, however, becomes a tactic for using collective memory to selectively manipulate certain aspects of Kerala’s past. While organizations maintaining links with the communist movement in Kerala often take advantage of memories of a series of agitations launched by the movement against the landlords, Muslim organizations use the tradition of resistance raised by the community against the European colonialism in the state.16 A close look at the composition of Malayalee migrants in the Gulf reveals that the majority of the workers are overwhelmingly young males in their twenties or thirties coming from a backward but politically vibrant area, Malabar. This area comprising six districts of north Kerala has traditionally been a strong bastion of leftist movements and Muslim organizations both of which offered a tradition of challenge against the European colonial powers and their cronies, the local rulers who enjoyed relentless support of the former. Having come from poor but politically active backgrounds, expatriates from Malabar generally carry forward the anti-imperialist political legacies of the region with them and try to create a subtle replica of their political positions in a diasporic setting. The anti-imperialist positions of these organizations are manifested mainly through their consistent but covert criticism over American policies in the Gulf and support for the boycott called against American and Israeli products against the backdrop of events like the  Gulf News, 24 November 2005.  Gulf News, 29 November 2008. 15  Politics in the homeland continues to be a primary generator of memory for the diasporic communities. See Baba, Nation and Narration for the details of this debate. 16  During a field visit in Oman, the author personally witnessed to a function commemorating Sayyid Fadl, a champion of anti-colonial (anti-British) struggle in Malabar in nineteenth century by an organization of Malayalees in Muscat dominated by Muslim migrants from North Kerala. 13 14

4  South Asian Labour Unrests and Non-Citizenry Aspects of Popular Politics in the Gulf

61

US invasion of Iraq.17 However, with a secret mode of operation alien to the host countries and limited reach outside Malayalee community, the extension of Kerala politics finds no substantial resonance among the nationals. Almost all political developments in Kerala make a ripple in the Gulf. This is evident from the popularity of new social movements among Malayalee expatriates. Single issue-oriented movements revolving around particular social and political issues in Kerala have caught the popular imagination over the last decade. Kerala-­ centric environmental and human rights groups are active in creating new forms of politics that hinge on signature campaigns, protest meetings and street plays in response to the sensitive issues taking place in Kerala, though the scope of such debates and campaigns may always be limited to the four walls of residential areas where the Malayalee migrants stay collectively or labour camps. Except on certain occasions, governments in the GCC Countries are unaware of the serious political content of these activities.18 The issues related to the Malayalee workers in the Gulf have also found a place in the agenda of Malayalee organizations recently. New informal social movements and networks have sprung up, dedicated to the issue of exploitation of Indian workers in the Gulf which the old movements are not able to take up. While the old movements provide an important venue for sharing information and participating in the diasporic culture without being a direct or indirect threat to the state, the new movements tend to clandestinely deal with highly sensitive issues like violation of human rights in labour camps.

Signs of Political Assertion The recent South Asian labour unrest19 in which Indian labourers took a lead role is actually a pointer to a larger political assertion. Although India-centric clandestine networks played no direct role in the labour strikes, the political consciousness they created has been instrumental in instilling confidence among the labourers from the country to go against their employers by demanding salary hikes and improvement in living conditions. There is an opinion which has been echoed in Indian dailies  As a means of protest to the US aggression in Iraq in 2003, Left organizations in Kerala (mainly CPI (M)) led a ‘boycott American goods’ campaign. This call for boycott received responses from the organizations in the Gulf attached to CPI (M). Soft drinks like Coca-Cola and Pepsi and the soaps made by Hindustan Lever were the major targets of this boycott. The Hindu, 12 April 2003. 18  In 1992, the play the Ants Feast on Corpses had invited the wrath of administration for its allegedly blasphemous content in Sharjah. The court sentenced 6-year jail term to a Malayalee theatre group for staging this play. India Today, 15 November 1992. 19  The strike of South Asian expatriate labourers that began in Dubai in 2007 had a lively spread all over the region. Though, the main reason at the initial stage was low wage in the context of inflation and the lowering exchange of the currencies of the Gulf countries, the focus of strikers later on turned to the issues of poor living conditions, unequal compensation structure and lack of proper health care. The Hindu, 22 November 2007. 17

62

M. H. Ilias

discussing South Asian labour unrest as an indicator of the increased bargaining power that Indian labourers gained.20 Much of the migration from India to the Middle East has now been stimulated mainly by market considerations. Unlike the 1970s and 1980s when the majority of Indian labourers had little bargaining power, the present Indian migration of skilled and semi-skilled labourers in the Gulf contributes significantly to the development of the receiving countries, simultaneously impacting the sending country. The criticality of Indian labourers is the major factor as there is a huge demand for them and tremendous pressure from employers in the UAE and Qatar to employ more Indian labourers despite area-wide extensive nationalization drive. Media reports state that major contracting companies in the UAE and Qatar are frantically trying to hire labourers from India.21 India is still the number one supplier of labour and about 80% of new workers are from India. In Dubai and Doha, many mega projects face long delays to finish off due to shortage of skilled Indian manpower. A booming economy in India also means that many there no longer see the need to travel to the Gulf. Risks to their living in the Gulf are inflation and currency instability due to the (fixed) dollar peg system. The labourers complain bitterly that the money they earn in the Gulf stretches less far when sending to their families in India due to the increasing rate of inflation and consequent price hike in the region.22 With tremendous pressure from employers, the governments in the Gulf had taken a soft stand regarding the labour strike, which could otherwise end in severe punishment of people who were involved. Companies did not want the government deporting any more workers as they were having trouble finding enough to complete the works. The newfound assertiveness was only a tip of the iceberg and the ­circumstance provided a clue to Indian labourers’ calculations in striking, even if they were aware of the dire consequences of termination and deportation. The movement of Indian labour in the Gulf, therefore has, to a large extent, been influenced by the force of the global free market. When the business firms are searching for an economic and competent workforce, which is relatively inexpensive and efficient, Indian skilled workers have advantage of the situation. That is the reason why Indians are being given priority in recruitment even when the Gulf States like the UAE are cutting down on expatriates in order to overcome the pinch of recession and to bring down the unemployment rate among their citizens.23 India is still the major supplier of labour and the Indians constitute a large proportion of the skilled workforce, although there is a selective use of Indians labourers in certain categories. While unskilled labourers are replaced by inexpensive ones from other South Asian states like Nepal and Sri Lanka and are forced to return to  Atul Aneja, ‘Growing Assertions of Asian Workers in the Gulf’, The Hindu, 22 November 2007.  Ibid. 22  An average Indian worker in the UAE construction industry makes about AED 1000–1500 per month. In the present economic regime, this is not enough to meet their own expenses in the Gulf and support a family in India. From the conversation with the Indian labourers during a field trip in the UAE in May 2015. 23  Ibid. 20 21

4  South Asian Labour Unrests and Non-Citizenry Aspects of Popular Politics in the Gulf

63

India, employers insist on the continued employment of semi-skilled or skilled Indian labourers beyond their contract period despite massive nationalization programmes.24 With the pressure from employers, the UAE government has taken a soft stand regarding strikes, which could otherwise end in severe punishment of people who are involved. Moreover, the boom in the economy and the consequent infrastructural development spree have created an enormous amount of job opportunities for semi-skilled and skilled labourers especially in states like Kerala, where the labourers are less enthusiastic to migrate.25 So, a flourishing economy in India means that many there no longer see the need to travel to the Gulf. Failure of targeted nationalization of the labour also forms to be a major reason for the growing assertion of Indian labourers. Nationalization remains a distant dream, and the process has met several obstacles. Only in certain fields like banking and the hydrocarbon sector the governments in the Gulf could achieve a position close to the target. Most of the job opportunities coming in current phase of Gulf countries’ development are in manufacturing, construction and other allied services, which require skills that have traditionally not appealed to nationals. The private sector jobs are, generally, designed for expatriates, with long and strict working hours and salaries that do not meet local standards. Work in the private sector is sometimes perceived as debasing the nationals’ social status.26 Because of their ‘superior position’, locals are averse to accepting the low-skilled, low-salaried posts and they are inclined to work mostly in the government sector. The majority are employed in simple jobs like administrative support, clerical and security services. But the case is not so in the states with low-growth rate, like Oman, where all sorts of jobs are attractive for relatively poor locals. Nationalization measures meet the same problems in highly skilled job fields also. Mismatching profiles of nationals have hindered the removal of other nationals in highly skilled positions. In the UAE, for example, there are abundant job opportunities in information technology, but the education and training systems are unprepared for the boom in this field. Economic diversification efforts have, thus, expatriate participation more inevitable. The other reason is the alleged non-­ flexibility of nationals, especially in terms of salary and work culture. Despite emerging strains of unemployment and competition in the labour market, the wage structure of nationals throughout the region remains high and uncompromising. Furthermore, the mandatory nationalization and the quota system have attracted the wrath of entrepreneurs across state lines. They genuinely fear that such moves will finally lower productivity and erode profit. Nationalization in the UAE (encapsulated by the term Emiratization), for instance, was grudgingly accepted by private sector companies, though they were asked by the government to employ more locals to curtail the rate of unemployment. Ironically enough, the drive in many Gulf States has met fierce opposition from the nationals themselves. The sponsorship  M.H. Ilias, ‘South Asian Labour Crisis in Dubai and the Scanty Prospects of Indian Policy in the Arab Gulf Region’. 25  Ibid. 26  Ibid. 24

64

M. H. Ilias

regime, kufala,27 makes the citizens privileged employers and business owners, drawing surplus from the foreign presence. It also allows nationals to make money out of selling visa documents and to extract rents through discriminatory pricing.28 Nationals, fearing a considerable drop in their sponsorship money, have come vehemently against the nationalization agenda. So, nationalization, contrary to the highly placed wish, cannot contain unemployment pressures, though it may lead to increased employment of nationals in government sectors regardless of their competencies and skills.29 The measures for the replacement of relatively expensive Indian workers are generally insufficient even in the time of deepening economic crisis. The governments brought many controlling measures and administrative regularizations to halt the movement of Indian labourers in excess. The UAE, for instance, fixed matriculation as the minimum requirement for labours. But the unavailability of skilled and competent labourers in bulk number torpedoed their plan. The latest example is of the State of Qatar, which took a complete U-turn to the earlier decision to limit the number of Indians despite the constant pressure due to increasing unemployment and economic crisis.30 The Labour Ministry in Qatar is now in a massive hunt for skilled workers for its booming gas and construction industry and bringing tens of thousands of new workers from India.

Non-citizenry Aspects Incapable of exercising political rights in a state of expatriation, all non-citizens in the Gulf are socially vulnerable. All expatriates are lawfully denied political rights and the asymmetry in the structural and human relations between the two populations – citizens and non-citizens – leaving its imprint on the Gulf countries’ political regimes. Relations among nationals and expatriates are affected by specific laws and conditions that relegate most migrant groups to subordination. In an ‘ethnocratic’31  The sponsorship system means that expatriate workers can enter, work and leave the host country only with the assistance of their local sponsor. 28  Paul Dresch, ‘Foreign Matter: The Place of Strangers in Gulf Society’, 2006, p. 203. 29  Nevertheless, progress has been made to nationalize certain areas of employment, such as gold and vegetable markets in Saudi Arabia, though large-scale nationalization remains next to impossible. Oman is the only state which continues to go ahead with nationalization though other States have taken serious measures, especially in the wake of financial crunch. 30  Based on discussion with the recruiting agents during author’s field research in 2010. 31  The privileged status of ‘national’ or muwatan is sharper and conceived sometimes in tribal or genealogical terms. Natives’ work is rewarded with disproportionately high compensation. The presence of non-GCC workers and their inferior legal, social and political subjection to the GCC citizens lead to a sort of ‘ethnocracy’. See Ang N. Longva, ‘Neither Autocracy or Democracy but Ethnocracy: Citizens, Expatriates and the Socio-Political Systems in Kuwait’, in P.  Dresch and J. Piscatori (eds.), Monarchies and Nations: Globalization and Identity in the Arab States of the Gulf, London: IB Tauris, 2005, pp. 114–36. 27

4  South Asian Labour Unrests and Non-Citizenry Aspects of Popular Politics in the Gulf

65

set up, citizens enjoy a certain amount of privilege, and the distinctive identity of citizens is protected in sometimes unusual ways. ‘The exclusion of foreign workers’ according to Longva ‘may entirely be in line with the widely accepted principle that political rights are a function of national citizenship’.32 Non-citizens, especially the South Asian expatriates, despite their wealth and economic influence, find themselves at the bottom of the socio-political structure.33 No expatriate community in this sense is a part of the political community in the Gulf. Not only their low social rank but also their visible alienation from the political process deprives foreigners of a voice in Gulf society. The development of popular politics in the Gulf revolves mainly around this sense of alienation. The ideas and practices associated with it, therefore, pay little attention to the formal politics in the region and does not enter into direct interactions with the formal politics dominated by the state and its institutions. The informal nature of it also does not permit to gather tangible institutional form. Majority of their actions do not remain strictly inside the state and their ‘legally ambiguous’ position does not put pressure on the state to act against them. Operating from within the permissible legal boundaries, their activities also never pose any real threat to the state or exacerbate worries about national political coherence. Their operative styles also are not ways that would attract widespread tensions in the host society. A closer look at the context of origin of the popular politics reveals that it is the marginal status (economically disadvantaged and right-less) of a section of expatriate population that makes them politically alert and active. But the content of such a politics remains limited to seeking minor changes in the polity. Serious reforms within the existing system or an immediate end to the regime through revolution are nowhere in the agenda of this politics. The political imagination is often limited by the matters of legality and economic rights. Anyway, the experience associated with the popular politics among the South Asian labourers goes beyond the procedural or institutional political development which often seeks formal structures, procedures and contracts to flourish. Recently, there has been a dramatic rise in support for such popular politics and movements (not much organized) which present themselves as the promoters of the rights of underprivileged in the Arab Gulf region. This development is very significant in the absence of organized political forces to aspire the demands of such sections. Recent uprisings of Kuwaiti Bedoon – stateless people – whose mixed status create uncertainties about the national self and citizenship is illustrative of the right-­ based popular politics gathering momentum all over the region. Their legally ambiguous national status, of course, puts pressure on the government to take coercive measures and their movements threaten the policing of borders. Their cultural orientation and specific dialect in most cases exacerbate worries about modern  Ang N. Longva, Wells Built on Sand: Migration, Exclusion and Society in Kuwait, Boulder: West View Press, 1997, p. 118. 33  Situation may be slightly different in the UAE and Dubai in particular, where the elites among the immigrant population, to some extent, are considered alternate or unofficial citizens. 32

66

M. H. Ilias

national cultural coherence. However, the Kuwaiti administration does not see any serious political threat in their uprising as it does not pose any direct challenge to the state sovereignty. As discussed in the introductory part, political assertions of the marginalized sections in the Gulf barring the case of Bedoons in Kuwait34 are not necessarily about equal political rights. It could also be often not about to secure equal citizenship rights or recognition as full citizens by the state.35 Connecting them to the experience of Arab Spring-induced political development in the region becomes a futile exercise. The Arab Spring-induced political uprisings of citizens are more political oriented while those of non-citizen workers appear to be more oriented towards rights. Keeping awareness about the peculiar social and political status, the migrant workers seek no citizenship rights or equal access to the resources of the state. In place of that what figures in their demands are recognition of their legal rights as non-­ citizen workers and dignified life in the hosting countries.36 These uprisings, according to Kanna, ‘seem to want, at most, a limited recognition by the state, the recognition that they are not citizens’.37 However, this non-citizenry aspect has deep political implications as the demand moves beyond the regular discussions of participation by opening up the polity for outsiders. Political practices associated with this popular politics often base their strength and legitimacy on the principle of popular sovereignty which stands in conflict with the notions of procedural and institutional politics. Taking the scope of politics further, these uprisings expose the issues involved in the neo-liberal economic reconfiguration of the states in the region. Over the last two decades, the Gulf States have endured an advanced experience of economic liberalization and these experiences have deeply accentuated the unevenness of capitalist development-widening gaps between labourers (mainly non-citizen) and the private sector and state employers.38 The recent cases of labour unrest have brought into focus not just the inherent hostile relationships between the non-citizen workers and the employment providers but the limitations of legal system to protect the rights of non-citizen workers fully in the context of burgeoning exploitation. This is very significant in the context that the civil society movements in the Gulf, which are mostly patronized by the government39 and with its elite social  The stateless Bedoon’s uprising in Kuwait advocates for constitutional reforms which have wider political implications than others. 35  Ahmed Kanna, ‘A Politics of Non-recognition? Biopolitics of Arab Gulf Worker Protests in the Year of Uprising’, p. 147. 36  Ibid., 148. 37  Ibid. 38  Adam Hanieh, Class Capitalism in the Gulf: The Political Economy of the Gulf Cooperation Council, interview with Adam Hanieh by Ed. Lewis, Global Research 15 December 2011. 39  Jill Crystal, ‘Public order and Authority: Policing Kuwait’, in James Piscatori and Paul Dresch, Monarchies and Nations: Globalization and Identity in the Arab States of the Gulf, London: I.B. Tauris, 2005. 34

4  South Asian Labour Unrests and Non-Citizenry Aspects of Popular Politics in the Gulf

67

content are restricted to a small section of politically equipped citizens, never represent a site of negotiation for the non-citizen labourers or a possibility opened by the activities of them.

Conclusion With novel political explorations, informal networks and particular community practices, Indian migrant workers in the Gulf, to a certain extent, are able to adjust to the not-so-open political system of the Arab Gulf monarchies that do not entertain political participation of any sort by the expatriate communities. Politics in the host communities being hostile to foreigner participation and determined merely by citizenship rights, the extension of a sort of popular politics becomes a gravitational force connecting up with and pinning down a large immigrant population the Gulf over. This popular politics also becomes a practice very much resorted to, when the formal politics in the host community is determined only in terms of citizenship and foreigners need to find other ways of connecting a large number of people to each other. Being connected politically to the issues of the homeland, a new political space is construed into which they clandestinely bring ideologies and political doctrines which are otherwise sensitive to the local dynasties. The role of popular politics in the political process of the Gulf societies is often left unexplored or underexplored by the more formal and macro approaches of understanding the political development. As discussed earlier, the popular politics in the context of Indian migrants does not enter into direct interactions with the politics dominated by the state and its institutions. So its failure to catch the attention of others is obvious. Its efforts are not fully rooted in the popular quest for the ­democratization of the state and society, but to retain the rights of a politically and socially excluded section as non-citizens. Similarly, unlike the experiences happening elsewhere in the Arab World, these issue-oriented mobilizations do not have the baggage of coherent political ideology or strategies to pursue with and the protest movements popular among the Indian migrants in the region are largely subtle in its methods of raising demands. Still they are significant as their intervention even in its subtlety set in motion a new sort of politics being emerged and provide accounts of the ways in which a non-citizenry, non-institutional politics acquiring social roots in the region.

Chapter 5

Contemporary Forms of Slavery, Citizenship and Human Rights of Migrant Workers in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries M. V. Bijulal

Abstract  Independent investigations by human rights organizations and public interest reports through investigative journalism have exposed many areas of urgent human rights concerns for the workers. Governments across South and South East Asia have responded to such precarious situations in varying degrees. Some interventions have resulted in immediate strategies for reinstating confidence and guarantee of rights and dignity to the workforce. In some Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, official sources have acknowledged the highly deplorable state of life of the workers and have even opined that the unrest among workers is an expression of their angst. Governmental response to crises has varied across the GCC; from minimal regulation measures, to radical intervention for protection of rights of the workers. However, in the last decade, there are indications of a common GCC policy on migrant labour. Recent press reports also indicated fresh diplomatic moves in this direction. Unskilled labour from India in the GCC countries  – Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain – number nearly 1.2 million (Kapiszewski 2006). However, contemporary field data and assessments from experienced community workers in the Gulf tend to place the figures higher to account for undocumented workers. Since 2004, labourers of South Asia including Indian workers have been part of massive labour strikes in the GCC countries. Such massive non-Arab-speaking migrant labour strikes were unheard of in the GCC countries.1 Independent investigations by human rights organizations and public interest reports through investigative journalism have exposed many areas of urgent human  There were large-scale strikes and protests by Arab-speaking workers (mainly Egyptians and Palestinians) in the 1970s and 1980s. The Gulf countries responded to these struggles with a longterm strategy of higher intake of more non-Arab Asian labour. 1

M. V. Bijulal (*) School of International Relations and Politics, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala, India © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 S. I. Rajan, G. Z. Oommen (eds.), Asianization of Migrant Workers in the Gulf Countries, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9287-1_5

69

70

M. V. Bijulal

rights concerns for the workers. Governments across South and South East Asia have responded to such precarious situations in varying degrees. Some interventions have resulted in immediate strategies for reinstating confidence and guarantee of rights and dignity to the workforce. However, since last decade there are indications of a common GCC policy on migrant labour (Ditto 2008). Recent press reports also indicated fresh diplomatic moves in this direction.2 While authentic informal documentation3 of migrant workers elsewhere has led to changes in the policy framework, in the GCC countries, where the human rights violations have not have been considered actively under the legal and political system, the conditions are extreme. Here, the expatriate/guest worker classification attached to the migrant workforce leads to a discriminatory legal status in terms of access and the right to judicial redressal. Arguments for integrating legal and human rights principles into the policies governing migrant work are considered in this paper. In the light of studies and selected life writings (Ayesha 2008) in contemporary slavery, modern slavery and the development of human rights instruments on human trafficking, this study advocates a transnational approach, ensuring the legal and human rights obligations of the states involved. Also, it refers to the importance of civil, informal mechanisms to constantly monitor the working conditions. From a workers’ rights perspective (Bijulal 2012), this study argues that a rights denying, growth-seeking development approach has emerged in governing the world of work. It seeks to revisit the significance of the statistical narratives that usually opt for a ‘neutral’ numerical existence for the migrant person. Economistic and onedimensional construction of the migrant identity is questioned here using the standpoint of studies in citizenship.4 While the universality of legal standards and ethical concern on the rights protection of the workers inform the academic/and systemic initiatives, it is argued here that non-hegemonic means of human rights protection are highly warranted in such situations, along with strong legal actions that protect rights and the dignity of workers. This study is an effort to understand the reasons for the deterioration of labour rights in the GCC countries and to suggest legal and civil means for the protection and promotion of the human rights of workers. In this context, the evolution of the rights discourse in identifying rights at work, as developed with the International Labour Organization (ILO) since 1937, discussions on social, legal and political rights at the international scenario, integration of rights of the families as inherent to labourers’ rights, new research on contemporary slavery (Bales 2005), international agreements on the forms of trafficking in persons (UNCJIN 2000) and regional policy developments in the sphere of human rights law are discussed here. The concept of ‘lifeworlds’ is drawn on to explain the transnational contexts – political, social and economic – that constitute the violations of rights of migrant workers. 2  http://www.muscatdaily.com/Archive/Oman/GCC-to-discuss-standardised-contract-for-migrantdomestic-workers-2656 (Downloaded on 20 May, 2013). 3  Belgian government’s responses to investigations conducted by De Stoop. 4  Observations of Partha Chatterjee (2004) on formal and real types of citizenship are important an mentioned here.

5  Contemporary Forms of Slavery, Citizenship and Human Rights of Migrant Workers…

71

Background The lifeworlds of workers, in this context, are placed in an amorphous spatio-legal condition that places them in a peculiar state of being divided between two different political systems with different cultural and social specificities, and without being effectively considered under any universally justiciable labour rights and/or human rights regime. The urgent need, therefore, is to evolve a transnational rights approach in understanding and to resolving the problems and violations involved. This study based on the data on direct interactions with workers considers various acts of direct, indirect and contributory forms of violence, violations of laws, denials of freedoms, exploitation, etc., from the standpoint of a transnational rights perspective. This situation of ‘pawning of life’5 for livelihoods needs serious rethinking based on emerging definitions6 of human trafficking as informed by the Palermo Protocol on forced work and trafficking in persons.7 A special case is to be made in the case of construction workers of the semi-­ skilled and non-skilled orders. In the last two decades, large-scale expansion of urban infrastructure intended to host international commercial/business hubs has attracted worldwide attention to the GCC countries. The completion of monumental infrastructural projects like the Burj Khalifa as well as setting up of landmarks of national pride as in the case of the FIFA World Cup stadiums required massive organization of less paid, irregular workforce, ‘on war footing’. The immediate result of such high-paced growth of economic and infrastructure was a regime of lawlessness. From the year 2004 onwards, many of the GCC countries witnessed violent

 Jeevan panayappeduthuka, an expression in Malayalam, meaning ‘pawning life’ dominated the workers’ registry of narrating experiences of forced labour. This expression was found inalienable to most of the reminiscences on life at work, from a workers’ standpoint. Another expression of similar order was adimappani/ adimavela which means ‘slave labour’. Majority of the respondents testified that they found their expectations on security of the place of work, workload, freedom and leisure were quite misplaced once they entered their jobs. The expression, ‘slave-like’ was given by majority of workers. 6  Studies in modern slavery (see Bales 1999) as a disciplinary approach have captured the situation in the language of rights and dignity. According to Professor Gary Craig, Professor in Community Development and Social Justice, School of Applied Social Sciences, Durham University, UK. The practice of trafficking workers from Asia through extremely hazardous means (stocking-up workers in refrigerated trucks, etc.) has led to deaths of many Asian workers in France, Italy and other places. Modern slavery is an extension of Kevin Bales’ study (1999) on ‘disposability’ of people in the context of his studies in slavery. (Interview with Professor Craig, November 2008, Delhi.) 7  http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/protocoltraffic.htm (referred on 30 October, 2012). 5

72

M. V. Bijulal

demonstrations by Asian workers demanding better working conditions and wages. The labour strikes in 2008 and 20118 almost repeated the same demands.9 According to 2010 estimates10, GCC countries account for the first three positions on a global level in terms of percentage of migrant population in the total population.11The critical importance of remittances from the GCC countries to South and South East Asian economies has been a major topic of research in the last decades (Rashid Amjad 1989, Prakash 1998). A majority of academic sources that deal with migrant work have paid little attention to the conditions of life and workplace experiences of labour within the economy in the Gulf countries. This academic invisibility on the life and work of labourers was quite prominent in public sphere as well.12 At the same time, reports on gross violations of security norms in hazardous occupations became a matter of concern. There was under-reporting of fatalities at work, as Sönmez et al. (2011) says: There are conflicting reports on numbers of injuries and deaths; for example, two construction workers are reportedly killed each week (104 per year) in Abu Dhabi, while the Municipality of Dubai recorded only 34 construction worker deaths in all of 2004 and 39 in 2005, despite the significantly greater construction activity there. Independent research reported 880 deaths in the UAE among migrant construction workers in 2004 (483 Indians, 397 Pakistanis). Although the causes of death were not disclosed, a representative of the Indian Community Welfare Committee noted that 30 percent of deaths among Indians in Dubai were related to accidents on construction sites. An official at Dubai’s Indian Consulate reported to HRW (Human Rights Watch) that 971 deaths were registered in 2005, from which 61 were attributed to site accidents. The Bangladesh Embassy in Abu Dhabi estimates repatriating about eight to 10 bodies of construction workers each month, of which three are work-related deaths.13

 The immediate response to the 2004 strikes was the restrictive practices in recruitment by introducing quota systems in different Arabian Gulf countries. The South Asian unskilled workers’ influx, especially after the 1991 Gulf War, was looked upon as a strategy to displace politically oriented Arab workers from non-monarchic Arab countries to avoid political threats to the Arabian Gulf monarchies. New efforts of control and putting a cap on Indian labour may promote labour influx from countries like Nepal and Sri Lanka where cheap labour is in abundance. 9  As per a report in The Sydney Herald (2011), nearly 2000 labourers of Jams HR Solutions went on a violent struggle in 2011, causing widespread losses. They were protesting against the mistreatment by security personnel of the company. 10  http://esa.un.org/migration/p2k0data.asp 11  Israel is another country of the West Asian region which ranks among first 10 countries with large numbers of migrants as a percentage of population. 12  Charles Tilly (2007) deliberates on this situation and even suggests that we use the migrant experience narrations as primary materials for concept building on transnational migrant workforce. 13  The authors speculate that discrepancies in reporting site accidents are due to the UAE’s efforts to downplay risks associated with construction work. 8

5  Contemporary Forms of Slavery, Citizenship and Human Rights of Migrant Workers…

73

Review of Instruments for Migrant Human Rights This section undertakes an analysis, structured on the conceptualization of migrant workers’ rights as codified in the international instruments, namely, the Convention on the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Their Families 1990; the UN General Assembly Palermo Protocols Regarding Forced Work; Human Rights of Migrants 2004; the ILO Convention No. 97 on Migration for Employment, 1949; and the ILO Convention No. 143 on Migrant Workers (Supplementary Provisions), 1975. The ILO Convention of 1949 advocated unrestricted exchange of migration-­ related state data, as well as policies (free service to assist migrants, mechanisms for employment-related travel, appropriate health care, hygienic conditions of living, equal rights, etc.) among parties of the Convention (Art.1). It also called for ‘an adequate and free service to assist migrants for employment, and in particular to provide them with accurate information’ (Art. 2). Article 4 of the Convention talks about appropriate mechanisms for employment-related travel, stay and departure of migrants to be dealt with by appropriate state interventions. Article 5 emphasizes the responsibility of the receiving state to provide appropriate health care and to ensure hygienic conditions of living to the migrants. Conceptualization of the right to equality as per Article 6 of the Convention would be one of the earliest concerns of the international order on the right to equality of migrant workers.14 The ILO Convention on Rights of All Migrants and Families 1990 identifies the need ‘to make further efforts to improve the situation and ensure the human rights and dignity of all migrants in addition to the existence of an already established body of principles and standards’. The Convention on Rights of All Migrants and Families 1990 indicates to a journey from the rights to survival – freedom of movement, protection from torture, degrading and inhuman treatment, protection from slavery or servitude, protection from performing forced or compulsory labour to social and cultural rights, to freedom to practise one’s religion and freedom to seek, receive and impart information. The coordinated effort to formulate an international Convention on Rights of All Migrant Workers 1990 was an extended process starting from 1979 to 1989. The Convention was made with specific reference to ‘instruments within the framework of the International Labour Organization’ like the Convention concerning Migration for Employment (No. 97), the Convention concerning Migrations in Abusive Conditions and the Promotion of Equality of Opportunity and Treatment of Migrant Workers (No. 143), the Recommendation  Article 6 talks about ‘non-discrimination based on nationality, race, religion, or sex, to immigrants lawfully within its territory, treatment no less favourable than that which it applies to its own nationals in respect of the matters: relating to remuneration, including family allowances where these form part of remuneration, hours of work, overtime arrangements, holidays with pay, restrictions on home work, minimum age for employment, apprenticeship and training, women’s work and the work of young persons’. Article 6 also refers to freedom of organization though membership of trade unions and enjoyment of the benefits of collective bargaining. It refers to provisions for accommodation; social security according to national laws or regulations is covered by a social security scheme to a great extent. 14

74

M. V. Bijulal

concerning Migration for Employment (No. 86), the Recommendation concerning Migrant Workers (No. 151), the Convention concerning Forced or Compulsory Labour (No. 29) and the Convention on Abolition of Forced Labour (No. 105). Article 7 of the 1990 convention refers to cross-cutting themes in human rights as per the international human rights instruments followed by Part II, which deals with the human rights of all migrant workers and their families. These include the right to freedom of movement ‘at any time to enter and remain in their State of origin’ (Art. 8); legal protection to the right to life of migrant workers and members of their families (Art. 9); protection from torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (Art. 10); protection from slavery or servitude, protection from performing forced or compulsory labour (Art. 10 and 11); and social and cultural rights (Art. 12). The ILO Convention on Domestic Work is another important instrument that comes as rights defining apparatuses for marginal, footloose labourers, mainly invisible women. Other important provisions of the convention are the right to access to legal proceedings in matters of verification by law enforcement officials of the identity of migrant workers (Art. 16); immediate communication to consular or diplomatic authorities of the migrant concerned in the event of arrest or detention, and to avail legal protection while in custody to prevent abuse, etc. (Art. 17); the right to equality with nationals before law at the host country, and right to protection from collective expulsion (Art. 18); equal status in remuneration and other work-related conditions and benefits with nationals (Art. 25); right to form unions (Art. 26); right to medical care (Art. 28); right to personal liberty and right to education of children and to transfer earnings and savings, personal effects and belongings (Art. 32).15 The United Nations Convention on Transnational Organized Crime 2003 was the most recent international human rights instrument that extended the debate on human rights of migrant workers. The definition of trafficking in persons is given as in the following extract (Art. 3): For the purposes of this Protocol: (a) “Trafficking in persons” shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.

The protocol was a reiteration of the right to protection of human rights as listed in the conventions. The prominent contribution to the discourse regarding forced work in the protocol is the most mentionable aspect, which has immediate applications to all situations where question of forced work as well as denial of dignified work is concerned. In the context of universal human rights documents, the rights experience in GCC countries could be looked at, considering that the legal rights regime for migrant workers may not encode the rights as prescribed by the ILO conventions 15

 http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cmw/cmw.htm. Downloaded on 17 May, 2013.

5  Contemporary Forms of Slavery, Citizenship and Human Rights of Migrant Workers…

75

or other relevant international bodies. As we see from the ILO data on ratifications16 of important labour rights, the conventions had a relatively low rate of participation by the GCC countries or those countries from which manual and unskilled labour force come. Among the migrant source countries, Sri Lanka was the only South Asian state to ratify the ILO Convention of 1990. Bangladesh was another country that had signed any other significant human rights instrument. However, in the case of GCC countries, country reports in select cases, as the response to the Committee on International Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discriminations (ICERD), indicate commitments to the United Nations Human Rights Mechanism.17

Remittances, Citizenship and Development Studies on migrants’ remittances and their implications for host economies, as well as relations between migration and trade (Sajitha Beevi Karayil 2007), continue to be a major area of interest in academic research. Some studies (Singh 2009; Ratha and Xu 2008; Panda 2009) have cited the importance of migrant remittances18 in a way indicating national interest in these transactions.19 16  According to estimates, among the GCC Countries, ratification of labour rights, instruments were highest among Kuwait and Bahrain. Oman, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have ratified four to eight instruments, while it was 74 and 21 in the case of Kuwait and Bahrain respectively. Source (http:// www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/natlex_browse.subject?p_ lang=en&p_classification=17: Downloaded on 17 May, 2012) 17  Compatibility of national regimes with standard international norms, however, is not a foolproof yardstick to assess human rights situations. For example, in India, despite the strong domestic regime starting from 1948, labourers’ working and living conditions continue to be dirty, demeaning and dangerous. 18  According to a study (Ratra and Xu 2008), worldwide flows of remittances were around $320 billion in 2007, with remittances sent home by migrants from developing countries accounting for $240 billion. Remittances were twice as large as foreign aid and nearly two-thirds of foreign direct investment flows were to developing countries. India is considered to be the biggest beneficiary of remittance flows. With more than ten million workers worldwide, many of them highly skilled workers in the West, India’s annual remittances are said to have crossed $27 billion in 2007, followed by China ($25.7 billion), Mexico ($25 billion), the Philippines ($17 billion), France ($12.5 billion), Spain ($8.9 billion), Belgium ($7.2 billion), Germany ($7 billion), UK ($7 billion) and Romania ($6.8 billion). According to the World Bank, figures for the year 2012, India ($ 69 billion) and China ($ 60 billion) still stay on the top. Philippines ($24 billion) and Mexico ($23 billion) are the other large recipients. (Source: http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,co ntentMDK:20648762~pagePK:64257043~piPK:437376~theSitePK:4607,00.html) Downloaded on 17 May 2013. 19  Panda (2009: 177) points to migrant workers’ contribution to Kerala’s economy as a backdrop for advocating a more serious view of the issue of migrant workers hailing from India. He cites the potential of migrant workers as powerful economic backup for the state at the time of any economic crisis, the impact of their remittances on not just India’s economy, but also the morale of the country. Panda writes ‘For the longest time, the government took no note of the inflow, notwithstanding occasional stories about how the Gulf workers fuelled the boom in Kerala. It was the nuclear tests in May 1998, when New Delhi floated the Resurgent India bonds to cushion the possible impact of sanctions, which first tested the depth of the NRI commitment.

76

M. V. Bijulal

Detailed interactions with workers whom the author met personally, mostly during the migrant labourers’ rights advocacy campaigns have strongly testified on such trade-offs in the life in Arab countries. Some respondents strongly observed the conflict between the moral principles of Islam – the state religion in Arab countries influencing all ethical, social, political and economic matters – and the system of exploitation in the labour sector. To many workers, such conflict explains the strengthening of new exploitative arrangements in work and the lack of formal legal/governmental systems in addressing this ethical and moral crisis in the Arab societies and cultures. The workers feel that as long as workers’ rights realization is kept in a grey area of inaction, shared by the country of origin and destination, as well as unattended by law or human rights principles, the crisis is set to remain. Since this is related to workers’ individual status as migrants, at some point they conflict with rights connected to institutional citizenship. Here, the post-national citizenship advocates’ arguments need to be considered for uniform acceptance of respect to rights when rights are restricted for a person as a citizen of a country. Benhabib (2007) recognizes that changes in patterns of political belonging have been accompanied by forms of exclusion, and some groups (e.g. asylum seekers and refugees) have not benefited from the spread of cosmopolitan norms. Ong (2006, 23) similarly acknowledges that citizenship rights have been extended only to some migrants, ‘instead of all citizens enjoying a unified bundle of citizenship rights’. These readings constitute counter-hegemonic discourses because they question particular elements of state sovereignty and would, if accepted, undermine those facets of the global political economy that require the labour of underpaid and insecure migrants. Many circumstances connecting to lives of the expatriate lower skilled workers across the world have exposed the limitation to the term ‘global governance’ (Betts 2011: 5–8). Managed migration and its application through local and wider scales are often seen as a law-oriented initiative, with a clear role for interest groups (Mentz 2009: 5–8). Another important aspect is the increasing role of the non-state agencies in the formulation of principles as well as the prominence of humanitarian and human rights organizations in matters related to managing migrations (ibid.). The involvement of many such organizations, like Amnesty International, needs to be seen in this context: their argument is for ensuring basic human rights to all migrants, irrespective of the legal sanctity of their stay in a host country. An important, universal issue regarding the status of workers in host countries is the legally sanctioned discrimination against workers as non-citizens on various concerns connected to their social, economic, political and cultural rights. This also involves a human rights reading on contemporary practices of organizing and employing migrant workers in different parts of the world. It seeks to employ a transnational framework to restore the rights and dignity of labour, which has emerged as a major concern of academic works in legal aspects of modern slavery/ contemporary slavery (Bales 2005:41–44) and new scholarship20 in citizenship  New scholarship could be characterized as enquiries on the lack of human rights culture in shaping state policies as well as the role of non-state locations to advocate means to avoid a ‘legitimation crisis’ for states parties, in the case of ensuring rights and dignity of migrant workers. 20

5  Contemporary Forms of Slavery, Citizenship and Human Rights of Migrant Workers…

77

(Benhabib 2007; Basok 2009). As Aihwa Ong (2006: 15) states that migrant rights are better protected by disengaging citizenship into bundles of rights, as in the case of European countries. Ong raises this in continuation with the discussion on how it becomes important to disengage the concept of citizenship in the context of violations against migrant workers, especially in the globalized sites of hyper growth (ibid p. 23). The rights deficit for the migrant workers is quite relevant to be read along with Article 1 of the United Nations International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families. Considering labour as an integral part of development, this institutional model becomes more applicable with nuanced adaptations in various countries. Another important model in civil engagement is the effort to revise rights situations with the application of non-codified human rights principles. According to Basok (2009), while exploring the contributions of civil initiatives on advocating for non-­ hegemonic rights in the case of migrants in the USA and Canada ‘hegemonic human rights norms are congruent with liberal notions of formal equality between individuals and individual freedom from coercion, as well as principles of national sovereignty while counter-hegemonic human rights values are the ones that in one way or another challenge the status quo, either by undermining the political economic foundations of liberal democracies and/or the principles of national sovereignty. The need for open non-state perceptions on rights is furthered by Benhabib (2007) through an argument for “delinking citizenship rights, from mandatory membership in a nation-state, a core to the new human rights debate on migrants, opting for a the conceptualization of citizenship membership and more towards citizenship of residency with civil and social rights, and, in some cases, political participation rights, extended to non-citizens”.

Response from GCC Countries Interviews with workers show that GCC countries generally avoid concerns related to poor wage structure, non-payment of salaries, lack of medical care and substandard housing. It is also to be noted that the states promulgated legislations that offered restricted participation of workers. In many cases, practices of control and exclusion clearly point to violation of universal human rights principles, inalienable and non-negotiable for the dignified and safe human existence in any situation.21 Initiatives in providing elementary forms of participation were accompanied by stringent measures against organizing or participating in strikes. To explain this  In 2002, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs promulgated new regulations that authorized the establishment of ‘workers’ committees’ in private businesses with 100 or more employees. The ILO Director-General Juan Somavia called this development ‘a milestone in the labor history of Saudi Arabia’, and said it was ‘gratifying for the ILO to be cooperating with a country which is making real efforts to promote social and labor rights’ (ILO 2002). 21

78

M. V. Bijulal

situation, Human Rights Watch (2004) refers to Article 191 of the Saudi Labour Law which states: ‘Where an employee, head of an enterprise, employee or workman stops work with the object of exerting pressure on public authorities or of protesting against a decision or measure adopted by such authorities instead of having recourse to legitimate means, each such offender shall be punished with imprisonment for a terms of 2–6 years or a fine of 4000 riyals to 10,000 riyals, or both.’ In the meantime, the Government of Saudi Arabia decided to initiate a representative system of workers in those units where 100 or more workers were enrolled. Though this development in 2002 was hailed as an important step in the history of social and labour rights by the ILO in 2009, critics mark this development as symbolic and nominal, with no real power vested in the Committee of Workers. The ILO did not publicize the fact that the committees would lack real independence. Employees in each company could form only one committee, with three to nine members. The Minister of Labour and Social Affairs must approve the committee members; the Minister and companies’ management have the right to send representatives to committee meetings; and the minutes of all meetings are required to be provided to management. There are interesting examples indicating the seamless powers of international capital in nullifying efforts to protect labour rights. In 2006 and 2007, the UAE Labour Minister Ali al-Kaabi implemented some basic life protection of measures for the workers. Mid-day work breaks during the hot, summer months was notable in this regard. In another instance, the minister ordered a well-known company to pay about $2 m as fines for failing to pay its workers. However, these labour-friendly measures ended when Mr. Kaabi was replaced in 2008, invoking doubts about the extent of acceptability of his measures. On the other hand, Bahrain is reported to have taken a consultative course to deal with situations arising from the labour unrest. One of such measures following the 2008 unrest is the setting up a commission to arbitrate in the dispute. Another important step initiated in the GCC countries is the effort to change the ethnic composition of the workforce by opening up more areas of work for nationals.22

Conclusions The lifeworlds of labourers in the Gulf communicate a condition of statelessness, peculiar to migrant work in situations similar to bondage and distressed labour. Connecting the labour rights movements with the ongoing global process of urban development has become more relevant in this contest. There are direct linkages to the excessive pace of development (infrastructure projects in the main) and the increasing depth and spread of denials and violations of rights. In GCC countries, it

 ‘Unified Gulf plan needed to tackle labour issues’, IANS, Wednesday, 10 September 2008, 12:30 hrs. 22

5  Contemporary Forms of Slavery, Citizenship and Human Rights of Migrant Workers…

79

is also important to see how Islamic principles for decent work as given in the Universal Islamic Declaration of Human Rights (UIDHR) are been followed.23 The unquantifiable pain of loss involved in the terms of engagement (i.e. forgoing better emotional and physical security as well as civil and cultural rights at home for more income) never becomes a valid point for academic as well as official enquiries into worker rights issues. Rather, the classic condition of alienation of less privileged migrants is seen from the logic of instrumental rationality by official and popular sources. There are two usual ways of understanding migrant rights experience which may be broadly termed as ‘methodological nationalisms’. The interpretation of rightlessness of workers from a ‘progressive citizen’ (Varghese 2011) point of view uses a ‘nationalist diction’ which focuses on their ‘inescapable’ drudgery. Similarly, there is an academic endorsement of indispensability of progressive realization through hegemonic human rights mechanisms. Various academic outlooks are also affected, which I would refer as a ‘State plus’ category, endorsing official state positions in a conscious and unconscious manner. In this context, lies the importance of the civil society as agency to accelerate those forms of non-hegemonic spaces for the protection of workers’ rights. Worker accounts from many South Asian countries suggest an urgent need for joint diplomatic missions to take up violations with the host country in times of emergency. In the context where the importance of rights protection for migrant workers is emerging stronger in South and South East Asian countries,24 India needs to consider the safety and dignity of its citizens working in dangerous and difficult situations as a major component of its bilateral policy agenda with the GCC countries. There is a soft-pedalling in Indian policy on human rights and dignity at work to informal workers, who are in millions. Initiating academic efforts to identify common threads for an inclusive policy, focusing on rights deficits of the informal, semi-skilled and unskilled workers is pertinent in this context. Human rights approaches on the study of conditions of migrant workers (ex. Human Rights Watch (2004)) has brought in an academic turn, giving prominence to organic narratives and human rights activist reportage which attained several forms of recognition and influence in social and public policy. The migrant person having separated from assuring situations of humane and legal care at home is often forced to live in a sense of anonymity, political and social invisibility and amidst  Regarding the status of workers and their dignity, the preamble part G (3) is unambiguous on the stance against forced labour. Article XVII reads that ‘Islam honours work and the worker and enjoins Muslims not only to treat the worker justly but also generously. He is not only to be paid his earned wages promptly, but is also entitled to adequate rest and leisure’. Source: http://www. alhewar.com/ISLAMDECL.html. (Downloaded on 23 May 2013). 24  The proactive stance for rights of workers by some Indian officials in GCC countries has, however, led to diplomatic chaos. While this made the issue more visible, countries like Thailand and Indonesia have demanded fair wages and other facilities as minimum conditions for their citizens to work as housemaids in Gulf countries. However, this position has angered governments like Saudi Arabia, leading to a temporary ban on workers from these countries. The ban was lifted in late 2012. 23

80

M. V. Bijulal

many forms of vulnerabilities. Body of the workers as captive site for profit has been used in such situations, resembling indentured or forced labour references of which needs to be in place while we engage with aspects of rights in transnational migration. The States and their parties must undertake a comprehensive mapping of the migration processes with emphasis on isolating factors that promoted humane and safe means. The host countries (GCC) can see how the expatriate labour force can lead a peaceful and meaningful life with more opportunities for social life for the workers. This has two dimensions: one, on the possibilities for larger interaction among various migrant communities. And, an effort to explore more areas of communication between the local population and the migrant population can be made as a second action. Both actions can be done by introducing the idea at the civil–social milieu with active roles assigned to the local citizens and the representatives of expatriates. Such efforts at enhancing communications through efforts to mutually inform the lifeworlds can bring about solutions to the present crisis of foul play, denials of rights, xenophobic tendencies, etc. Such efforts may inform a transnational action to protect and promote human rights, with the play of active, direct human persons entering the conventional areas of state-oriented management of migrant work scenario. Labour-sending countries in South and South East Asia can form an intergovernmental body to help the functioning of a people-oriented management of migration. This is especially relevant since sharing of the data (on migrant life experiences, needs, aspirations and challenges of women and men who migrate from similar economic and social situations) is essential. It is also relevant to individual countries so that they may formulate their own policies on labour, considering the changes in the factors that influence migration from a particular country to another. States need to develop immediate systems for the protection of rights to life and dignity of legal as well as undocumented migrant persons in difficult conditions. People languishing in jails, people fearing state action for non-­ possession of essential documents, people suffering from cruelties from employers, etc., need to be restored to their families through transparent arrangements between the governments. With the introduction of direct state-mediated recruitment channels in different GCC countries, there are chances for reducing the abuse of migrants in these countries. However, there are chances for corrupt practices by the citizens of the host country who act as recruiting agents. It is also argued that transparent traditional linkages that have maintained migration for a long time should remain. Promoting and ensuring workers’ rights to life, livelihood and dignity has to emerge as a prominent aspect of managing migration through meaningful transnational policy initiatives. Promoting the emerging concerns in defence of broader citizenship rights, both in academic writings as well as human rights defence initiatives, is the key to a meaningful transnational approach for the protection of the rights of migrant workers.

5  Contemporary Forms of Slavery, Citizenship and Human Rights of Migrant Workers…

81

References Amjad, R. (Ed.). (1989). To the Gulf and Back: Studies on the economic impact of Asian labour migration. International Labour Organisation, Asian Employment Programme: New Delhi/ Geneva. Ayesha, N. (2008). Jeevithathinte Arangu. Kottayam: Current Books. Bales, K. (1999). Disposable people: New slavery in the global economy. Berkeley: University of California Press. Bales, K. (2005). Understanding global slavery a reader. Berkeley: University of California Press. Basok, T. (2009). Counter-hegemonic human rights discourses and migrant rights activism in the US and Canada, International Journal of Comparative Sociology (pp. 183–205). London: Sage. Benhabib, S. (2007). Twilight of sovereignty or the emergence of cosmopolitan norms? Rethinking citizenship in volatile times. Citizenship Studies, 11(1), 19–36. Betts, A. (2011). Global migration governance. New York: Oxford University Press. Bijulal, M.  V. (2012). Struggle as political communication: Migrant lifeworlds and human rights questions in the GCC countries’. South Asian Journal of Diplomacy, 3(1), School of International relations, Kottayam. Chatterjee, P. (2004). Politics of the governed reflections on popular politics in most part of the world. New York: Colombia University Press. Ditto, M. I. (2008). GCC Labour Migration Governance, United Nations expert group meeting on, international migration and development in asia and the pacific, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, Population Division, Department of Economic and Social affairs, Bangkok, Thailand. Human Rights Watch. (2004). Saudi Arabia: Bad dreams exploitation and abuse of migrant workers in Saudi Arabia. Human Rights Watch, 165(E). IANS. (2008, September 10). Unified Gulf Plan needed to tackle labour issues. IANS. ILO (International Labor Organization). (2002, April 18). Boost for workers’ rights in Saudi Arabia. Press Release. ILO/02/17. http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/media-centre/pressreleases/WCMS_007782/lang%2D%2Den/index.htm. Accessed on 4 April 2013. International Migration Report. (2002). United Nations. Geneva: Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. International Organization for Migration (IOM). (2003). World migration report 2003: Labour migration: Trends, challenges and policy responses in countries of origin. Geneva: International Organization for Migration Press. IOM. (2012). http://www.iom.int/cms/en/sites/iom/home/about-iom-1/mission.html. Accessed on 24 May 2013. Kapiszewski, A. (2006, May 15–17). Arab versus Asian migrant workers in the GCC countries’. Paper presented at United Nations expert group meeting on international migration and development in the Arab region, Beirut. http://www.un.org/esa/population/meetings/EGM_Ittmig_ Arab/P02_Kapiszewski.pdf. Accessed on 12 Dec 2012. Karayil, S. B. (2007). Does migration matter in trade? A study of India’s exports to the GCC countries. South Asia Economic Journal, 8(1), 1. Mentz, G. (2009). The political economy managed migration non-state actors, Europeanization, and the politics of designing migration policies. New York: Oxford University Press. Ong, A. (2006). Neoliberalism as exception: Mutations in sovereignty and citizenship. Durham: Duke University Press. Panda, R. (2009). Migration remittances: The emerging scenario. India Quarterly, 65(2), 167–183. Prakash, B. A. (1998). Gulf migration and its economic impacts: The Kerala experience. Economic and Political Weekly, 33(50), 3157–3159. Ratha, D., & Xu, Z. (2008). Migration and remittances factbook. Washington, DC: The World Bank.

82

M. V. Bijulal

Singh, B. (2009). Structural shifts in the current account of India’s balance of payments. Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, 3, 133. Sonmez, S., Apostolopoulos, Y., Tran, D., & Rentrope, S. (2011). Human rights and health disparities for migrant workers in the UAE. Health and Human Rights: An International Journal, North America, 13(7), 12. http://www.hhrjournal.org/index.php/hhr/article/viewArticle/435/665. Accessed on 21 May 2013. The Sydney Herald. (2011, January 3). Workers strike in UAE after labour riot.. http://news.smh. com.au/breaking-news-world/workers-strike-in-uae-after-labour-riot-20110103-19dz9.html. Accessed on Apr 4 2013. Tilly, C. (2007). Trust networks in transnational migration. Sociological Forum, 22(1, March), 3–24. UNCJIN. (2000). http://www.uncjin.org/Documents/Conventions/dcatoc/final_documents_2/­ convention_%20traff_eng.pdf. Accessed on 24 May 2013. Varghese, V. J. (2011). ‘Outside and inside the nation:: Narratives and the making of a productive citizen in Kerala. In S. I. Rajan (Ed.), Migration, identity and conflict, India migration report. New Delhi: Rutledge.

Chapter 6

A Portrait of Low-Income Migrants in Contemporary Qatar Andrew Gardner, Silvia Pessoa, Abdoulaye Diop, Kaltham Al-Ghanim, Kien Le Trung, and Laura Harkness

Abstract  Though transnational labour migration in the Gulf States has increasingly been of scholarly interest, that scholarship has to date relied largely on qualitative ethnographic methodologies or small non-representative sampling strategies. This chapter presents the findings of a large representative sample of low-income migrant labourers in Qatar. The data describe the basic characteristics of the low-­ income migrant population in Qatar, the process by which migrants obtain employment, the frequency with which this population of migrants encounters the problems and challenges described by previous ethnographic work, and the role played by nationality, ethnicity and religion in patterning that experience. While the findings generally affirm many of the claims made in earlier ethnographic studies, they provide a means by which the extent of these problems and challenges can be ascertained more directly.

Introduction By some estimates, labour migration to the petroleum-rich states of the Arabian Peninsula comprises the third-largest transnational migration flow in the contemporary world (ESCWA 2007; Gardner 2011). Current estimates suggest that more than 11 million foreign workers are currently employed in the region.1 Given that many  See Martin Baldwin-Edwards for a recent estimate [Baldwin-Edwards, ‘Labour Immigration and Labour Markets in the GCC Countries: National Patterns and Trends’ (2011)]. Andrzej Kapiszewski estimated the 2004 total to be over 12.5 million [Kapiszewski, ‘Arab Versus Asian Migrant Workers in the GCC Countries’, United Nations Secretariat (2006), p. 3]. 1

A. Gardner (*) University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA, USA S. Pessoa · L. Harkness Carnegie Mellon University, Ar-Rayyan, Qatar A. Diop · K. Al-Ghanim · K. Le Trung Social and Economic Survey Research Institute (SESRI), Qatar University (QU), Doha, Qatar © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 S. I. Rajan, G. Z. Oommen (eds.), Asianization of Migrant Workers in the Gulf Countries, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9287-1_6

83

84

A. Gardner et al.

migrants remain in the GCC states for only one or two contract periods, and considering that many of them are best conceptualized as emissaries of large Asian and African households that are deeply dependent on Gulf-sourced remittances, it seems obvious that the millions of foreign workers currently employed in the region are only the visible component of the total social field encompassed by Gulf migration. However, the scale of labour migration to the Arabian Peninsula stands in stark contrast, to the lack of data concerning labour migration in the region. In part, this lack can be attributed to the traditional peripheralization of the GCC states in the larger field of Middle Eastern studies. But, it is also due to the long-standing anxieties of the authoritarian regimes typical of the Peninsula, since research and scholarly inquiry focused on the transnational migrant populations has often been made difficult, if not impossible, by the results of such anxieties. Yet even in Qatar  – where for the last 5 years the state has, ostensibly, been interested in learning more about the living and working conditions faced by the migrants in the region – relevant publications and accessible data concerning migrant populations remain few and far between. This chapter seeks to address this dearth of material by describing a subset of the findings produced by a large, 2-year project funded by the Qatar National Research Fund.2 Recognizing that much of the qualitative and ethnographic work concerned with labour migration in the Gulf States has been focused on the challenges, problems and rights-based issues facing migrants in the region, this project sought specifically to develop a quantitative portrait of issues previously identified through qualitative and ethnographic analysis.3 We also sought to verify, and potentially improve upon, the findings of the occasional small-scale survey projects that underpin substantial portions of contemporary analysis of migration in the Gulf.4 Building

 This publication was made possible by a grant from the Qatar National Research Fund under its National Priorities Research Program (award #09–857–5-123). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Qatar National Research Fund. 3  Longva, Walls Built on Sand: Migration, Exclusion and Society in Kuwait (1997); Longva, ‘Keeping Migrant Workers in Check: The Kafala System in the Gulf’, Middle East Report 211 (1999); Gamburd, The Kitchen Spoon’s Handle: Transnationalism and Sri Lanka’s Migrant Housemaids (2000); Kapiszewski, Nationals and Expatriates: Population and Labour Dilemmas of the Gulf Cooperation Council States (2001); Jureidini, ‘Migrant Workers and Xenophobia in the Middle East’ (2003); Gardner, City of Strangers: Gulf Migration and the Indian Community in Bahrain (2010); Gardner, ‘Engulfed: Indian Guest Workers, Bahraini Citizens and the Structural Violence of the Kafala System’, in The Deportation Regime: Sovereignty, Space, and Freedom of Movement, eds De Genova and Peutz (2010); Gardner, ‘Gulf Migration and the Family’; Strobl, ‘Policing Housemaids: The Criminalization of Domestic Workers in Bahrain’, British Journal of Criminology 49 (2009); Kanna, Dubai: The City as Corporation (2011). 4  For example, see: Human Rights Watch, ‘Dubai: Migrant Workers at Risk’ (2003); Human Rights Watch, ‘Building Towers, Cheating Workers: Exploitation of Migrant Construction Workers in the United Arab Emirates’ (2006); Human Right Watch, The Island of Happiness: Exploitation of Migrant Workers on Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi (2009); Human Rights Watch, ‘Building a Better World Cup: Protecting Migrant Workers in Qatar Ahead of FIFA 2022’ (2012); Human Rights Watch, ‘For a Better Life: Migrant Worker Abuse in Bahrain and the Government Reform Agenda’ 2

6  A Portrait of Low-Income Migrants in Contemporary Qatar

85

on the sampling framework developed by the Social and Economic Survey Research Institute (SESRI) at Qatar University for its 2010 Omnibus Survey, our research team devised a comprehensive structure through which a representative sample of 1189 low-income migrants in Qatar was surveyed during February and March 2012.5 In addition, the team conducted a series of follow-up interviews with a subset of the survey participants throughout 2012, to help clarify the particularly puzzling and complex issues revealed through our analysis of the survey data. Overall, the survey administered to a random sample of these low-income migrants in Qatar was attentive to 95 distinct variables. This is obviously too large a number to be dealt with in any comprehensive fashion here. Instead, the analysis concentrates on the sets of variables pertaining to three distinct questions: First, what do these data reveal about the basic characteristics of the low-income population of labourers in Qatar? Second, what do these data reveal about the variations in the ways migrants obtain work in Qatar? Third, what perceptible roles do nationality, ethnicity and religion play in determining migrants’ various experiences while abroad in Qatar? Finally, the discussion and conclusion of this chapter provides an opportunity to explore further what these data reveal about the labour problems typically portrayed by ethnographic and qualitative research conducted among this migrant population. Following a brief discussion of the methodology used, these questions and issues provide a roadmap to the remainder of the chapter.

Survey Data and Methodology The key to our contribution to the existing literature is the representative sample underlying these findings. Our goal was to explore the experiences of low-income workers in Qatar. Therefore, our sample was limited to foreign workers with an income of less than QR2,000 (US$549) per month. This arbitrary delineation, based on ethnographic work conducted in Qatar and elsewhere in the GCC region, seemed to represent a viable threshold between the ‘unskilled’ and ‘low-skill’ underclass of

(2012); Endo and Afram, ‘The Qatar-Nepal Remittance Corridor’, World Bank Study (2011); ITUC, ‘Hidden Faces of the Gulf Miracle’, Union View 21 (2011). 5  The first Omnibus Survey was conducted by SESRI in Qatar in 2010, and looked at ‘Qatari citizens, resident expatriates, and migrant laborers’ [SESRI, ‘First Annual Omnibus Survey: A Survey of Life in Qatar’ (2010), p. i]. Our project utilized portions of the SESRI team’s sampling frame, particularly that for labour camps, and significantly expanded the scope of questions included in the survey, so as to reflect the substantial ethnographic findings that had explored the experiences of transnational migrants over the past decade. The list of labour camps comprising this sampling frame was assembled by SESRI, in cooperation with the government ministries that administer utilities to these camps. As discussed in the conclusion of this chapter, while this sampling frame allowed us to derive a representative sample of low-income migrants in Qatar, it does not include the smaller portion of migrants who live and work in the domestic sector, nor the small but substantial portion of migrants who do not dwell in ‘labour camps’.

86

A. Gardner et al.

foreign workers and the ‘semi-skilled’ lower middle class.6 Our respondents, framed as ‘low-income’ migrants or labourers in the remainder of this chapter, comprise the largest segment of the foreign workforce in Qatar and, indeed, in all the GCC states. However, beyond this purposeful limitation, our sampling strategy did not allow us any access to workers in the domestic sector – the drivers, nannies, maids, gardeners, servants and other domestic workers typically employed by Qatari and elite expatriate households. Although the domestic sector of the foreign workforce in the region has been the subject of intensive scrutiny and international rights-based criticism, social norms in Qatar make it extremely difficult for survey enumerators (and, for that matter, any outsiders) to have access to these men and women. This is a noteworthy caveat to the findings presented here and will be further discussed in the chapter’s conclusion. As noted, the sampling frame was based on a comprehensive list of migrant labour dwellings in Qatar assembled by SESRI at Qatar University for Qatar’s first omnibus survey. These labour camps were divided into five strata, ranging from very small (those with less than seven inhabitants) to very large (those with 200 or more inhabitants). Based on these five categories, we employed proportionate stratified sampling to randomly select larger numbers of subjects from larger camps and smaller numbers of subjects from smaller camps. Supervisors initially visited each camp to deploy this sampling procedure and identify the languages spoken by randomly selected subjects.7 These subjects were then visited by a linguistically appropriate survey enumerator. In addition to the pre-test of the survey instrument and debriefing meetings with interviewers and supervisors, all the interviewers were trained for a period of 3 days before the survey began. With this training, the research team was able to ensure that all the interviewing staff members had a clear understanding of the objectives of the study and a detailed understanding of the survey instrument. Overall, 1189 interviews were completed using this procedure, yielding a maximum margin of error of ±4.4%. This overall sampling strategy was to ensure the representativeness of the sample and to increase the accuracy of the estimates derived from the data set. The term ‘low-income migrant’, perhaps, requires a brief explanation, particularly as we envision this as an unfamiliar and, perhaps, unwelcome addition to the lexicon of terms used to describe the foreign workers on the Arabian Peninsula. In the authors’ long experience with the population of foreign workers in the region,  For example, see the ethnographic project A Longitudinal Analysis of Low-Income Laborers in Contemporary Qatar, funded by the Center for International and Regional Studies at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar, and resulting in: Gardner, ‘Why Do They Keep Coming? Labor Migrants in the Gulf States’, in Migrant Labour in the Persian Gulf, eds Kamrava and Babar (2012). 7  Initial visits by survey supervisors provided an opportunity to update information about the labour camp (or collective household) and to inform camp managers about the research project’s official relationship and its sponsorship by the Qatar government. In the context of the GCC, such visits improve cooperation and facilitate access to the camps. In the survey, 3.76% of the labour camps (19 of 504) denied our team access. Two of those 19 camps or collective households were for female labour. 6

6  A Portrait of Low-Income Migrants in Contemporary Qatar

87

we developed a deep skepticism about any strong correlation between skill levels and income levels in the Gulf. The term ‘low-income migrant’ reflects this conviction and the nature of our sample. Our concern was only with the migrants’ economic class in the Gulf and was consciously blind to the fact that many of these migrant men and women earning QR2,000 or less have extraordinary training, skills and previous work experiences that go unremunerated in the Gulf labour force.

Basic Characteristics of Low-Income Migrants in Qatar The low-income migrants in our sample came from more than 25 different countries. The largest contingent of low-income labourers in Qatar, comprising 39% of the total sample, came from Nepal. India (29%), Sri Lanka (9%) and Bangladesh (9%) were next, followed by the Philippines (5%), Pakistan (3%) and Egypt (3%).8 The remaining nationalities made up about 2% of the total sample. Almost all the migrants surveyed were male, which is explained partly by the preponderance of male labourers in this transnational circuit, and partly also by our sampling frame’s omission of the domestic sector in which many low-income female migrants are employed. In addition, the low-income labour migrant population in Qatar is relatively young, with an average and median age of 32 and 30  years respectively. Overall, 72% of low-income migrants in Qatar were married at the time of the survey, and on average, low-income migrants supported an average of 2.4 children. Considering the states that send the most low-income labourers to Qatar, the religious constitution of the low-income workforce was unsurprising. Nearly half of the respondents (49%) were Hindu, and a substantial number were Muslim (37%). Smaller proportions of the workers identified themselves as Christians (9%), Buddhists (5%), or adherents to other religions (less than 1%). Education levels of low-income migrants in Qatar vary, with low-income migrants having on average completed 8.7 years of education. Almost all migrants in Qatar report themselves as being literate in their native language (93%). However, regarding the languages that they used in Qatar’s public sphere, only 18% of low-income migrants reported being able to speak at least some Arabic, while approximately a third (32%) could speak at least some English. One open question in the existing literature ponders the duration of stay for transnational migrants in the GCC. While there is no question that the presence of a foreign underclass has become a perennial demographic characteristic of all the GCC States, some have suggested that individual transnational migrants are

 These percentages differ slightly from those previously reported in Qatar. For example, the 2010 SESRI Omnibus survey found that the Filipino migrant population made up 10% of the total migrant population. These differences are partly explained by the continually shifting sources of foreign labour throughout the GCC, but more directly by the QR2,000 screening for monthly income deployed in this survey. 8

88

A. Gardner et al.

i­ncreasingly extending their stay in the region.9 Our data are more indicative of the opposite – that the low-income labour force in Qatar remains a temporary and transnationally cyclical labour force. The duration of stay of low-income migrants in Qatar varied, from less than 1  year to 45  years, with a mean of 5.5  years and a median of 4 years. Over half of the migrants we sampled (58%) had been present in Qatar 4 years or less. The graph in Fig. 6.1 presents the overall distribution of the migrants’ length of stay in Qatar in early 2012, the time of the survey (Fig. 6.1). Our survey also asked subjects to estimate how long they intended to remain in Qatar. While their long-range plans and aspirations are frequently scuttled by the challenging realities of life as a labour migrant in Qatar, on average the migrants in our survey intended to remain in Qatar for an average of 3.6 years beyond the date they were surveyed (after excluding 17% of respondents who said they did not know). However, a bit more inspection of the data revealed interesting and noteworthy patterns. First, of the 1189 migrants surveyed, over one-fifth intended to return home after the conclusion of their current contract. Moreover, the average intended stay was much higher for migrants from some sending states such as Pakistan (6.8 years) and Egypt (6 years) than for those from Bangladesh (4.9), India (3.7), the Philippines (3.2) and Nepal (2.6 years). Overall, we believe that this quantitative portrait of low-income migrants in Qatar indicates that substantial numbers of migrants – and particularly South Asian migrants – clearly conceptualize their stay as a temporary one. This portrait of low-income migrants in Qatar generally fits descriptions of the migrant population as a temporary and transnationally cyclical population rather than a growing and imminent population of semi-permanent diasporic residents.

30

Percent

25 20 15

10 5 0

less than 2

2 to 3

4 to 5

6 to 7

8 to 9

10 or more

Years since beginning work in Qatar Fig. 6.1  Duration of low-income migrants’ stay in Qatar, 2012  For example, this was a central premise in recent workshop convened at Oxford University, entitled Migrations to the Gulf Countries: From Exception to Normality, held on 18 June 2010. 9

6  A Portrait of Low-Income Migrants in Contemporary Qatar

89

Further extending this hypothesis, our survey found that low-income migrants in Qatar typically had little or no previous work experience outside their home country. The great majority of low-income foreign workers in Qatar (68%) were first-­ time migrants. Conversely, about one-third (32%) of the low-income migrants in Qatar had previous experience working outside their country of origin. Nearly two-­ thirds of those previous migrants (64%, or 21% of the total sample) had previous work experience specifically in one of the GCC states. Although previous labour migration experience was varied, low-income migrants in Qatar were employed in a constellation of different vocations. Altogether, survey participants listed more than 80 different job titles. A quarter (25%) of the participants described their job title as ‘labourer’ or ‘helper’, job titles that are often (but not always) analogous to the Euro-American idea of a ‘construction worker’. Other common responses included driver (10%), cleaner (6%), mason (5%), carpenter (6%), electrician (4%), painter (3%), salesman (3%) and security guard (3%). The average and median monthly salaries reported by the foreign workers in our sample were respectively QR1,061 (US$291) and QR1,000 (US$274). On average, the workers in our sample sent home an average of QR764 (US$209) every month, with an average monthly living expense in Qatar of QR418 (US$114). In addition to the migrant’s reported basic salary, low-income migrants reported various other sources of remuneration while in Qatar: Over half (56%) worked overtime and received overtime pay, with a monthly average amount of QR327 (US$90); a third (33%) received a food allowance, with a monthly average amount of QR228 (US$63); only 2% of the migrants surveyed had additional remunerated part time work, with an average monthly supplemental income of QR399 (US$110). As many researchers have noted, much of the money remitted from Qatar and the other Gulf States is typically used, first and foremost, to service debts incurred to send migrants to the Gulf States in the first place. As discussed in Sect. 4 of this chapter, low-­ income labourers in Qatar report a mean total migration cost of US$1031. While nearly 3 of 10 (29%) of our respondents reported paying nothing for migration, the amount of the average migration cost for low-income migrants is considerable, given the average of the salaries reported by respondents in our sample.10 Overall, the findings presented in this section generally align with the qualitative estimations described previously by researchers and scholars working in the GCC. Through the processes of chain migration, the composition of the low-income labour forces in other GCC states often differs significantly. Although the national proportions in these low-income migrant populations may vary between GCC countries, in the GCC states, all the various migrant populations are nationally diverse.

 In our data set, we utilized a ‘total cost of migration’ estimate because we felt that the migrants themselves could provide us with a better and more reliable estimate than we could generate using any method that attempted to grapple with the diversity of costs they often face. For reliability, these costs were reported to us in the home (sending country) currency. Considering the fact that the migrants in our sample had arrived in Qatar in several different decades, we adjusted and converted these amounts to US dollars based on the appropriate exchange rates at the time the amount was paid. 10

90

A. Gardner et al.

In Qatar, this low-income migrant labour force is also religiously diverse and consists mostly of first-time migrants. Even though our sample was specifically tailored to locate and survey workers who make under QR2,000 a month, we were nonetheless surprised by the variable levels of income within those parameters. In all these reported data, we saw ample evidence of a migration system that results in a transitory and temporary workforce. As reported, the vast majority of low-income migrants were relatively new arrivals in Qatar, and large numbers of our respondents wished to return home permanently at the conclusion of their current contract or after the contract following the current one. Although it is clear that foreign workers have become a perennial feature of GCC demography, we see little support for contentions that the majority of migrants in Qatar have established a more permanent life abroad or intend to do so.

Arranging for Work in Qatar In the existing literature concerning labour migration in the Gulf States, there is little clarity about the processes and procedures by which potential migrants secure employment in Qatar or the other GCC states. With some notable exceptions, detailed qualitative portraits of the transnational labour brokerage system are not available.11 In part, this is because more pressing issues (migrants’ experiences while abroad, remittance flows to sending countries) have eclipsed concern for this particular and complicated juncture of the migration experience. Perhaps more importantly, the labour brokerage system in the sending states is difficult to study: labour brokers are reluctant to speak about their methods and profits, and the system itself is geographically diffuse. While it does not provide a comprehensive portrait of the mechanics of the labour brokerage system, this section of the chapter does explore those parts of our data set that relate directly to the process by which employment is obtained in Qatar. For readers unfamiliar with labour migration in Qatar and the Arab Gulf States, all migrants to the GCC submit to the sponsorship system (in Arabic, the kafala). This system locks the foreign worker to a particular job, and that worker’s sponsor is his or her primary representative in the institutions and ministries that regulate the migrant population. He or she cannot legally obtain other employment in Qatar without that sponsor’s permission. As a system, the kafala exists at the junction between law and custom,12 reinforced by legal contracts, typically 2 years in length,  Notable exceptions include Gamburd, The Kitchen Spoon’s Handle (2000); Breeding, ‘IndiaPersian Gulf Migration: Corruption and Capacity in Regulating Recruitment Agencies’, in Migrant Labour in the Persian Gulf, eds Kamrava and Babar (2012). 12  The historical emergence of the kafala is perhaps best described by Elizabeth Frantz in ‘Exporting Subservience: Sri Lanka Women’s Migration for Domestic Work in Jordan’ (2011). For an explanation of the connections between culture and the kafala as law, see Gardner, ‘Engulfed’, (2010), pp. 212–13. 11

6  A Portrait of Low-Income Migrants in Contemporary Qatar

91

signed by most migrants. Over the past decades, the work visas that permit men and women to enter this employment system have been commodified. Prospective migrants often pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars for the right to work in Qatar or one of the other Gulf States for 2  years (Human Rights Watch 2009; Gardner 2010a, b); in doing so, they typically risk significant familial and household resources. The debts incurred to meet these migration costs remain in the sending country; migrants in Qatar often spend their first year or more attempting to pay back the debts incurred for the visa costs associated with their transnational migration (Gardner 2011, 2012). Over the past decade, the kafala (sponsorship system) and the labour brokerage system have been the focal point of a global human-rights-­ based critique.13 Qatar and many of the other GCC states have long been exploring the possibility of altering aspects of this system in response to these assessments (Anon 2012; Toumi 2012). In our sample, over half of the migrants (56%) reportedly obtained their position in Qatar through a labour broker in their home country. Most of the remainder secured their position through family connections (21%) or friends (22%) already working in Qatar. This clearly suggests that the formal labour migration system (labour brokerages in sending countries, mostly connected to manpower agencies or other employers in the receiving countries) continues to coexist with the informal, network-based system that historically characterized labour migration to the region. In addition to these variable pathways to employment in Qatar and the GCC, we found that over half (60%) of the migrants in our survey had friends or family who had previously migrated to the Gulf States. We interpret this number as notably low: Despite decades of migration between the common sending states and the GCC, a vast reservoir of human capital with little or no experience with, and understanding of, the Gulf migration system continues to flow to Qatar and the other GCC states. While there is often consternation in Qatar and the other GCC states about undocumented migrants, almost all (96%) of the low-income workers in our survey arrived under a formal work visa. Although previous qualitative analysis often portrays the associated work visa fees as a ubiquitous aspect of Gulf migration, we were surprised to find that only 71% of the migrants in our sample paid for their visa. Low-income migrants in Qatar paid an average of US$1031 for the right to work in Qatar for 2 years (with a median amount of US$933). Since this is a substantial sum for most potential migrants and their respective households, and since a large majority of low-income migrants pay these work visa fees, our survey also explored how migrants assembled the necessary funds. The three most significant sources of funding for these trips were loans (reported by 45% of migrants surveyed), household/family savings (30%) and personal savings (26%). Ideally, this transnational labour brokerage system provides potential migrants with an opportunity to inspect and sign a labour contract in the sending country prior to any agreement and prior to departure. However, in our survey, less than half

 For example, ITUC, ‘Hidden Faces of the Gulf Miracle’; Human Rights Watch, ‘Building a Better World Cup’. 13

92

A. Gardner et al.

(44%) of low-income migrants signed a contract before departing for work in Qatar, and most (78%) of those who did sign a contract before departing for Qatar were required to sign another contract when they arrived in Qatar. Conversely, of the 56% of low-income migrants who did not sign a contract before departing, slightly more than two-thirds (67%) were required to sign one upon arrival. Overall, these findings point to a diversity of processes and arrangements that continues to coexist in Qatar: Some migrants never sign a contract, some migrants sign one contract before departure, some migrants sign a contract only after arrival in Qatar, and some migrants sign contracts before departure and after arrival. The large number of low-­ income migrants who do not sign a contract before leaving for Qatar is surprising: without a signed contract prior to departure, new migrants have to rely on the verbal assurances of labour brokers, acquaintances and friends working in Qatar. Overall, the transnational labour brokerage system and the labour contracts in that system are portrayed as a key junction in the ongoing generation of labour problems, exploitation and human trafficking in Qatar and the GCC (Human Rights Watch 2012a, b; Gardner 2011, 2012; Breeding 2012). The data presented here reinforce that analysis and, more generally, reinforce the role that misinformation, deception and unrealistic expectations continue to play in the migration conduit which shuttles migrants to Qatar and the other GCC countries (Gardner 2012).

Labour Problems Qatar and all the GCC states perennially occupy the lower rungs of the US Department of State’s Human Trafficking Report and have, in the past decade, been subjected to scathing criticism for the various human rights violations systematically endured by migrants throughout the region (US Department of State 2007; Human Rights Watch 2006, 2009, 2012a, b). These reports and evaluations were preceded by a decade of ethnographic work that discerned many of the same problems and conditions among the population of foreign workers in the GCC states. Much of the existing work, while qualitative in nature, paints a fairly dire portrait of the living conditions and labour relations faced by migrants in the region. This section reviews our findings in relation to several of the most commonly discussed problems reported in the existing literature: passport confiscation, lack of documentation, job switching, salary withholding and problems related to labour camps and living conditions common to low-income foreign workers in Qatar and the neighbouring states. One of the most commonly reported problems in current research among migrants in the Gulf States focuses on the control and possession of the migrant’s passport. By law, Qatari sponsors or their delegates are allowed to possess the passports of the workers they sponsor only for the period of time required to complete residency or renewal processes (Jaffir 2009). However, as researchers and human rights activists have long noted, it is common practice for employers to maintain

6  A Portrait of Low-Income Migrants in Contemporary Qatar

93

possession of worker passports for the entire duration of their stay abroad.14 This practice is often framed by employers as means of ensuring workers do not flee the country or otherwise abscond from their contractual obligations. Our findings confirmed the widespread nature of passport confiscation among the lowest economic segment of the foreign workforce: 90% of the respondents in our survey reported that their employer possessed their passport.15 It is worth noting that our qualitative interviews also revealed that some migrants were content with the status quo, particularly since they felt they had no secure location at their labour camps in which to store important documents like the passport. Regardless of the migrant perspective on this issue, the high proportion of migrants who lack possession of their passport is a testament to the poor enforcement of this law. Although possession of the passport remains a predominant issue for migrants, sponsors and their proxies also fail frequently to document, properly and legally, the workers they bring to Qatar under the sponsorship system. Small sections of the foreign workforce are partly undocumented, in the sense that they have never received a residence permit, or that a previously valid residence permit was never renewed. In our survey, 7% of the foreign workers reported that they did not have a QID (residence permit). Similarly, a much larger percentage (56%) of the workers lacked a government-mandated ‘health card’, which is needed for accessing health care in the state’s expansive public health system. Failing to provide low-income migrants with a residence permit and/or a health card is generally assumed to result from employers seeking to avoid the fees and surcharges levied by the government for each of these types of official documentation. Salary withholding is also commonly identified as a widespread problem among this segment of the foreign workforce in Qatar and the other GCC states. Through the imbalances of power resulting from the sponsorship arrangement, through the lack of enforcement or regulation of employer practices and through the inexperience of many first-time migrants to the region, unscrupulous sponsors can readily withhold months of salary from employees. In our findings, 21% of low-income workers in Qatar reported that they received their salary on time only sometimes, rarely or never. This should be compared with the 79% who reported that they ‘usually’ or ‘always’ received their salary on time. The average amount owed to these workers was QR 1750 (US$481) with a median amount of QR 1400 (US$385). Our survey also asked respondents to identify the employers’ justifications for withholding their salaries. Those justifications included deductions related to ‘visa

 For example, Longva, Walls Built on Sand; Longva, ‘Keeping Migrant Workers in Check’; Human Rights Watch, ‘Dubai: Migrant Workers at Risk’; McGeehan, ‘Trafficking in Persons or State Sanctioned Exploitation? The False Narrative of Migrant Workers in the United Arab Emirates’, Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Law, 26 (2012). 15  Although previous surveys in Qatar have, at times, utilized different methodologies and designs, earlier reports concerning the frequency of passport confiscation in Qatar have been strikingly similar: 91% [SESRI, ‘First Annual Omnibus Survey’, p. 17] and 88% [Pessoa et al., ‘The State of Migrant Workers in Qatar’, p. 11]. 14

94

A. Gardner et al.

fees’, absence from the workplace, perceived poor job performance, ‘agent fees’, insurance and ‘security deposit’. Survey respondents, quite commonly, also reported that no reason was given at all. While most low-income workers in Qatar always or usually receive their salary on time, the experience of this 21% of the low-income workforce suggests that employers and their proxies, empowered by the ­sponsorship relationship and the lack of oversight, can and sometimes do act with impunity with regard to their employees’ salary. Our findings related to ‘job switching’  – the reportedly common scenario in which migrants are promised one job in their home country, but find themselves on arrival directed to work in an entirely different job – were somewhat ambivalent. In Qatar, 15% of low-income migrants found themselves put to work a different position when they arrived. Similarly, 20% arrived in Qatar to a salary different from the one promised to them in the sending country. However, when we correlated these two sets of workers with answers to a second survey question concerning overall job satisfaction in Qatar, in both cases the number of migrants who self-reported as being ‘satisfied’ or ‘somewhat satisfied’ with their job was significantly higher than those who were ‘somewhat unsatisfied’ or ‘not satisfied at all’ (78% versus 47% in the case of having the same job, and 78% versus 56% in the case of receiving the promised salary). These findings suggest that while ‘job switching’ (and alterations to the promised salary) are relatively common, those changes are not always perceived by migrants as detrimental to their overall interests. Finally, our research team asked low-income migrants a series of questions related to the labour camps in which most of them live. A great majority of the low-­ income migrants in Qatar (88%) reported that their accommodation in Qatar was provided by their employer, while the rest arranged for their own accommodation. Regarding the labour camps themselves, survey enumerators recorded the type of camp for all participants in the survey. Dormitory-style camps were the most common (40%), followed by ‘villa camps’ (single Qatari family homes now occupied by contingents of workers) (25%), apartment flats (16%), portacabins (7%), private homes (5%) and other types of accommodations (7%) (Fig. 6.2).16 As noted earlier in this chapter, migrants in Qatar reported an average of just over six people per room. The survey also inquired about the supplies of electricity, water and the provision of air conditioning. Overall, small proportions of low-income migrants faced challenges in this area: 5% reported that they sometimes or never had sufficient water at their camp, 2% reported that they sometimes or never had a sufficient supply of electricity at their camp and 2% reported that they sometimes or never had ample air conditioning in their rooms.

 For more information and detail concerning labour camps in Qatar and the GCC, see Bruslé, ‘Who’s in a Labour Camp? A Socio-Economic Analysis of Nepalese Migrants in Qatar’, European Bulletin of Himalayan Research 35–6 (2009–10); Gardner, ‘Labor Camps in the Gulf States’, Viewpoints: Migration and the Gulf (2010); Marsden, ‘Lords of a Dubai Labour Camp: Pakistani Migrants in the Gulf’, ILAS Newsletter 49 (2008). 16

6  A Portrait of Low-Income Migrants in Contemporary Qatar

95

Fig. 6.2  Living quarters for low-income labor migrants in qatar

Nationality, Ethnicity, Religion and Migrant Success One of the open questions amenable to quantitative analysis in labour migration studies in the Arabian Gulf concerns the variability of migration experiences among the low-income population. So far, this chapter has considered the surveyed population as a homogeneous group. In this section, however, we examine and explore patterns and variations in the circumstances and experiences of low-income migrants, with particular attention to variations by nationality, ethnicity and religion. Although the sample sizes for some of these migrant subpopulations were small, we nonetheless discerned the significant role played by some of these variables in determining low-income labourers’ circumstances and experiences in Qatar. Because of the limitations of our sample, these findings should be understood as suggestive rather than representative. With the limitations of the sample in mind, the data allowed us to explore the impact of nationality on migrant experiences and outcomes. Significant differences are readily apparent in the basic salary levels received by low-income migrant labourers from different sending countries when obtaining work in Qatar. Basic monthly salaries for low-income workers from the Philippines (mean = QR1,443) and Egypt (mean  =  QR1,454) were, for example, substantially higher than those obtained by workers from Nepal (mean = QR853), the lowest-earning nationality in Qatar’s population of low-income migrants. Moreover, obvious correlations between average monthly salaries and the value of the commodified Qatari work visa were not apparent (Fig. 6.3): for instance, low-income Bangladeshi migrants paid much more for the right to work in Qatar than other nationalities, but arrived to earn some of the lowest wages (mean  =  QR1,050/month) among all low-income migrants. Conversely, Filipino workers were among the highest earners from our sample of low-income workers (mean = QR1,443/month), but paid the least in total migration costs to come to Qatar.

96

A. Gardner et al.

Fig. 6.3  Monthly basic salary and migration costs, by nationality

Overall, these data and variations by nationality can be partly explained by a confluence of forces and processes in the transnational migration industry that shuttles workers from sending states to Qatar and the other states of the GCC. Some sending states have established bilateral agreements or unilateral policies that insulate migrants from exploitative labour relations, that instigate minimum wages for their transnational migrants, or that help potential migrants navigate the complexities of a transnational work arrangement before they travel abroad. In the Philippines, for example, the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995 established a certification process for host countries, increased oversight of recruitment agencies, levied penalties for common offenses (including illegal recruitment) and much more (Agunias et al., 2012). Variations induced by these policies and agreements often coalesce with the organic patterning of labour migration to the region, a process through which men and women from particular sending states are perceived by GCC-based sponsors, manpower agencies and employers as ‘appropriate’ for particular types of work (Indonesian women as domestic servants, West African migrants as security guards and so forth). Combined with the process of chain migration (where migrants already in Qatar arrange for friends or acquaintances to follow their migratory path) and price-based competition in the globalized labour market, numerous forces and processes collude in patterning this transnational migration flow over time. We were also interested in the impact of ethnicity and cultural affiliation on migration experiences. To gauge the differences in the migration experiences by ethnicity, we classified all of our respondents into one of three categories: South Asian, Arab or Other. ‘South Asian’ included low-income migrant workers from Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh. In our sample, ‘Arab’ included migrant workers primarily from Egypt, along with a few migrant workers from Syria. The classification of ‘Other’, omitted from Tables 6.1 and 6.2, included migrants from Southeast Asia, Africa and elsewhere. While many of the variables established in our survey yielded no discernible differences when examined through the lens of ethnicity, we noted significant differences in several key areas when comparing the experiences of these two ethnic groups (Table  6.1). For example, although our sample included only small numbers of Arab migrants, those migrants’

6  A Portrait of Low-Income Migrants in Contemporary Qatar

97

Table 6.1  Averages for key variables, by ethnicity

Arab South Asian

Basic salary (QAR) 1446 1028

Total migration cost (USD) 1604 1052

Workdays/ week 5.87 6.18

Owed money by Roommates employer? 4.93 0.0% 6.17 11.0%

Table 6.2  Averages for key variables for South Asian migrants, by religion Basic salary (QAR) Muslim 1169 Hindu 916

Total migration cost (USD) 1190 984

Workdays/ week 6.10 6.22

Owed money by Roommates employer? 5.60 13.16% 6.63 9.46%

salaries were, on average, QR418 (US$114) higher than their South Asian counterparts. Those higher salaries, however, corresponded with higher up-front costs for migration to Qatar. On average, low-income migrants from Egypt and Syria paid almost QR552 (US$151) more for the right to work in Qatar than those from the South Asia. Once in Qatar, Arab low-income migrants in our sample reported working fewer days per week and living in slightly less crowded conditions; unlike their South Asian counterparts, they reported no problems with salary withholding (Table 6.1).17 The data do not allow us to ascertain some of the causal forces determining these differences, but we can at least speculate on the basis of our own observations, qualitative follow-up interviews and other previous ethnographic work. However, from those sources, we speculate that even low-income Arab migrants, with a cultural and linguistic facility in Qatari society, are better able to assert their basic rights, build and call upon social capital while abroad, navigate the bureaucratic complexities of work in Qatar and respond appropriately to alterations in their living and working situation while abroad. While the total cost of migration to Qatar is higher for this Arab sub-population of the low-income workforce, our data reveal that their living and working conditions are substantially better than those of their South Asian counterparts. With those findings concerning ethnicity and migration in hand, we approached the same issues again through the lens of religion. By distilling only those cases where our respondents were South Asian, we were able to examine the impact of religious affiliation on the migration experience and circumstances, while controlling for ethnicity (Table 6.2). Our findings were much less conclusive than when driven by ethnicity alone: While low-income Muslim migrants from South Asia earn an average of QR248 more than their Hindu counterparts and live in less crowded conditions, their workdays per week are almost equal, and Muslim low-­ income foreign workers from South Asia actually report a higher frequency of

17

 Note that the small numbers of Arab migrants in our sample make these data speculative at best.

98

A. Gardner et al.

employers withholding their salary than their Hindu counterparts (Table 6.2). In our interpretation, these data suggest that unlike ethnicity, cultural affiliation and fluency in Arabic, religious affiliation alone does not play a discernibly significant role in the migrant’s experience in the foreign low-income workforce in Qatar. Overall, while our general findings suggest that low-income migrant labourers in Qatar face a similar regime of strictures, practices and challenges, there is significant variation within the total population of low-income migrants. Of the three variables explored in this section, nationality and ethnicity seem to play the most significant role in shaping migrant experiences. In part, these differences can be explained by the historical development and subsequent differentiation of the migration apparatus in each sending state. Over time, we hypothesize that migration experiences and migration costs become established and normalized in a variety of different cultural and ethnic contexts. The large and substantial fees paid to labour brokers in Bangladesh, for example, become normalized over time in Bangladesh, while the smaller fees paid by Filipino migrants are, over time, normalized in the Philippines as the typical and appropriate costs of Gulf employment. At the same time, however, there is the striking coincidence that the Philippines, with one of the most active states in terms of its regulation and management of this transnational migration flow, is also the nation with the lowest migration costs in the constellation of countries sending low-income migrants to Qatar. We also recognize that market forces most certainly play a role in this calculus. The fact that the lowest-paid national contingent (the Nepali contingent) is also the largest component of Qatar’s low-income labour force is what one would expect in an international market in which labour is the commodity. Our interpretation of these data is influenced by the numerous stories we heard in qualitative interviews concerning entire national contingents of low-income labourers being replaced by less expensive migrants from Nepal or elsewhere. While we recognize the important role played by the forces implicit in this international market for labour in determining the constitution of the low-income labour force in Qatar and the other GCC states, the data presented in this section also point to the role of nationality, ethnicity and cultural affiliation in shaping the experiences of the men and women in the low-­ income foreign labour force.

Discussion and Conclusion The burgeoning quantity of research, studies and reports concerned with Qatar and its neighbours have spotlighted the junction between labour migration and human rights in the GCC. Our growing understanding of this migratory conduit has long relied on a qualitative, ethnographic foundation. That ethnographic work has explored and unpacked the complex arrangements and junctures that typify this migrant flow and has more recently been joined by a florescence of publications from non-governmental organizations and other state-based actors and institutions. While all of this collective work has been instrumental in shifting concern with

6  A Portrait of Low-Income Migrants in Contemporary Qatar

99

labour migration in the GCC away from the periphery of scholarly and public attention, our collective understanding remains largely limited to ethnographically produced insights and their corroboration in small-scale studies and rapid appraisals.18 The data set and analysis presented in this chapter are intended to address this issue and to add a statistical foundation to our current understanding of labour migration in Qatar and the GCC as a whole. While we see no points of major disagreement with the existing canon of research concerning migrants in the Gulf States, the findings presented here help by adding to the expanding and nuanced portrait of the labour migrant in Arabia. These findings also indicate a host of more specific issues that merit further research and analysis. From our vantage point, some of those specific issues would include the fact that low-income migrants pay extraordinarily different amounts for the right to work in Qatar for 2 years. These amounts certainly vary by sending nation, but they also coexist with the fact that some low-income migrants pay nothing at all. A better understanding of the brokerage system, the commodification of the work visa and the circumstances that produce exceptions to the norm is needed. A significant percentage of low-income migrants also encounter a constellation of labour problems in Qatar, from the almost ubiquitous relinquishing of their passports to sponsors or sponsors’ proxies, to the non-payment of promised wages and various fees and deductions appropriated from their promised salaries. While the analysis presented here has been attentive to some of the ethnic, national and religious patterns that may bring about these experiences, a better understanding of the legal and ministerial context that permits, condones and/or overlooks these experiences is also needed. Regarding the interpretation and findings presented in this chapter, several important caveats are worth mentioning. First, because our sample of low-income migrants excluded all workers in the domestic sector, these findings do not incorporate the problems and challenges that ethnographic work portrays as commonplace (and perhaps even endemic) to that sector (Nagy 1998; Gamburd 2000). Considering the observations and findings found in previous work focused on the domestic sector, we suspect that many of the frequencies ascertained here  – and particularly those concerned with labour problems – would rise if our sample had incorporated migrant workers in the domestic sector. Furthermore, while we hope that these findings can eventually be correlated and compared with similar quantitative data describing the low-income labour migrant population in other GCC states, we recognize that a confluence of forces has, historically, patterned different demographic constitutions in those receiving states, as well as different experiences for low-income migrants. We expect that such a comparison would largely support the contention that the GCC states generally comprise a singular and fairly homogeneous experience for low-income migrants, but also that noteworthy and possibly substantial differences would be observed as a  For example, ITUC, ‘Hidden Faces of the Gulf Miracle’; Human Rights Watch, ‘Building Towers, Cheating Workers’; Human Rights Watch, The Island of Happiness; Human Rights Watch, ‘Building a Better World Cup’; Human Rights Watch, ‘For a Better Life’; Gardner, City of Strangers.

18

100

A. Gardner et al.

result of different policies, laws, bilateral agreements, enforcement and labour culture, specific to each GCC state. With regard to what these findings contribute conceptually to our understanding of labour migration in Arabia, we suggest that first and foremost the data described here point to the variability of the migration experience in Qatar. As previous work has argued, by distributing the responsibility of regulating and governing foreign workers to sponsors and their proxies, the kafala produces highly variable experiences among migrants in the region (Longva 1997). This also seems to be the ­portrait resulting from our review of the data sketched in this chapter. Without a proactive and established legal and regulatory system in place and in operation, the fate of a low-income migrant worker depends heavily on his or her sponsor and that sponsor’s proxies. Low-income migrants in Qatar encounter all sorts of different challenges and difficulties, although in many realms of the migration experience, there is extraordinary variation in the frequency and impact of these issues. We interpret this variation as the direct result of the kafala arrangement and the variability it structures. Finally, although the kafala is paramount in framing the findings presented here, it is also important to note that few Qataris are employed in positions that directly supervise and manage low-income migrants in Qatar. Unlike Bahrain, Oman and some other GCC states, Qatar’s extraordinary per capita wealth allows most citizens to secure public sector employment. While citizens may be partners, silent partners, owners or hold other positions in the business concerns that employ these low-­ income migrants, it is typical of Qatar that the individuals directly involved in the governance of contingents of foreign labourers are themselves migrants. As this suggests, the data presented here should not be framed as evidence of how transnational migrants are simply exploited by Qataris in Qatar. Rather, with both debt and money circulating transnationally through that migration system, with migrants themselves coming from a variety of different sending states, and with other migrants often directly responsible for some or most of the challenges and exploitation they face while abroad in Qatar, it is difficult to construe this migration system and the problems that it currently produces as a purely Qatari – or even Arab – problem. Instead, the data presented here further confirm an understanding of labour migration in the GCC states as the manifestation of a truly transnational migration industry.

References Agunias, D., Aghazarm, C., & Battistella, G. (2012). International Organization for Migration Report “Labour migration from Colombo process countries”. Anon. (2012, September 27). Kuwait to get rid of Kefala system. The Gulf Blog. Available online at www.thegulfblog.com Baldwin-Edwards, M. (2011, March). Labour immigration and labour markets in the GCC countries: National patterns and trends (LSE Kuwait Programme on Development, Governance

6  A Portrait of Low-Income Migrants in Contemporary Qatar

101

and Globalisation in the Gulf States, Research paper 15). Available online at www2.lse.ac.uk/ government/research/resgroups/kuwait/home.aspx Breeding, M. (2012). India-Persian gulf migration: Corruption and capacity in regulating recruitment agencies. In M. Kamrava & Z. Babar (Eds.), Migrant labour in the Persian Gulf (pp. 137– 154). New York: Columbia University Press. Bruslé, T. (2009). Who’s in a labour camp? A socio-economic analysis of Nepalese migrants in Qatar. European Bulletin of Himalayan Research, 35–6(2009–2010), 154–170. Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). (2007). International migration and development in the Arab Region: Challenges and opportunities (UN population and development report, 3rd issue). New York: The United Nations. Endo, I., & Afram, G.  G. (2011). The Qatar-Nepal remittance corridor (World Bank Study). Washington, DC: The World Bank. Frantz, E. (2011). Exporting subservience: Sri Lanka women’s migration for domestic work in Jordan, PhD thesis: London School of Economics. Gamburd, M. R. (2000). The kitchen Spoon’s handle: Transnationalism and Sri Lanka’s migrant housemaids. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Gardner, A. (2010a). City of strangers: Gulf migration and the Indian Community in Bahrain. Ithaca: Cornell/ILR Press. Gardner, A. (2010b). Engulfed: Indian guest workers, Bahraini citizens and the structural violence of the Kafala system. In N. De Genova & N. Peutz (Eds.), The deportation regime: Sovereignty, space, and freedom of movement (pp. 305–349). Durham: Duke University Press. Gardner, A. (2011). Gulf migration and the family. Journal of Arabian Studies, 1, 3–25. Gardner, A. (2012). Why do they keep coming? Labor migrants in the Gulf states. In M. Kamrava & Z.  Babar (Eds.), Migrant labour in the Persian Gulf (pp.  41–58). New  York: Columbia University Press. Human Rights Watch. (2003). Dubai: Migrant workers at risk. New York: Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch. (2006). Building towers cheating workers: Exploitation of migrant construction workers in the United Arab Emirates (Vol. 8.18). New York: Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch. (2009). “The island of happiness”: Exploitation of migrant workers on Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi. New York: Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch. (2012a). Building a better world cup: Protecting migrant workers in Qatar Ahead of FIFA 2022. New York: Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch. (2012b). For a better life: Migrant worker abuse in Bahrain and the government reform agenda. New York: Human Rights Watch. International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). (2011). Hidden faces of the Gulf miracle. Union View 21, pp. 1–24. Available online at www.ituc-csi.org/hidden-faces-of-the-gulf-miracle,9144.html?lang=en Jaffir, A. (2009). Sponsorship law: A comparative study of the 20th century sponsorship law and the 21st century sponsorship law in Qatar. Law Update, 219. Available online at http://altamimi.newsweaver.ie/Newsletter/10o0jspqam5. Jureidini, R. (2003). Migrant workers and xenophobia in the Middle East. Identities, conflict and cohesion programme (Paper 2). Switzerland: UN Research Institute for Social Development. Available online at www.unrisd.org Kamrava, M., & Babar, Z. (Eds.). (2012). Migrant labour in the Persian Gulf. New York: Columbia University Press. Kanna, A. (2011). Dubai: The city as corporation. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Kapiszewski, A. (2001). Nationals and expatriates: Population and labour dilemmas of the Gulf Cooperation Council States. Reading: Ithaca Press/Garnet Publishing. Kapiszewski, A. (2006). Arab versus Asian migrant workers in the GCC countries. Presented at the United Nations Expert Group Meeting on International Migration and Development in the Arab Region, Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations Secretariat, Beirut, 15–17 May 2006.

102

A. Gardner et al.

Longva, A. (1997). Walls built on sand: Migration, exclusion and Society in Kuwait. Boulder: Westview Press. Longva, A. (1999). Keeping migrant workers in check: The Kafala system in the Gulf. Middle East Report, 211, 20–22. Marsden, M. (2008). Lords of a Dubai labour camp: Pakistani migrants in the Gulf. ILAS Newsletter, 49, 5–6. McGeehan, N. (2012). Trafficking in persons or state sanctioned exploitation? The false narrative of migrant Workers in the United Arab Emirates. Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Law, 26, 27–39. Nagy, S. (1998). ‘This time I think I’ll try a Filipina’: Global and local influences on the relations between foreign household workers and their employers in Doha, Qatar. City and Society, 10, 83–103. Pessoa, S., Carlson, M., Al Thani, H., Kamel, S., Nedjari, H., Ramadan, R., & Watfa, K. (2008). The state of migrant workers in Qatar: The workers’ perspective (Final report of the QNRF undergraduate research experience program project #07-12-03). Social & Economic Survey Research Institute (SESRI). (2010). First annual omnibus survey: A survey of life in Qatar (Executive summary report). Doha: Qatar University. Social & Economic Survey Research Institute (SESRI). (2011). Annual omnibus survey: A survey of life in Qatar, 2011 (Executive summary report). Doha: Qatar University. Available online at http://cisco.qu.edu.qa Strobl, S. (2009). Policing housemaids: The criminalization of domestic workers in Bahrain. British Journal of Criminology, 49, 165–183. Toumi, H. (2012, May 1). Qatar May Allow Trade Unions, Scrap ‘Sponsorships’ for Foreign Workers. Gulf News. Available online at www.gulfnews.com US Department of State. (2007, June). Trafficking in persons report. Washington, DC: Under Secretary for Democracy and Global Affairs and Bureau of Public Affairs. Available online at www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2007/

Chapter 7

Determinants of Future Indonesian Labour Migration to the Gulf Graeme Hugo

Abstract  Indonesia has a long history of labour migration to Gulf countries. This chapter examines the evolution of this movement and its determinants with a view to identifying likely future flows and their determinants. Indonesia has been a quintessential migration source nation, but recent demographic, social and economic developments are producing some significant changes, which will influence the scale and composition of future emigration.

Introduction Indonesia has been one of the world’s most important emigration nations over recent decades, and Gulf countries have been a major destination. Indeed, Indonesia has been a quintessential emigration nation with high rates of growth of its workforce, high underemployment and increasing levels of unemployment, especially among the educated and the young. However, Indonesia is undergoing rapid economic, social and demographic change, which is predicted to see it moves from currently being the sixteenth-largest economy in the world to the seventh largest by 2030 (Oberman et al. 2012, 2). To what extent will the changes currently sweeping Indonesia impinge on its role as a pre-eminent source of labour migrants? The chapter begins with an analysis of recent labour flows from Indonesia to the Gulf countries and summarizes what is known of the drivers and impacts of those movements. It identifies the areas and groups which have been the main sources from which these migrant workers have been drawn. It then examines recent demographic, social and economic trends in those areas and argues that there has been a reduction in the push pressures in those areas not only due, partly, to reduced population growth but also due to the development of a range of alternative economic opportunities. One of the major factors in bringing about these changes has been the prolonged

G. Hugo (*) Australian Population and Migration Research Centre, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 S. I. Rajan, G. Z. Oommen (eds.), Asianization of Migrant Workers in the Gulf Countries, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9287-1_7

103

104

G. Hugo

inflow of remittances into these areas as a result of the long history of migration to the Gulf. On the other hand, the development, maintenance and strengthening of social networks between these areas and the Middle East are a strong element in maintaining the flow. Indeed, many of these linkages are direct to families in Middle Eastern countries and will result in continuity in the migration pattern. Another element that will be examined is the policy content in Indonesia. Indonesian governments are taking an increasing interest in labour migration and increasingly building it into development strategies. However, there also have been concerns about the rights of migrant workers, and bans have been imposed on particular countries and particular types of workers. Government policy and engagement will be of additional importance in the future. Another element relates to the increasing attraction of Asian destinations for Indonesian labour migrants. These flows may well be enhanced after 2015 with the introduction of the ASEAN Economic Community. This will be an important determinant of future patterns of labour migration. The chapter concludes with a discussion of likely future scenarios of labour migration between Indonesia and the Middle East. It is argued that the migration corridor which has been a development between Indonesia and particular Middle Eastern countries has developed to such an extent that labour migration will be only one element in a more varied pattern of movement. However, there will continue to be significant demand for Indonesians to work in the Gulf for the foreseeable future.

A Quintessential Emigration Nation The United Nations (2013a) identified some 2.99 million Indonesia-born persons living in foreign countries and their distribution is shown in Fig. 7.1. The equivalent figures in 1990 were 1.34 million which increased to 2.01 million in 2000 and 2.83 million in 2010. It is apparent from Fig. 7.1 that the Gulf countries of the Middle East are an important destination for Indonesian emigrants. However, the United Nations’ data probably miss significant numbers of contract labour migrant workers since they are based mainly on censuses. Table 7.1, for example, shows a range of estimates of the stocks of overseas migrant workers and indicates significantly higher levels than the United Nations’ data. However, even these figures underestimate the scale of labour migration. The Indonesian National Agency for Placement and Protection of Indonesian Workers Abroad (BNP2KI), the Indonesian government agency involved in managing labour migration authoritatively, estimates that there are 6.5 million Indonesians working abroad who remitted $7.4 billion in 2013 (Migration News, 21, 2 April 2014). The reasons for the underestimation are the significance of undocumented migration and the fact that much of the movement is on temporary visas and not detected in population censuses. There can be no doubt, however, that Indonesia globally is a major emigration nation. It is the fourth-largest nation in the world, and despite rapid economic, social and demographic change, it remains a ‘labour surplus’ nation. Although rates of pop-

7  Determinants of Future Indonesian Labour Migration to the Gulf

105

Fig. 7.1  Indonesia: Migrant Stocks by Country of Destination. (Source: United Nations 2013a) Table 7.1  Indonesia: estimated stocks of overseas contract workers around 2013 Destination Saudi Arabia Kuwait United Arab Emirates Malaysia

Estimated stocks 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 64,780 100,000 2,000,000

Hong Kong

150,600

Singapore Taiwan South Korea Japan Philippines Brunei Total

54,400 100,000 31,000 22,862 26,000 40,000 4,589,642

Sources DeBel-Air (2014, p. 7) IOM (2010a, p. 63) Ruiz (2012) Migration News, April 2013, Vol. 20, No. 2 Migration News, April 2012, Vol. 19, No. 2 Yeoh and Lin 2012 Jakarta Post, 6 October 2006 Statistics Korea (2012) Okushima (2005, p. 14) SCMP, 10 December 1998 Hassan (2010)

ulation growth have declined due to a reduction in fertility, it continues to grow and the workforce is still growing. Moreover, although there have been major structural changes in the economy and significant advances in education, there are still large numbers of workers in low productivity jobs and high levels of underemployment. The levels of unemployment are low by OECD standards; however, unemployment in the Indonesian context is not comparable because there are no government unem-

106

G. Hugo

ployment provisions which means that the poor are forced to undertake some form of employment regardless of its remuneration, danger, time demands, etc., because they have to survive. Accordingly, whereas the unemployed in OECD nations tend to be drawn predominantly from the poor in Indonesia, they are generally from the betteroff whose family can afford to support them until they can get the job they want. Underemployment is a far more meaningful indication of a labour surplus

Evolution of Migration from Indonesia to the Gulf Linkages between Indonesia and the Middle East go back many centuries when Islam first came to the archipelago. For centuries, there have been Arab communities in Indonesia. Indonesains have been in working in Mecca for centuries (Vredenbregt 1962). Associated with the hajj, communities of Indonesians developed in Mecca (Vredenbregt 1962, 109) during the colonial era, and they have been maintained. Indonesians often worked in Saudi Arabia to fund their hajj. The deployment of overseas contract workers (OCWs) to the Middle East, however, is relatively recent. Although there were contract workers sent to Malaysia, Surinam, Fiji and elsewhere during the colonial period, there were none sent to the Middle East at this time (Hugo 1980). Figure 7.2 presents the official statistics relating to the deployment of Indonesian labour overseas, and the increasing tempo of movement is apparent as is the dominance of the Middle East as the major destination. Since most workers are on 2 years or longer contracts, the actual number of workers officially overseas in any 1 year is greater than the numbers deployed in an individual year. Indonesia was slow to develop its international contract worker industry in the 1970s following the 1973 oil shock when its ASEAN neighbours, the Philippines and Thailand were sending large numbers of workers overseas, especially to the Middle East. Whereas in other countries, the government became involved in sending workers to the Middle East, but this did not happen in Indonesia until the early 1980s, although private agents in Indonesia were sending small numbers of workers to the Middle East (Anon 1984). Figure 7.2 shows clearly an increasing tempo of movement. The number of ‘official’ international labour migrants was very small in the First Five-Year Plan (1969–1974) but more than trebled to be nearly 20,000 in the Second Plan. During the Third Five-Year Plan, it quadrupled to almost attain the target of 100,000. In the following 2 years, the number moving was almost as great as the total over the entire first three Five-Year Plans. This reflects both the government’s growing interest in promoting this movement and also, perhaps, the ‘capturing’ of a greater proportion of movement in official statistics than was previously the case. The increasing government involvement saw targets for deploying OCWs overseas built into the F ­ ive-­Year Plan from the Third Five-Year Plan onwards. The programme reached a new level in the 1990s when the government became more active. The target of the Department of Labour in sending labour migrants overseas in the Fourth Five-Year Plan (1984–1989) was 225,000, which was exceeded. This encouraged the government to increase the

7  Determinants of Future Indonesian Labour Migration to the Gulf

107

Manpower, 1979-2013

800.00 700,000 600,000 500,000 400,000 300,000 200,000 100,000

year Other

malayasia/Singapore

Middle East

Fig. 7.2  Number of Indonesian overseas workers processed by the Ministry of Manpower, 1979– 2013. (Source: Suyono 1981; Singhanetra-Renard 1986, 52; Pusat Penelitian Kependudukan, Universitas Gadjah Mada, 1986, 2; Antar Kerja Antar Negara; Soeprobo 2004; Ananta and Arifin 2008; BNP2KI (National Agency for Placement and Protection of Indonesian Workers), unpublished data)

target for Repelita V (1989–1994) to 500,000 (Tempo, 45, XIX, 6 January 1990, p. 15), and it was exceeded. Similarly, with Repelita VI (1994–1999), the unusual increase in 1996–1997 was a function of more than 300,000 irregular labour migrants in Malaysia being regularized. The onset of the Asian crisis in 1998 coincided with a parametric increase in the outflow. Work overseas became a more attractive proposition because of the reduction in opportunities within Indonesia, a decrease in the value of the rupiah and increased purchasing power of foreign earnings in Indonesia. Thereafter, Figure  7.3 which uses the Migration Policy Database on flows of Indonesian citizens into the Gulf indicates the upwards trend has continued. Several important features of the official overseas worker scheme in Indonesia need to be stressed. One is the dominance of women, most of whom are to be employed as domestic workers at the destination. In 1997–1998, the sex ratio of the outflow was one of the lowest on record being 20. The dominance of women seems to have been reduced in recent years. This may be, at least in part, a function of bans

108

G. Hugo 700,000

600,000

Number

500,000

400,000

300,000 200,000

2011

2000

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

100,000

Year Arrivals

Departures

Fig. 7.3  Saudi Arabia: Arrivals and departures of non-Saudis with Indonesian country of citizenship, 2000–2011

on the deployment of female domestic servants in Saudi Arabia and, for a period, in Malaysia. Nevertheless, the dominance of women among official migrant workers is one of the most consistent features of Indonesian international migration. Saudi Arabia has remained the dominant destination of Indonesians working in the Middle East, in part, reflecting the long association based on hajj migration. The flows to the Middle East continued at high levels and reached a new high in 2009. However, subsequently, there has been a significant fall, which is associated with a prolonged ban on the deployment of Indonesian women to be employed as domestic workers in Saudi Arabia. The data in Fig. 7.2 relate to international labour migration which goes through official channels, but there has been, and continues to be, significant irregular migration to both of the main areas of destination – Malaysia and the Middle East. In relation to the Middle East, the following types of irregular migration can be identified: • OCWs recruited within Indonesia and sent overseas on tourist visa without going through the official labour migration system. • OCWs who travel to Saudi Arabia on a hajj or umrah visa and remain in the region to work. • OCWs who move through the official system but ‘run away’ from their employers because of abuse, exploitation, lack of payment or underpayment.

7  Determinants of Future Indonesian Labour Migration to the Gulf

109

Their numbers vary from time to time, and irregular channels of migration become most significant when there are some kinds of official bans as has recently been the case with the ban on deployment of female domestic workers. Nevertheless, the official OCW migration from Indonesia to Gulf Countries understates the full scale of mobility. It is, of course, difficult to estimate the scale of undocumented migration, but Andrevski and Lyneham (2014, 3) argue: ‘While official data indicates that approximately 400,000 Indonesians migrate for work annually, (evidence) ... suggests one million may be a more accurate estimate when taking into account documented and undocumented migration.’ Indonesian migration to the Gulf is overwhelmingly to Saudi Arabia, which in most years is the largest single destination country. The UAR and Qatar are also in the top 10 destinations, but the strongest linkages are with Saudi Arabia.

Feminization of Migration to the Gulf Women have outnumbered men among official OCWs leaving Indonesia every year since 1984–1985. Indeed, Indonesia is one of the largest countries of origin of female migrant workers who are employed in domestic situations as household help and carers. It is estimated that there are around a million Indonesian women in such work at any one time. Table 7.2 presents an estimate of the numbers in individual nations with the largest groups in Saudi Arabia and Malaysia although Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore are increasingly significant. These women can be vulnerable to exploitation not only by virtue of being a migrant (often undocumented) and a woman but also because of the asymmetrical power relations of their work context and the lack of protection because of households not being seen as workplaces by protection agencies. Reports of abuse of Indonesian female migrant domestic workers are many (e.g. Asian Migration News, 1–15 November 2006), but there are also contexts where Table 7.2 Estimates of stock of Indonesian female domestic overseas contract workers, 2011–2013 Country Saudi Arabia Malaysia Hong Kong

Number 1,000,000 300,000 150,000

Singapore United Arab Emirates Taiwan Oman Bahrain Total

90,000 65,000 150,000 29,000 12,395 1,796,395

Sources Santolan (2011) Jakarta Globe, 5 January 2012 Amnesty International News, 21 November 2013 Jakarta Globe, 5 January 2012 Ruiz 2012 Kennedy 2012 Jakarta Globe, 3 July 2012 Jakarta Globe, 3 July 2012

110

G. Hugo

women are empowered, and gain from this experience. In Qatar alone, 553 Indonesian domestic workers ‘ran away’ from their sponsors in 2005 because of maltreatment, physical and sexual harassment, disputes over contracts and non-­ payment of salary (Asian Migration News, 15–31 January 2006). In Saudi Arabia, between 19 September and 24 October 2011, 4,550 workers had run away from their employers after being unpaid or suffering abuse (Jakarta Globe, 7 November 2011). There are a number of indicators of the problematic situation with Indonesian female domestic workers in Saudi Arabia:

• A high rate of non-completion of work contracts and early return to Indonesia among female domestic workers. • High rates of ‘running away’ from individual employers. • Significant numbers of female domestic workers who die in Saudi Arabia. • High-profile cases where maids have been tried and executed for killing an employer. The problems of Indonesian female domestic workers in Saudi Arabia are of long standing. A study more than two decades ago (Hugo 1992, 182–184) documented cases of mistreatment and exploitation and concerted efforts by Muslim organizations, NGOs and human rights groups to ban the movement. In 2011, Indonesia stopped sending domestic workers to Saudi Arabia after the Saudi government, without informing the Indonesian government, beheaded a domestic worker who confessed to killing her employer (Migrant News, October 2013). This ban is partly responsible for the overall downturn in the number of OCWs deployed evident in Fig. 7.2. However, it is evident that many workers bound for Saudi Arabia are, in fact, now travelling via other Gulf countries, especially the UAE. In addition, there has been an increase in the numbers moving irregularly. The Indonesian government has also occasionally placed bans on deployment of workers to other Gulf countries. For example, it briefly banned sending domestic workers to Bahrain because manpower agencies refused to accept new regulations regarding a minimum salary (BP60 per month) and sick and annual leave entitlements (Asian Migration News, 16–30 April 2005). There was a similar ban imposed on the United Arab Emirates in response to human rights violations (Asian Migration News, 1–15 February 2005), but as with other such bans, it had little impact on the outflow of Indonesian migrant workers.

Labour Migration and Development in Indonesia There is very limited empirical evidence to assess the impact of migration on economic and social development in Indonesia. The main element which has been at the centre of the new focus on the beneficial impact of migration upon development in origin countries and communities has been remittances (IOM 2010b). Indonesia’s large size means that the relative impact of remittances on the overall economy has been less than in smaller nations, but several points need to be made in this context.

7  Determinants of Future Indonesian Labour Migration to the Gulf

111

• Migrant workers tend to be drawn from specific areas so that remittance impact is much greater on regional and local economies than at the national scale. • The areas which migrant workers are drawn from include some of Indonesia’s poorest and most isolated areas so that remittances are a crucial element of capital inflow. • There has been rapid growth of remittance flows in recent years. Official Bank of Indonesia estimates of remittances received in Indonesia are presented in Fig. 7.4. The pattern is dominated by a sudden upturn in 2005. Manning and Cronin (2008, 19) point out that this dramatic increase was due to the inception of a revised methodology for calculation of remittances by the Bank of Indonesia. Manning and Cronin (2008) consider that the new methodology is more robust and that past methods have severely underestimated remittance levels. Hence, the estimate is that the present annual level of remittances to Indonesia is around US$7 billion. Table 7.3 indicates that this represents almost 4% the size of exports and of import levels. It is also apparent from the table that remittances have been increasing both their relative share of the economy and absolute size. It is shown elsewhere (Hugo 2005) that international labour migration has considerable potential to deliver significant development dividends to Indonesia through 8,000

7,000

6,000

Million

5,000

4,000

3,000

2,000

1,000

Year

Fig. 7.4  Indonesia: growth of remittances, 1983–2013. (Source: World Bank, Annual Remittances Data, April 2014, http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTDECPROSPE CTS/0,,contentMDK:22759429~pagePK:64165401~piPK:64165026~theSitePK:476883,00. html)

112

G. Hugo

Table 7.3  Main Asian labour exporting countries: workers’ remittances relative to exports and imports in US$ million, 1980–2012 Country Indonesia

Philippines

Thailand

Vietnam

Year 1980 1992 2012 1980 1992 2012 1979 1992 2012 2000 2006 2012

Workers remittances 33 264 7212 421 2538 24,641 189 1500 4713 1340 3800 10,000

Total merchandise Exports (X) Imports (M) 21,908 10,834 33,815 27,280 186,146 190,225 5744 8295 9790 15,465 51,995 65,360 5240 7158 32,473 40,466 229,519 247,590 14,483 15,638 39,826 45,014 114,573 113,793

R X 0.2 0.8 3.9 7.3 25.9 47.4 3.6 4.6 2.1 9.3 9.5 8.7

R M 0.3 1.0 3.8 5.1 16.4 37.7 2.6 3.7 1.9 8.6 8.4 8.8

Source: Hugo 1995; World Bank World Development Report, various issues; World Bank Remittances dataset

remittances and other economic and social effects. However, there are a number of barriers which are diluting those impacts (Hugo 2005): • The high transaction costs of migration • A lack of articulation of national, regional and local development policy and programmes • High costs of transferring remittances • Poor governance of migration, high levels of corruption

Determinants of Future Migration to the Gulf Global international migration is in a rapid state of change. The most recent United Nations (2013b) Report on International Migration indicated that the number of people living outside their country of birth in 2013 was 232 million, increasing from 175 million in 2000 and 154 million in 1990 (United Nations 2013b, 1). One of the major trends evident in 2013 is that south–south migrations are now almost as large as north–south migration. Asia is assuming increasing significance in the global migration system. The speed of change in global economies and demographics has been such that individual countries have undergone rapid transitions from being predominantly emigration nations to net immigration nations. In Asia, this has been the case in South Korea and Taiwan in the 1970s and 1980s, and Malaysia and Thailand in the 1990s and 2000s. Hence, it is important to assess trends in the drivers of Indonesian labour migration to Gulf countries and assess the potential of changes to them.The Global Commission on International Migration (2005, 12) argued:

7  Determinants of Future Indonesian Labour Migration to the Gulf

113

In the contemporary world, the principal forces that are driving international migration are due to ‘3Ds’: differences in development, demography and democracy.

Accordingly, we will examine recent and impending change in Indonesian economic, demographic and political situations and draw out the implications for future labour migration to the Middle East. However, there are a number of other elements which will impinge on future labour migration.

Indonesia’s Rapidly Changing Economy As was indicated earlier, Indonesia has long been a quintessential emigration nation, but Table 7.4 indicates that the economic and demographic elements which have driven high emigration levels have undergone significant change. In the early 1990s, Indonesia was squarely within the ranks of the countries classified as low income. However, in 2013, Indonesia’s per capita annual income was 36.5 million rupiah, more than three times that in 2004 (Bank Indonesia 2013, 43). Indonesia is on the verge of entering the middle-income category of nations.1 Indonesia is now recognized as one of resurgent Asia’s strongest growing economies. A recent analysis (Oberman et al. 2012, 2) found that the Indonesian economy: … has performed strongly over the last decade or more and is more stable and diverse than many observers from beyond its shores realise.

Table 7.4  Indonesia: Comparison of key economic and demographic indicators, early 1990s and 2010–2013 Indicator Population growth rate (% pa) Total fertility rate Annual growth of workforce GNP per capita US$ Annual growth rate of GDP Annual increment of workforce Percent employed in agriculture Percent unemployed Percent working less than 35 hours per week Male labour force participation Female labour force participation

Early 1990s (Source: Hugo 1995) 1.6 2.9 3.1 670 5.7 2.54 m 48.2 2.8 44.6

2010–2013 (Source: Bank Indonesia 2013) 1.1 2.2 1.4 3592 6.2 500,000 38.3 9 69.6

70.6 43.1

84 51.4

 According to the World Bank, low-income nations have annual per capita monies of less than US$1005 and lower middle-income nations between US$1006 and 3975. Indonesia’s 2013 annual per capita income was US$3499.90 (Bank Indonesia, 2013, 43). 1

114

G. Hugo

The report identifies that Indonesia had the lowest level of volatility in economic growth of any OECD nation. Moreover, it anticipates that Indonesia’s economic growth should benefit from a number of powerful positive trends. Moreover, improved productivity has been more important than a higher number of workers in driving Indonesia’s recent economic growth. Labour productivity has grown at around 3% per annum which is among the highest rates in the region. Nevertheless, overall productivity in Indonesia remains low. Despite strong recent economic performance and a most promising future outlook, Indonesia remains a labour surplus nation. Table 7.5 presents recent employment data. Open unemployment has increased, and the informal sector still accounts for 60% of workers. Although fertility has fallen by almost two-thirds over the last four decades, the population is still growing at 1.1% per annum. Moreover, its labour force is increasing at 1.4% per annum – a net increment of around 1.6 million workers are added annually to the almost 111 million currently in the labour force. Indonesia remains a low-income nation. While there is considerable debate about the definition of poverty in Indonesia, the Indonesian Central Statistical Agency reported that 19.6% of the population lived in poverty in 2004 compared with 11.3% in pre-crisis 1996. Bank Indonesia (2013, 49) estimates that in 2013, 11.5% of the population lived in poverty (28.6 million). For a long period, Indonesia has had relatively low unemployment rates because the poor in Indonesia simply could not afford to be unemployed and must take on whatever work they can get regardless of the low income, low status and long hours associated with it. Despite rapid structural change, more than a third of Indonesian workers remain in agriculture. Hence, experiencing rapid and far-reaching change, it remains emphatically a labour surplus nation and one which in a globalizing world has become an important origin country of international migrants. In discussing Indonesia’s comparative advantage in the international labour services trade, Manning and Cronin (2008, 20) point to the abundance of low-skilled labour. The share of the labour force with primary level or no education continues to decline – a long-term trend. However, more than half of the work force still are in the lowest education category and only 5% of the workforce has tertiary-level training. It is also relevant as Manning and Cronin (2008, 21) point out that despite the declining share of the workforce in the lowest education categories, there are Table 7.5  Indonesia: labour force and unemployment Main activities February August February August February August Productive age (≥15 years) 170.7 171.7 172.9 173.9 175.1 176.7  Labour force participation (%) 70.0 68.3 69.7 67.9 69.2 66.9 Labour force 119.4 117.4 120.4 118 121.2 118.2  Full-time worker (%) 64.6 64 64.2 64.8 64.6 62.6  Part-time worker (%) 15.5 17.9 17.2 18.2 18.3 21.9  Partial unemployment (%) 13.2 11.5 12.3 10.8 11.2 9.2  Open unemployment (%) 6.8 6.6 6.3 6.1 5.9 6.3 Source: Bank Indonesia (2013, 49)

7  Determinants of Future Indonesian Labour Migration to the Gulf

115

increasing levels of unemployment in this group. In the past, unemployment has been strongly concentrated in the more highly educated groups. As Manning and Cronin (2008, 21) point out, jobs are becoming harder to get among the less e­ ducated as the economy modernizes. This is clearly of significance when we consider the demand for low-skilled workers in domestic services, agriculture and construction in the Middle East and in higher-income Asian countries. In Indonesia, while agriculture still accounts for over a third of the workforce, it is growing at an extremely slow rate and it is the higher skill occupations which are growing most rapidly. Although the fact that the educated, skilled workforce has grown faster than the low-skill group in recent years, Manning and Cronin (2008, 21) point out that the number of secondary and tertiary graduates in the workforce grew at 4.4% and 7%, respectively, over the 2001–2006 period, while the total growth of the labour force was only 1.5%. Nevertheless, unemployment rates increased for the secondary educated and declined only marginally for the tertiary educated, but 10.8% of the latter and 15% of the former remained unemployed. This may provide potential for some more skilled workers to be involved in international migration. Manning and Cronin (2008, 22) also point out that labour market pressures have been experienced more by females than males. Unemployment rates are higher for females than for males for all levels of education. As they point out ‘Indonesia’s comparative advantage for export of labour lies particularly in an abundance of secondary educated females who are searching for better paying jobs’. They argue that while Indonesia does not have a relatively comparative advantage among professional workers in the international arena, the high levels of unemployment among professionals, especially females, suggest that Indonesia could fill many niche areas in international labour markets such as aged care and nursing, where tertiary training is increasingly required. They sum up the situation as follows (Manning and Cronin 2008, 22): To sum up, from trends in labour supply and demand, the excess supply of semi-skilled labour remains a key characteristic of the Indonesian labour market, although this situation is changing slowly as education standards rise. Secondly, there is clearly an excess supply of secondary educated people, especially females, who might be able to take lower-middle skill jobs, or upgrade their skills and education for jobs in specific niche markets abroad. Finally, although job opportunities have grown fastest for tertiary educated people, professionals and managers in particular, unemployment among this group is also high and hence specialist areas such as IT, design and work in other service industries, could be an important area in which Indonesia could penetrate labour markets abroad.

Indonesia’s Changing Demography Like most Asian nations, Indonesia has undergone a demographic transformation over the last four decades as is evident in Table 7.6 (McDonald 2014). Most significantly, Indonesia has experienced a massive decline in fertility as both a consequence and cause of the economic and social transformation it has undergone. The population doubled over this period, but fertility was more than halved from 5.3 to

116

G. Hugo

Table 7.6  Indonesia: demographic variables, 1970 and 2010 1970 2010 Population (‘000) 114,067 240,676 Annual growth rate 2.49a 1.39b TFR 5.3 2.5 Life expectancy at birth 54.1a 69.6b % Urban 17.1 49.9 % Aged less than 15 43.2 29.8 % Aged 65+ 3.3 5.0 Source: (United Nations 2012, 2013a, b, c) a 1970–1975, b2005–2010 Table 7.7  Indonesia: growth and projected growth of population aged 15–34 1970 1980 15–24 19,437 29,349 25–34 19,437 29,349 Total 38,875 58,698 Total population 114,067 145,494 15–34 as % of total 34.08 40.34 population Average annual percentage growth rate 1970– 1980– 1980 1990 15–24 4.21 2.45 25–34 4.21 −0.33 Total 4.21 1.15 Total population 2.46 2.07

1990 37,383 28,407 65,790 178,633 36.83

2000 42,684 36,326 79,010 208,939 37.81

2010 40,530 40,987 81,517 240,676 33.87

1990– 2000 1.33 2.49 1.85 1.58

2000– 2010 −0.52 1.21 0.31 1.42

2010–2020 1.30 −0.35 0.50 1.13

2020 46,119 39,587 85,706 269,413 31.81

2030 47,023 45,226 92,249 293,482 31.43

2020– 2030 0.19 1.34 0.74 0.86

Source: United Nations (2013c)

2.5 children per woman, and more than 15 years of life were added to the average Indonesian with the reduction in mortality. In 2010, the population growth rate was only a little more than half that in 1970. From the perspective of international labour migration, the impacts of demographic change on age structure are important. Labour migration is highly selective of young adults in the prime working ages. Rapid fertility decline in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s has meant that there has been a significant reduction in the rate of growth of the dependent child age groups. However, the cohorts born in the years of higher fertility, when they move into the young working years, provide Indonesians with a potential demographic dividend because they constitute a comparatively large proportion of the total population. This is usually interpreted as being due to their engagement with the labour market within their country, but in emigration contexts, it increases the potential numbers of migrant workers. Table 7.7 shows that the numbers of Indonesians in the peak mobility age groups (15–34) increased rapidly in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. However, the impact of reduced fertility is increasingly being felt with small declines in the numbers 15–24 in 2000–2010 and 25–34 in the current decade.

117

7  Determinants of Future Indonesian Labour Migration to the Gulf

The important point from the perspective of the future of labour migration out of Indonesia, however, is that the numbers in this age group are continuing to grow, albeit at a significantly lower rate than was the case in the last three decades of the 1990s. This is in contrast to several other countries in the Asian region, where overall declines in the young working ages have commenced. This means that there will continue to be a substantial increase in young adults entering the Indonesian labour market and, hence, put pressure on underemployment and unemployment levels. Figure 7.5 overlays the contemporary Indonesian age structure with that of the projected 2030 population, and it is strikingly apparent that the prime migration age groups of 15–34 will continue to grow over this period, while there will be actual declines in the young dependent age groups. Hence, while there have been substantial and promising shifts in Indonesia’s economy and demography, there is every indication that there will continue to be significant emigration pressures within Indonesia, which will be associated with significant labour surpluses, especially of the low skill, low levels of education group. Hence, the Gulf region will continue to be an attractive opportunity for young Indonesians weighing up their life options. 80+

Females

Males

75-79 70-74 65-69 60-64 55-59 50-54

r

40-44

Age

45-49

35-39 30-34 25-29 20-24 15-19 10-14 5-9 0-4 15000

10000

5000

0 Number (‘000)

5000

10000

Fig. 7.5  Indonesia: age–sex structure of the population, 2010 (shaded) and 2030

15000

118

G. Hugo

The Role of Political Factors The GCIM (2005) formulation of the three ‘Ds’ intercountry differentials driving increased levels of international migration identifies ‘democracy’ or variations between countries. In Indonesia, this factor has been a driver of some migration, such as the outflow of ethnic Chinese in the late 1990s following anti-Chinese riots (Hugo 2000). While there is little evidence of forced labour migration to the Middle East of Indonesians seeking greater freedom, political factors have become an increasingly important influence on labour migration, as governments recognize the contribution that remittances and other effects can contribute to development. Indonesia’s future policy on labour migration to the Gulf will be a major factor influencing future flows. Concerns about the poor governance, exploitation and corruption in the Indonesian labour migration system are of longstanding (Hugo 1995), but it has been in the post-Suharto era that most concerted efforts to improve governance of labour migration in Indonesia have occurred. In 2005, the government issued a law (No. 39/2004) on the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Overseas Workers. Ananta and Arifin (2008, 28) summarize some of the elements in the new law as follows: • The objectives of the law were to bring about. 1 . Better management of migration flows. 2. Establishment of institutional mechanisms for placement and protection of OCWS. 3. Advocacy • Inclusion of administration and penal sanctions for breach of provisions of act aimed especially at agents and others exploiting migrant workers in Indonesia. • The rights of workers are specified – equal rights, opportunities and treatment, rights to correct and timely information regarding overseas placement, freedom to practise religions, receive standard destination salary, access to legal protection and retain an original of the contract. • The obligations of workers are also specified – follow laws in origin and destination, perform job specified in contract, report on arrival and departure to Indonesian embassies. • The law was also the constitutional basis for setting up BNP2 TKI. The issuing of the law was followed by a Presidential Instruction (INPRES No. 6/2006) to reform the placement and protection, brokers/sponsors, placement institutions and support from banking institutions and included the following (Ananta and Arifin 2007, 28–29): 1 . The necessity of simplifying and decentralizing the placement of workers. 2. Having ‘one-stop shop’ systems in embarkation and disembarkation areas. 3. Improving the quality and quantity of workers sent overseas. 4. To improve intelligence and understanding of the global market for Indonesian workers.

7  Determinants of Future Indonesian Labour Migration to the Gulf

119

• It specified the administrative structure of BNP2 TKI with a Head, General Secretariat and three Deputies (Foreign Collaboration and Promotion, Placement, Protection). Service Centres of Placement and Protection were to be set up in the capital only of each province and designated cities of embarkation. Service posts were to be established in each part of embarkation. • A strong relationship was to be maintained with the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration which remains the main policymaker and regulator, while BNP2 TKI is the operator which coordinates the activities of several ministries – manpower and transmigration, immigration, foreign affairs, population administration, health and police. There is evidence of the Indonesian parliament and government seeking to provide more protection for OCWs to the Gulf and elsewhere. In addition, civil society, which was for so long hampered in its activities with OCWs in Indonesia, has become much more active. Hence, while there are significant issues of corruption and poor governance, it is likely that steps like the current ban on deployment of Indonesian women as domestic workers in Saudi Arabia will continue unless there is a bilateral agreement on migrant worker issues.

The Immigration Industry In examining both undocumented and documented labour migration from Indonesia to Gulf countries, it is important to recognize that there is an element of ‘self-­ perpetuating momentum’ which has developed so that while movement is influenced by economic trends and policy, it is, to some degree, independent of them. In particular, two elements are important in this momentum. One relates to the involvement of the complex varied group of recruiters, travel agents, lawyers, agents of various kinds, travel providers, immigration officials and an array of gatekeepers of various kinds. There can be no doubt that much Indonesian migration is at least facilitated, and often initiated, by these crucial intermediaries, and this is especially the case for international labour migration and especially for the segment of that movement which is clandestine. The high levels of profitability associated with people smuggling and the ‘new slave trade’ involving workers who are effectively indentured to their owners have led a diverse range of players at local, regional, national and international levels to move into this arena. The role of such groups goes back to the ‘contract coolie’ trade in the latter part of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when most countries in the region were under colonial rule. In examining the role of the migration industry, it is crucial to recognize a number of its characteristics: (a) That it is not a new phenomenon in Indonesia. It has a history extending over centuries. (b) The migration industry with Indonesia is very large and multilayered with the involvement of international criminal organizations down to large cities with agents and local communities with subagents and sub-subagents.

120

G. Hugo

(c) There is a high level of complicity of government and government workers at all levels. (d) Many agents are involved in both legal and illegal movements. (e) It is interlinked with family and regional networks. (f) It operates for both internal migration with Indonesia and international movement. (g) It is extremely flexible with workers in the industry able to diversify in other activity if demand for their services in one area of migration should dry up. Accordingly, the industry can be very quick to respond to new opportunities, and it cannot be killed off by destroying one avenue for undocumented migration (Munro 2011). (h) The industry is embedded in local communities. (i) The industry has strong linkages with the fishing industry. (j) The migration industry has very strong, long historical connections with the Middle East, which have been utilized in facilitating the flow of intending IMAs. (k) In most cases, there is not a single agent, but migrants and intending migrants are passed through networks of agents at different points and often with new payments at each point. (l) It is becoming an increasingly professionalized. The strong importance of the industry in Indonesia is seen in the fact that there are four Indonesian words for migration industry agents – tauke, mandor, calo and taikong. During the Dutch colonial period, mandors were used extensively, not only for recruiting overseas labour migrants but also for recruiting workers in densely settled areas to work on mines, plantations and forests in less densely settled areas. These roles have continued and proliferated, especially since the 1970s when labour migration to the Middle East and other parts of Asia (especially Malaysia) has grown massively. The government has been involved in attempting to regularize the industry in various ways over the last three decades, but most of the industries are not in the formal migrant agents’ associations or registered with authorities. The highly convoluted nature of the migration industry in Indonesia is reflected in Figure 7.6, which provides examples of the number of intermediaries that intending contract migrant workers need to go through in seeking to work in Saudi Arabia.

Social Networks It is not sufficiently acknowledged that the majority of international movers from Asia move along well-trodden paths or corridors, which, if they have not travelled along them before themselves, have been traversed by family members and friends. Migrants tend to travel with friends or family and have a range of contacts at the destination. The networks that are established linking origin and destination become key elements in sustaining and enhancing population flows between them. These

Friends/ relative Info

Employer

Agency Saudi Arabia

Associate of local broker

Fee

Demand

Info

Fee

Demand

Info

Fee

Fee

Info

Fig. 7.6  Example of a brokerage network for official migrants to Saudi Arabia. (Source: Spaan 1999, 297)

Wage/ accommodation

Info

Information

Local broker

Debts and Interest

Prospective migrant

Loan

Info

AKAN Centre

Agency Jakarta

Info

7  Determinants of Future Indonesian Labour Migration to the Gulf 121

122

G. Hugo

networks inject a self-perpetuating dynamism into flows of population, which allows movement to continue long after the original economic reasons for the flow have been superseded or rendered redundant. Whenever a person immigrates, every individual that he or she knows acquires social capital in the form of a contact at the mover’s destination, which can be ‘cashed in’ at any time to obtain help in getting a job or accommodation and social support while adjusting to the destination. The networks established by earlier generations of movers from families and localities act as conduits to channel later generations of movers to those destinations in an atmosphere of certainty. Previous generations of movers have not only supplied valuable information and encouragement but often paid for, or arranged and eased, the passage. Moreover, when the immigrant arrives at the destination, the destination end of the network lends valuable assistance in the adjustment process, especially through assisting in gaining access to housing and employment. The fundamental role of networks is to greatly reduce the risks associated with migration, and many movers from Asian origins, thus, operate in an environment of total certainty. This risk minimization factor is important. While other factors are necessary to initiate the beginning of a new limb of the network once the pioneer(s) is established at the destination, the increase in the subsequent flow can be rapid. The pioneer immigrants constitute anchors to which much larger numbers of subsequent immigrants are drawn. The pioneers can be people who gain access through some form of recruitment or refugee migration but then can facilitate substantial movement through legal family reunification movement. On the other hand, illegal migration is virtually impossible unless there is an informal network linking origin and destination to facilitate the clandestine movement. The pioneer migrants to the Middle East may have been people undertaking the hajj. The networks may link employers with agents, former migrants or communities in Indonesia. The increase in international migration from Indonesia to the Gulf resulted in a lateral extension and increasing density of social networks linking Indonesia with the region. There has been a massive increase in the channels along which both documented and undocumented migrations can occur. These will ensure that Indonesia will remain an important origin of labour migrants, even in the face of bans like that currently in place on domestic workers.

Conclusion While the Indonesian government in recent years has recognized the role that international labour migration can play in reducing unemployment and underemployment, in earning foreign exchange and in training its workforce, there is little integration of labour migration and development policy within Indonesia. As is the case elsewhere, there is little of linkage and coherence between labour migration and development policy. Martin (2008, 17) has argued that there are three challenges facing countries like Indonesia in this respect:

7  Determinants of Future Indonesian Labour Migration to the Gulf

123

• Further incorporation of the range of issues captured by the migration development nexus into policy formulation • Implementation and evaluation of the strategies to capitalize on the benefits that migration may bring for development • Institution of more effective international collaborations The real challenge is clearly moving towards strategies which take into account and use the positive interconnections between migration and development and seek to minimize negative impacts. In the Indonesian case, however, it is apparent that there is an initial, necessary step that needs to be taken. This involves the removal of the impediments and barriers which currently intervene to prevent the benefits generated by labour migration to fully flow back to origin families and communities. The poor governance of the Indonesian labour migration system results in a significant part of the earnings of migrant workers not being available to impact on development because it is siphoned off by excessive transaction costs, corruption and exploitation of migrant workers. Only if there is a sound system of governance, will the earnings of workers be fully available to be channelled into development activity. Indonesia has undergone massive economic, social and demographic change in recent decades, which have impinged on the determinants of its long-held status as labour surplus and labour sending country. However, the fundamental demographic and economic drivers remain. Moreover, long-established corridors of mobility linking it with the Gulf, the burgeoning activity of the migration industry in both countries and the cumulative experience of millions of Indonesians who have lived and worked in the Middle East would suggest that labour migration will continue over the foreseeable future.

References Ananta, A., & Arifin, E. (2007). National agency of placement and protection of Indonesian overseas workers: Marketization of public services. Revision of a Paper presented at Regional Symposium on Managing Labour Migration in East Asia: Policies and Outcomes, ILO and Wee Kim Wee Centre of Singapore Management University, Singapore, 16–18 May. Ananta, A., & Arifin, E. (2008, March 25–26). Demographic and population mobility transitions in Indonesia. Paper presented at PECC-ABAC conference on demographic change and international labour mobility in the Asia-Pacific Region: Implications for Business and Cooperation, organised by Korea National Committee for Pacific Economic Cooperation (KOPEC) in collaboration with Korea Labour Institute (KLI) held in Seoul, Korea. Andrevski, H., & Lyneham, S. (2014, February). Experiences of exploitation and human trafficking among a sample of Indonesian migrant domestic workers (Trends and issues in crime and criminal justice, no. 471). Australian Institute of Criminology, Canberra. Anon (1984) Mencari tuan di negeri minyak, Tempo, 12. Bank Indonesia. (2013). 2013 economic report on Indonesia: Maintaining stability, advancing structural reform for sustainable economic growth, Bank Indonesia. DeBel-Air, F. (2014). Demography, migration and labour market in Saudi Arabia, Gulf Labour Markets and Migration, Gulf Research Center, No. 1.

124

G. Hugo

Global Commission on International Migration (GCIM). (2005). Migration in an interconnected world: New directors for action (Report of the Global Commission on International Migration, Switzerland). Hassan, S. R. M. (2010, April 25). More than 40,000 Indonesians working in Brunei. Hugo, G. J. (1980). Population movements in Indonesia during the colonial period. In J. J. Fox, R.  G. Garnaut, P.  T. McCawleyand, & J.  A. C.  Mackie (Eds.), Indonesia: Australian perspectives (Research School of Pacific Studies) (pp.  95–135). Canberra: Australian National University. Hugo, G. J. (1992). Women on the move: Changing patterns of population movement of women in Indonesia. In S. Chant (Ed.), Gender and migration in developing countries (pp. 174–196). London: Belhaven Press. Hugo, G. J. (1995). Labour export from Indonesia: An overview. ASEAN Economic Bulletin, 12(2), 275–298. Hugo, G.  J. (2000). The crisis and international population movement in Indonesia. Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, 9(1), 93–129. Hugo, G. J. (2005). The new international migration in Asia: Challenges for population research. Asian Population Studies, 1(1), 93–120. International Organization for Migration (IOM). (2010a). Labour migration from Indonesia. Philippines: International Organization for Migration. International Organization for Migration (IOM). (2010b). International migration and migrant workers’ remittances in Indonesia. Philippines: International Organization for Migration. Kennedy, J. (2012). Female Indonesian domestic workers in Taiwan, Seminar in Global health and Development 2, June, Taipei Medical University. Manning, C., & Cronin, M. (2008, May). Indonesia’s interests in labour services at international trade negotiations (Final Policy Research Paper). Martin, S. (2008). Policy and institutional coherence at the civil society days of the GFMD. Working paper prepared for the Experts Meeting, Chicago, 11–12 August in preparation for the Civil Society Days of the Global Forum on Migration and Development, Manila, October. McDonald, P. (2014). The Demography of Indonesia in comparative Perspective. Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, 50(1), 29–52. Munro, P. (2011). People smuggling and the resilience of criminal networks in Indonesia. Journal of Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism, 6, 1, April, pp. 40–50 Oberman, R., Dobbs, R., Budiman, A., Thompson, F. & Rossé, M. (2012, September). The archipelago economy: Unleashing Indonesia’s potential. Francisco: McKinsey Global Institute, McKinsey and Company. Okushima, M. (2005). Introduction to a special issue: International trends of Indonesian migrant workers, and their employment system in Japan. Intercultural Communication Studies, 17, Japan, 1–47. Ruiz, R. (2012, May 30). Indonesian envoy wants fewer maids sent to UAE. The National. Santolan, J. (2011). Saudi Arabia Bans Maids from Indonesia and the Philippines. World Socialist. wsws.org Singhanetra-Renard, A. (1986). The Middle East and beyond: dynamics of international labour circulation among Southeast Asian workers. Mimeo. Soeprobo, T.  B. (2004, February 6–7). Recent trends of international migration in Indonesia. Paper presented at the workshop on international migration and labour markets in Asia, Japan Institute of Labour, Tokyo, Japan. Spaan, E. (1999). Labour circulation and socioeconomic transformation: The cost of East Java, Indonesia (Report 56), The Hague: Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute. Suyono, M. (1981). Tenaga Kerja Indonesia di Timur Tengah Makin Mantap, Suara Karya, h.v.k., 2–6. United Nations. (2012). World urbanization prospects: The 2011 revision. New  York: United Nations.

7  Determinants of Future Indonesian Labour Migration to the Gulf

125

United Nations. (2013a). Trends in international migrant stock: Migrants by destination and origin, United Nations database, POP/DB/MIG/Stock/Rev.2013. United Nations. (2013b). International migration report 2013. New York: United Nations. United Nations. (2013c). World population prospects: The 2012 revision. New  York: United Nations. Vredenbregt, J. (1962). The Haddj: Some of its features and functions in Indonesia. Bijdragen, 118, 91–154. Yeoh, B., & Lin, W. (2012, April 3). Rapid growth in Singapore’s immigrant population brings policy challenges, Migration Information Source.

Chapter 8

The Rise of the Philippine Emigration State: Protecting Migrant Workers in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries Neil G. Ruiz

…for a long time to come, the Philippines will continue to offer a major highly competitive source of trained labor for the needs of countries abroad. We look forward to the day when, having attained some of our major objectives in the industrialization of the economy, there will be enough resilience and flexibility for us to absorb our own labor surpluses.1 –Blas F. Ople, Minister of Labor and Architect of the Philippine Labor Export Policy.

Introduction This chapter focuses on how labour export became entrenched in political, economic and social institutions of the Philippines. This period of labour export entrenchment began with the fall of President Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 and continued through 2006 with the building of more state institutions for facilitating the export of Filipino labour. During the Marcos era, overseas employment became one of the major solutions to alleviate the problems from an oversupply of educated degrees coming from a highly unregulated and autonomous private higher educational system. Furthermore, the Marcos regime made efforts to control the educational system and align it with the Philippine national economy. But over the years, the Philippine economy increasingly depended on overseas labour markets not only to relieve the educated unemployment problem but also to create a massive new domestic economy geared towards jobs abroad. With about 10% of the Filipino population working abroad and financial rewards from foreign earnings returning to the Philippines, the labour export industry became a flourishing business for the private sector, the state and the Filipino people. This growth and dependency  Philippine Development Magazine, vol. 6, no. 12 (November 15, 1978: 21–29), 29.

1

N. G. Ruiz (*) The Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program, Washington, DC, USA © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 S. I. Rajan, G. Z. Oommen (eds.), Asianization of Migrant Workers in the Gulf Countries, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9287-1_8

127

128

N. G. Ruiz

increased the role of the Philippine state in this industry through the creation of emigrant institutions to regulate and protect the overseas labour industry; it also created a cycle of dependency on emigration – from the Filipino population, government and private businesses.

 he Expanding Role of the State in the Labour Export T Industry The ability of the state to expand the Philippine labour export industry and to reap the benefits of emigration depends on its ability to provide for its migrants abroad. The Philippine state evolved several times since 1974 to expand its role in managing migration. As overseas employment continued to grow, the Overseas Employment Development Board (OEDB) evolved to become two agencies within the Labor Ministry on May 1, 1982: the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and the Welfare Fund Administration (WFA).2 The POEA was tasked to: • Establish and maintain a registration and licensing system to regulate private sector participation in the recruitment and overseas placement of workers. • Maintain a registry of skills for overseas placements. • Recruit and place trained and competent Filipino workers. • Promote the development of skills and careful selection of Filipino workers for overseas employment. • Undertake overseas market development activities for placement of Filipino workers. • Secure the best possible terms and conditions of employment of Filipino contract workers and ensure compliance. • Generate foreign exchange from the earnings of Filipinos employed under its programmes. • Promote and protect the well-being of Filipino workers overseas.3 This move to change the OEDB into the POEA was to encourage the participation of the private sector in the labour export industry, especially recruitment agencies and construction contractors.4 Within the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), the POEA licenses private recruitment agencies. It informs potential overseas workers of agencies that have issued false contracts or have not complied with rules during the deployment process. The POEA publishes an updated list of overseas job openings, recruitment agencies’ contact information and the number of

 Institute of Labor and Manpower Studies, Working Abroad: The Socio-Economic Consequences of Contract Labor Migration in the Philippines (Manila: Ministry of Labor and Employment, 1984), 13–16. 3  Ibid., 14–15. 4  Ibid., 15. 2

8  The Rise of the Philippine Emigration State: Protecting Migrant Workers…

129

vacancies available through their website. The POEA also provides a quality control service by rating the status of the private recruitment agencies.5 Through Philippine Overseas Labor Offices and a dedicated labour attaché in embassies and consulates, the POEA monitors the treatment of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs),6 verifies labour documents and assists OFWs in employment- and labour-related disputes. A 1977 Philippine Department of Labor and Employment White Paper proposed that the government should not focus solely on recruitment and placement of Filipinos into overseas employment, but should also create an agency for protecting and promoting the rights and welfare of OFWs.7 This white paper argued that private recruitment agencies were not in a position to protect overseas Filipinos and that there was a role for the Philippine government on welfare issues. This new reorganization of the overseas employment programme in 1982 created a framework for the WFA, which required recruitment companies and workers to contribute to a welfare fund that would provide services and assistance.8 This evolution set the stage for the politics that would arise around protecting overseas Filipinos in the 1980s and 1990s. As labour export became larger, the Philippine state developed policies that extended beyond the boundaries of the nation-state and into other countries. The politics surrounding overseas labour further developed state emigrant institutions.

The State and Protecting the Welfare of Overseas Filipinos As a result of state involvement and an increase in Filipino emigration, major political issues arose around reports of the maltreatment, illegal recruitment and even deaths of OFWs. Between 1987 and 1991, a total of 23 Senate bills and 32 House bills were filed in the Philippine Congress in an attempt to investigate several mysterious OFW deaths and issues related to overseas work.9 According to the Philippine Department of Labor and Employment, about 1224 overseas Filipino workers were sent back home dead during this period.10 All of them are said to have died of

 The POEA rates recruitment agencies in the following categories: good standing, delisted, cancelled, forever banned, inactive, revoked, suspended and denied renewal. For a list of the current recruitment agency ratings, see: http://www.poea.gov.ph/cgi-bin/agList.asp?mode=all 6  This refers to Filipinos who are temporary workers on overseas employment contracts for 2 years or more years. 7  Department of Labor and Employment, ‘White Paper on the Phase-Out Policy’, Unpublished (Manila: Department of Labor and Employment, 1977). 8  Institute of Labor and Manpower Studies, Working Abroad, 16. 9  Maruja M.B.  Asis, ‘The Overseas Employment Program Policy’, in Graziano Battisetlla and Anthony Paganoni (editors), Philippine Labor Migration: Impact and Policy (Quezon City: Scalabrini Migration Center, 1992: 68–112). 10  Michael A.  Bengwayan, ‘When Filipino maids return home in coffins’, New Straits Times, Opinion Section, March 7, 2001, 10. 5

130

N. G. Ruiz

‘unknown or mysterious circumstances’. Reports from the hearings revealed that many of the dead bodies, particularly from domestic workers working in Taiwan and Hong Kong, ‘bore bruises and deep cuts’. In some cases, autopsy examinations discovered that internal organs were missing and were possibly sold for transplants to unknown beneficiaries.11 During the 1990s, the Philippine government had to deal with several major overseas Filipino cases that sparked major changes in how the government now handles overseas employment. During the 1991 Gulf War, the government brought home about 30,000 Filipinos from Iraq and Kuwait. The repatriation highlighted problems in coordination, lack of reliable data on the Filipinos in the region and the inadequate number of government personnel abroad. The repatriation also strained relations between government officials and the workers they were trying to repatriate.12 In 1991, Flora Contemplación, a Filipina domestic worker in Singapore, was charged for a double murder of another domestic worker, Delia Maga, and the child of Maga’s employer. Having minimal knowledge of English and after being drugged and administered electric shocks, she was reportedly coerced into a confession without a lawyer present.13 She was later put to death despite the Philippine president’s direct appeal to the government of Singapore.14 This incident sparked an upheaval of protests in the Philippines challenging the state’s labour export policy. A grenade exploded at the Singapore Airlines office in Metro Manila following the news of Contemplación’s death,15 and mass demonstrations also took place at the Embassy of Singapore in Manila and at the departments of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and Labor and Employment (DOLE). The Philippines downgraded its diplomatic relations with Singapore, the secretaries of DFA and DOLE resigned, and the deployment of domestic helpers to Singapore was temporarily halted.16 The perceived injustice surrounding Contemplación’s death captured the sentiments of an increasingly uneasy society after more than two decades of large-scale temporary emigration. A 42-year-old mother of four children and sole provider to her family, Contemplación came to symbolize the sacrifices of Filipino migrants – the ‘modern-day heroes’ who are willing to risk even death to provide for their families back home. As Joaquin Gonzales, an expert on Philippine studies, noted,

 Ibid.  Graziano Battistella, ‘Return Migration in the Philippines: Issues and Policies’, in International Migration: Prospects and Policies in a Global Market, ed, Douglas Massey and Edward Taylor (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 232. 13  Anne-Marie Hilsdon, ‘The Contemplacion fiasco: The hanging of a Filipino domestic worker in Singapore’, in Anne-Marie Hilsdon, Martha Macintyre, Vera Mackie and Maila Stivens (eds.), Human Rights and Gender Politics (New York: Routledge, 2000), 172–173. 14  Ibid. 15  US Department of State, ‘1995 Patterns of Global Terrorism’, Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism, http://www.fas.org/irp/threat/terror_95/terasi.htm. 16  Joaquin Gonzales, Philippine Labour Migration: Critical Dimensions of Public Policy (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1998), 6–7. 11 12

8  The Rise of the Philippine Emigration State: Protecting Migrant Workers…

131

Contemplación’s death ‘heightened long-standing debates in the Philippines and exposed the lack of adequate government attention to the plight of Filipino overseas contract workers (OCWs), not just in Singapore but in all the labor-receiving countries’.17 Other negative reports about OFWs spread throughout the Philippine media. Illegal recruitment for positions as prostitutes or ‘comfort women’ became another politicized issue. In Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan and Singapore, many Filipina women are brought to work as hostesses at bars. Reports illustrate how many of them were being imprisoned and under guard during the daytime and released at night to work as prostitutes.18 They had been recruited from the Philippines to work as entertainers under contracts that did not inform them of having to provide sex in the job description. For example, Rosa, who was fresh out of high school, was lured to Japan from Manila in 1988 with promises of a trip to Tokyo Disneyland and opportunities to make good money. When she arrived in Japan, her employer turned out to be a gangster who ordered her to sit with the customers, pour their drinks and make dates. When she refused to make dates, her employer beat her and kept a close watch on her by prohibiting her from straying outside of the neighbourhood.19 As a Filipino migrant, she was forced into modern-day slavery. Government statistics showed that women are more likely to be victims due to the nature of their work (Table 8.1). These events in the early 1990s resulted in the most significant reorganization to date of the Philippines’ labour-export policy, namely the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipino Act of 1995. The so-called Magna Carta responded directly to the Table 8.1  Number of OWWA welfare cases, January to September 1994 Nature Overall (number) Overall (percent) Maltreatment Delayed or non-payment of salaries Contract violations Physical abuse Rape and sexual abuse Sexual harassment Health problems Mental illness Other

Total 9368 100 1419 1272 1373 187 15 330 42 6 3769

Male 3021 32 546 565 691 6 0 0 13 0 694

Female 6347 68 873 707 682 181 15 330 29 6 3075

Female/male ratio 2.1 1.6 1.2 0.9 30.0 N/A N/A 2.2 N/A 4.4

Source: Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, as cited in ‘Filipino Women Migrants: A Statistical Factbook’, National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women and the Asian Development Bank  Ibid.  Glenn Schloss, ‘Sex-trade women kept like slaves’, South China Morning Post, News section, January 21, 2001, 3. 19  Teresa Watanabe, ‘Without a Country’, Los Angeles Times, View Section, March 31, 1992, E1. 17 18

132

N. G. Ruiz

Contemplación case. The law called for the government to promote the welfare of migrant workers and place their protection above all else. It states: While recognizing the significant contribution of Filipino migrant workers to the national economy through their foreign exchange remittances, the State does not promote overseas employment as a means to sustain economic growth and achieve national development. The existence of the overseas employment program rests solely on the assurance that the dignity and fundamental human rights and freedoms of the Filipino citizen shall not, at any time, be compromised or violated.20

The Philippine government put in place many programmes to protect and represent Filipino migrants. The Magna Carta created an Office of the Legal Assistant for Migrant Workers Affairs (OLAMWA) within the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to take responsibility ‘for the provision and coordination of all legal assistance services to be provided to Filipino migrant workers as well as overseas Filipinos in distress’.21

The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) Republic Act 8042 was an attempt to create a more centralized overseas migration system to control the recruitment, representation and return of Filipinos living abroad. It was created ‘to institute the policies of overseas employment and establish a higher standard of protection and promotion of the welfare of migrant workers, their families and overseas Filipinos in Distress’.22 Republic Act 8042 institutionalized labour recruitment by creating the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) for licensing and supervising recruitment agencies. In order to be licensed, an agency had to ‘fulfill minimum capital requirements, pay annual licensing fees, and follow a complex set of regulations’.23 As of April 2004, there were about 2884 recruitment agencies licensed by the POEA.24 The POEA publishes an updated list of overseas job openings, recruitment agencies’ contact information and the number of vacancies available through their website.25 They also rate the status of the agency (good standing, delisted, cancelled, forever banned,

 Senate Bill No. 2077, ‘To Institute the Policies of the Overseas Employment Program and Establish a Higher Standard of Protection and Promotion of the Welfare of Migrant Workers and for Other Purposes’, Ninth Congress of the Republic of the Philippines, Third Special Session, May 24, 1995. 21  Philippine House of Representative, ‘Republic Act 8042, Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995’. Available at http://pinoymigrant.dole.gov.ph/ra%208042.htm 22  Ibid. 23  Peter Stalker, Workers Without Frontiers: The Impact of Globalization on International Migration (Geneva: International Labour Organization, 2000), 123. 24  Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, ‘Status of Recruitment Agencies as of April 4, 2004’, http://www.poea.gov.ph/cgi-bin/agList.asp?mode=all 25  See http://www.poea.gov.ph 20

8  The Rise of the Philippine Emigration State: Protecting Migrant Workers…

133

inactive, revoked, suspended and denied renewal) based on assessments made by the POEA. This provides information about available jobs while also serving as a quality control of the private recruitment agencies. The Workers Welfare Administration evolved to becoming the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) as the main agency for protecting Filipinos while abroad due to its much larger scope of responsibilities, which extend beyond the provision of legal assistance.26 OWWA was reorganized to become the most extensive operation organized by a migrant-sending government for protecting its citizens abroad. It featured a complex organizational structure that now includes a board of trustees, a secretariat, and regional and international offices. Today, OWWA’s board of trustees is a tripartite body with the DOLE secretary as chair and 12 members representing government, management and OFWs. The president of the Philippines appoints all board members. The board is broadly representative of a cross-section of government agencies, including the Departments of Foreign Affairs, Finance and Budget. OFWs are allotted sea-based, land-based and women’s sector representatives. An overwhelming majority of board members are not OWWA members, a major source of criticism from civil society and OFWs. The board plans and implements policies and programmes, crafts rules and regulations, oversees fund sources and creates yearly appropriations for the Secretariat, OWWA’s administrative arm.27 Unlike other Philippine government agencies that administer trust funds, OWWA has no charter. This setup allows for more flexibility but may also allow the board to exercise blanket and unregulated authority. As a permanent government agency, changes to OWWA’s operations can only be made through legislation. The Secretariat, headed by an administrator, manages day-to-day operations in the Philippines and abroad. Of its staff of 580, only about 100 employees are stationed at its main office in Manila. The rest are stationed at regional offices within the Philippines (about 300 employees) or based in countries with particularly large numbers of temporary workers (about 180 employees).28 In 2006, 28 welfare officers were assigned to 16 countries, with more than half of them placed in the Middle East, including nine in Saudi Arabia alone. The OWWA administrator recommends welfare officers, whom the DOLE secretary nominates and whom the president of the Philippines appoints. The welfare officers abroad work together with the labour attachés and the ambassadors or consuls-­general to assist Filipino migrant workers (Fig.  8.1). They are usually attached to Philippine embassies and consulates. Indeed, the government considers

 Edgar Rodriguez and Susan Horton, ‘International Return Migration and Remittances in the Philippines’, In University of Toronto Department of Economics Working Paper Series (Toronto: University of Toronto Department of Economics, 1995), 18. 27  Overseas Worker’s Welfare Administration, Board of Trustees, http://www.owwa.gov.ph/page/ board_of_trustees/. 28  The staff numbers are estimates; actual numbers are unknown according to OWWA. 26

134

N. G. Ruiz

Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA)

Department of Labour and Employment (DOLE)

Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA)

Department of Finance (DOF)

Department of Budget and Management (DBM)

Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA)

OWWA Board

Embassies and/or consulates

Secretariat

Philippine Overseas Labor Offices (POLOs)

International Offices

Head quarters

Regional offices

Migrant workers and other overseas Filipinos resource centers

Foreign service personnel

Labor attaches

Welfare officers

Fig. 8.1  Overseas workers welfare administration within the Philippine government. (Source: Author interview of stakeholders and government documents)

OWWA staff abroad to be part of its unified team in that country, with the ambassador as the leader.29 Membership in OWWA, which is mandatory for migrants going abroad through official channels, may be obtained in two ways: By enrolment upon processing of a contract at POEA or by voluntary registration of a would-be member at a job site overseas. Membership is valid until the OFW’s employment contract expires. For voluntary members who register at a job site, membership does not exceed 2 years.30 Ideally, the employer and/or agency pays the membership fee, a practice that some  Section 23 of the Rights and Enforcement Mechanism Under International and Regional Human Right System of the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs, as cited by Arnel F. de Guzman, ‘A Critical Assessment of the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995 (RA 8042)’, unpublished paper, September 2010. 30  Overseas Worker’s Welfare Administration, ‘Omnibus Policies, Board Resolution No. 138’ (Manila: OWWA, 2003). Available at http://www.owwa.gov.ph/filemanager/download/. 29

8  The Rise of the Philippine Emigration State: Protecting Migrant Workers… $45,000,000 $40,000,000 $35,000,000 $30,000,000 $25,000,000 $20,000,000 $15,000,000 $10,000,000 $5,000,000 $0

2002

2003

2004

2005

135

2006

Year Membership fees

Interest income

Other income

Fig. 8.2  OWWA’s income in US dollars, 2002–2006. (Source: Overseas Workers Welfare Administration Financial Management System, 2001–2006)

critics say rarely happens. A 2004 independent field study by the Scalabrini Migration Center, a Manila-based research institute, confirmed that the membership fee is ‘routinely passed onto migrant workers’.31 Although the mandatory nature of membership has been instrumental in shoring up the fund’s assets, some migrant organizations are questioning the authority of OWWA to require such payment. The number of OWWA members has increased through the years, reflecting the general upward trend in OFW emigration. It is important to note that, despite the mandatory membership requirements, a large proportion of temporary workers are not OWWA members. As of May 2007, OWWA had over one million members, which represents just 28% of the 3.8 million legal temporary workers abroad in 2006, as estimated by the Commission on Overseas Filipinos, another government body. Through these membership fees, OWWA managed to raise about $40 million dollars per year between 2002 and 2006 (Fig. 8.2). The OWWA created a number of programmes that fall under four major categories targeting contract workers. It offers integrated support services for: participation in pre-departure orientation seminars, public assistance programmes, on-site services abroad and an OWWA identification system.32 Prior to departure, all overseas contract workers must undergo the Philippine government’s mandatory deployment process, two key components of which are pre-departure orientation seminars (PDOSs) and the issuance of OFW identification cards. PDOSs are largely organized by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that work in partnership with the Philippine government’s Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) for OFWs and the Commission on Overseas Filipinos for permanent emigrants. Every departing OFW and Filipino emigrant must attend a one-day seminar and provide the government with a certificate of  Maruja Asis, Preparing to Work Abroad: Filipino Migrants’ Experience Prior to Deployment (Manila: Philippine Migrants Rights Watch and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, 2005), 52. 32  Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, ‘Programs and Benefits’, http://www.mydestiny. net/~owwa/integrated.html 31

136

N. G. Ruiz

completion to receive permission to emigrate. Attendees learn about destination country customs and laws, resources available to them at the embassy or consulates, important contacts for any problems that might arise and financial management seminars. The goal of this programme is to give emigrating Filipinos as much knowledge as possible about their country of destination and the resources available to them abroad. Through financial management seminars, banks and other money transfer operators educate emigrating workers about methods of sending their money home, and in some cases, they open bank accounts for emigrating workers. The POEA also processes overseas contracts and provides every OFW a government-­ issued identification card, which can also be used as an ATM card with one of the major Philippine banks. The OWWA created Filipino Resource Centers throughout the world in order to provide further assistance abroad. These centres operate six programmes: community reach-out, on-site repatriation, welfare assistance, reintegration preparedness, sociocultural and sports development and country-specific pilot programmes.33 The community reach-out includes projects that enhance awareness, unity, cooperation and self-reliance among Filipino communities at the destination country. Through on-site repatriation, the OWWA can negotiate with employers/brokers and receiving country authorities, facilitate the documentary requirements such as exit visas, clearances, medical and police reports, and provide airport assistance. The welfare assistance programme offers counselling for distressed workers, paralegal services and some diplomatic services. Reintegration preparedness helps OFWs who are returning to the Philippines by providing business development information, training schemes and psychosocial counselling services. The sociocultural and sports development programme organizes cultural activities and celebrations around Philippine national events and sports activities to build the OFW community in the destination country. The pilot programmes are aimed at specific issues, such as gender-­related and country-specific projects.34 Lastly, the identification system is used for easy processing of OFWs and to keep records of them and their dependents living in the Philippines. The OWWA repatriation programme facilitates the immediate repatriation of distressed and physically ill contracts workers, as well as the remains of those who die while working abroad. In both planned and forced return, OWWA negotiates with employers/brokers and other host-country authorities; facilitates documentary requirements for issuance of exit visas, clearances, monetary claims and medical or police reports; and coordinates with Philippine embassies and DFA for other necessary administrative actions and airport assistance. Recently, for instance, the government negotiated the release of 700 OFWs jailed in Saudi Arabia, mostly for cultural offenses like carrying a Bible or drinking alcohol. OWWA is instructed by law to maintain, among others, an Emergency Repatriation Fund to evacuate OFWs

 Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, ‘Programs and Benefits’, http://www.mydestiny. net/~owwa/integrated.html 34  Ibid. 33

8  The Rise of the Philippine Emigration State: Protecting Migrant Workers…

137

in case of wars, disasters or epidemics. The 1995 act allotted a seed amount of 100 million pesos (US$2.2 million) to comply with this law.35 During the war in Lebanon in July 2006, for example, OWWA reserved US$ten million for the evacuation of Filipino workers.36 About 6300 workers were repatriated between July and October 2006, with OWWA eventually spending $1200 per returnee.37 It is not clear how many of the repatriated were OWWA members. In 2006, OWWA assisted in the repatriation of 10,834 workers from Lebanon and other countries, spending almost 170 million pesos (US$3.7 million) in airfares. This represented about 13% of revenue in 2006. Apart from repatriation, OWWA offers other forms of assistance, services and programmes in its offices abroad, including counselling for distressed workers, paralegal services and low-key diplomatic initiatives (e.g. negotiations for imprisoned OFWs, mobile welfare services, hospital and prison visits, sports development projects like sport leagues, cultural and recreational activities, and contingency operations during crisis situations.) About 600,000 members, or 62% of total membership in 2006 (both within the Philippines and overseas), received various kinds of assistance or services.38 Embassies and consulates abroad provide legal assistance for overseas Filipinos in distress. OLAMWA coordinates all legal assistance services for Filipino migrant workers. The Philippine Congress created a legal assistance fund of 100 million pesos, partly sourced from OWWA, to pay for foreign lawyers, bail bonds, court fees and other litigation expenses.39 Another item provided by OWWA is insurance claims. OWWA provides members with life and personal accident insurance while abroad. The coverage includes 100,000 pesos (US$2173) for natural death and 200,000 pesos (US$4347) for accidental death; a burial benefit of 20,000 pesos (US$434) is also provided. OWWA charges an additional 900 pesos (US$19.50) per year for health insurance. As a rider to the life insurance, OWWA also offers monetary assistance to workers who suffer work-related injuries, illness and disabilities during employment abroad. The benefit ranges from 2000 pesos (US$43) to 50,000 pesos (US$1086) and up to 100,000 pesos (US$2173) in case of permanent disability. Between 2001 and 2006, a growing number of OFWs have used the death and disability benefits, from fewer than 600 in 2002 to more than 1500 in 2006.40 This

 Philippine House of Representatives, ‘Republic Act No. 8042 Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995’. 36  Manila Standard, ‘Few Pinoys in Lebanon Want to Go’, Manila Standard, August 24, 2006. 37  Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, Annual Report 2006, 27. 38  Note that members who used the workers assistance program might also be accounted for in other services, such as repatriation. Given the limitations of OWWA data, it is difficult to verify this assumption. 39  Renee E.  Ofreneo and Isabelo A.  Samonte, ‘Empowering Filipino Migrant Workers: Policy Issues and Challenges’, In International Migration Papers (Geneva: International Labour Organization, 2005), 8–12. 40   Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, Insurance and HealthCare Availment Report, 2002–2006. 35

138

N. G. Ruiz

has been an effective tool used to protect overseas Filipinos while they are working abroad to ensure that their families are covered from the risks of overseas employment. But critics, especially among migrants, note that the OWWA needs to be more accountable to migrants to ensure the funds are properly used. These criticisms stem from government scandals involving misuse of the OWWA funds for other purposes.41

Expansion of Emigrant Institutions In addition to regulation and protection of overseas Filipinos, the Philippine government also sponsors many programmes to represent Filipino migrants. These include the Commission for Filipinos Overseas (CFO).42 The CFO is a group of government officials who advise the President with specific concerns from Filipinos abroad. This body formulates policies and provides representation in the executive branch for the millions of Filipinos living outside of the country. On January 20, 2000, President Estrada issued Executive Order No. 203 to create the Interagency Committee on Shared Government Information System for Migration (SGISM). This committee included leaders from the following government agencies: Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of Labor and Employment, Department of Justice, Department of Tourism, Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, Bureau of Immigration, National Bureau of Investigation, National Statistics Office and the Commission on Filipinos Overseas.43 Through the SGISM, the Philippine government can facilitate a more efficient and speedy response to the needs of OFWs. Furthermore, the Philippine government has attempted to gather accurate demographic information about their overseas contract workers and permanent emigrants so that the private sector and NGOs can provide migrant services. The POEA and the Commission on Filipinos Overseas keep a record of Filipinos who are departing the country on overseas contracts or for permanent emigration. Since 1993, the National Statistics Office has conducted an annual Survey of Overseas Filipinos, which provides socioeconomic characteristics of migrants and statistics on cash and in-kind transfers sent by migrants to their families. The Philippine government also developed an interagency committee to facilitate a more efficient response to the needs of OFWs.44 However, due to a lack of funds, this group has not been able to  Angie M. Rosales, ‘OWWA faces Senate inquiry over OFW fund disbursement’, Tribune, July 13, 2013. 42  Edgar Rodriguez and Susan Horton, ‘International Return Migration and Remittances in the Philippines’, 18. 43  Department of Labor and Employment Administration, ‘SGISM Shared Government Information System for Migration’, http://pinoymigrant.dole.gov.ph/about.htm 44  These include the Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of Labor and Employment, Department of Justice, Department of Tourism, Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, 41

8  The Rise of the Philippine Emigration State: Protecting Migrant Workers…

139

fully integrate information sharing between its various components. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)45 works closely with the Association of Bank Remittance Officers Incorporated46 to ensure that regulations are favourable for a competitive remittance industry. Since 2006, the BSP has required banks and other financial institutions to clearly state remittance charges, available options for sending money and other information posted on BSP’s website for the benefit of both remitters and their recipients.47 Table 8.2 provides an overview of the Philippine emigrant institutions involved in recruitment, representation and returns since the passage of the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995 (Republic Act No. 8042).

Extending Democratic Institutions Abroad New policies have been developed to further institutionalize the representation of overseas Filipinos. Two significant pieces of legislation were passed in the Philippine Congress in November 2002 extending full citizenship rights beyond the Philippines’ national borders. The Dual Citizenship Act allows natural-born Filipinos who have become foreign citizens to retain their Philippine citizenship.48 Additionally, the Absentee Voting Act permits qualified overseas Filipinos to register and vote for the positions of president, vice-president, senator and party-list representatives from abroad.49 These legislative pieces would finally implement the 1987 Philippine Constitution proposition of granting OFWs the right to vote. Article V, Section 2 of the 1987 Constitution states: ‘The Congress shall provide a system for securing the secrecy and sanctity of the ballot as well as a system for absentee voting by qualified Filipinos abroad.’50 Together with the Republic Act No. 8042 and Executive Order No. 203, these two pieces of legislation create a state outside the country’s boundaries. Not only is the Philippine state responsible for the welfare of overseas Filipinos, the migrants can also make demands on the government – using the same instruments of citizenship rights as those residing in the Philippines. Table 8.3 gives an overview of the major legislation and policies implemented by the Philippine government to deal with emigration. Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, Bureau of Immigration, National Bureau of Investigation, National Statistics Office and the Commission on Filipinos Overseas. 45  Translated as the Central Bank of the Philippines. 46  A network of bank officials in charge of remittances products and services in the private sector. 47  Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, SP Circular No. 534 dated June 26, 2006. For website of remittances costs by destination country, see: http://www.bsp.gov.ph/about/advocacies_ofw.asp 48  Rocky Nazerno, ‘Senate Passes Dual Citizenship Bill’, Philippine Daily Inquirer, October 24, 2002. 49  Aurea Calica, ‘Brother-Sister act speeds up passage of voting bills’, Philstar.com, http://www. philstar.com/philstar/print.asp?article=58915 50  Republic of the Philippines, Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines, 1987.

140

N. G. Ruiz

Table 8.2  Post-1995 Philippine emigrant institutions Emigrant institution Philippine overseas employment administration (within DOLE)a

Role Recruitment regulation, protection

Responsibilities Supervision of the deployment of OFWsb under the best possible terms, and the regulation of private sector participation in recruitment and overseas placement  Licenses recruitment agencies  Pre-departure orientations  Monitor migrants abroad and protect their rights  Reintegration programme Extension of social, welfare and Overseas workers Welfare and protection other assistance to OFWs and their welfare dependents administration  Pre-departure loans and family (within DOLE) assistance loan for Filipino migrant workers and their families  Funds for emergencies Filipino resource Welfare and Extension of OWWA duties to the centers protection following programmes abroad: Community reach-out, on-site repatriation, welfare assistance, reintegration preparedness, sociocultural and sports development and country-specific pilot programmes To facilitate a more efficient and System for Inter-agency information sharing speedy response to the needs of committee on OFWs by sharing information on migration shared between the Department of Foreign government Affairs, Department of Labor and information Employment, Department of Justice, system for Department of Tourism, Philippine migration overseas employment administration, overseas workers welfare administration, Bureau of Immigration, National Bureau of investigation, National Statistics Office and the commission on Filipinos overseas

Institutionalized by Republic act no. 8042

Republic act no. 8042

Republic act no. 8042

Executive order no. 203

(continued)

8  The Rise of the Philippine Emigration State: Protecting Migrant Workers…

141

Table 8.2 (continued) Emigrant institution Commission on Filipinos overseas

Role Representation, promote stronger economic and cultural ties between the Philippines and Filipinos overseas

Institutionalized Responsibilities by Executive order Provide assistance to the president no. 203 and the congress of the Philippines in the formulation of policies and measures concerning or affecting Filipinos overseas. Develop and implement programmes to promote the interest and Well-being of Filipinos overseas. Serve as a forum for preserving and enhancing the social, economic and cultural ties of Filipinos overseas with the motherland. Provide liaison services to Filipinos overseas.

DOLE Department of Labor and Employment OFW Overseas Filipino Workers

a

b

Table 8.3  Philippine legislation and policies dealing with emigration Legislation or policy Republic act no. 8042: Migrant workers and overseas Filipinos act of 1995

What it does? Creates a comprehensive piece of legislation that gives the Philippine government responsibility for overseas Filipinos. Institutionalizes the Philippine overseas employment administration and overseas workers welfare administration within the Department of Labor and Employment. Executive Order No. 203: Creates new institutions to carry out the republic act no. 8042: Shared Government Establishes the interagency committee Information System for on shared government information Migration, 2000 system for migration. Establishes the commission on Filipinos overseas. Allows former citizens to obtain Republic act no. 9225: Philippine citizenship even if gave up Dual citizenship citizenship to obtain a new one, allows retention and re-acquisition act of 2003 Filipinos to have more than one citizenship Allows overseas Filipinos to vote either Republic act no. 9189: Overseas absentee voting through embassies and consulates or via mail act of 2003

Source of legitimacy Passed in house and senate, signed into law by president Fidel Ramos

Ordered by former president Joseph Estrada

Passed in house and senate and signed into law by president Gloria Macapagal-arroyo Passed in house and senate, current negotiations and signed into law by president Gloria Macapagal-arroyo

142

N. G. Ruiz

These polices extend the representative powers of the Philippine nation-state abroad. Through citizenship rights, absentee voting and representation in the executive branch, the state provides an avenue for migrants to participate in the state’s domestic institutions. The sending government’s emigrant institutions also become a legitimate force abroad. Through these policies and emigrant institutions, the Philippine state obtains compliance, participation and legitimacy from its emigrants – fulfilling all of the characteristics of a state functioning abroad.

The Expanding Business of Overseas Labour The expansion of Filipinos working in the overseas labour market not only benefitted Filipino households and the Philippine government but also the private sector. The business of labour export involves transnational transactions among various actors both at home and abroad with potential and contracted overseas employees. It involves dealing with the various Philippine government agencies that manage the emigration process, making sure the OFW has the necessary contract and travel documents to enter the country of destination. Facilitating the transfer of migrant earnings to migrants’ families has become a lucrative business for private financial institutions and money transfer operators. Education targeting specific overseas positions has also become a large business, especially with the laissez-faire system of tertiary education adopted by the Philippines (as discussed extensively in Chap. 3). Three industries have flourished because of labour export: recruitment, remittances and education. Together with the increasing demand by the Filipino population to work abroad and the government’s need for foreign currency and to reduce the unemployment rate, businesses have managed to supply the market for labour export with services allowing them to make money off the prospect and deployment of overseas employment.

The Recruitment Industry The recruitment industry focused on deploying overseas workers annually is a multi-billion dollar industry. Recruiters make money on both the prospect and actual deployment of OFWs abroad. The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration’s (POEA) main purpose is to regulate private recruiters to ensure that Filipinos who hope to work abroad are not cheated by the recruitment agencies. There are many opportunities for businesses to take advantage of Filipinos’ aspirations for working abroad; in fact, this prospect led the Philippine government to attempt to take over the entire recruitment industry from 1974 to 1978.51 But because  Maruja M.B.  Asis, ‘The Overseas Employment Program Policy’, in Graziano Battistella and Anthony Paganoni (editors), Philippine Labor Migration: Impact and Policy (Quezon City: Scalabrini Migration Center, 1992: 68–112), 70–72. 51

8  The Rise of the Philippine Emigration State: Protecting Migrant Workers…

143

Table 8.4  Recruitment and placement by recruitment intermediary, 1986 Recruitment intermediary Construction/service contractors Private employment agencies Government placement Manning agencies Total

Number of workers Total placement (in percentage) 53,348 17.0 176,741 56.0 13,188 4.0 70,973 23.0 314,250 100.0

Source: Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, Annual Report, 1987

it had difficulties keeping up with the huge demand by employers abroad who were looking for Filipino workers and the high interest by Filipinos to work overseas, this ban on private recruitment agencies was lifted in 1978.52 Since 1978, private recruitment agencies have grown tremendously. According to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, about 56% of all overseas placements were made by private employment agencies  – the largest share compared to other intermediaries (Table 8.4). The government has a very small share (4%) of all overseas placements. It focuses primarily on regulating the large private industry that also includes placement agencies (23%) for sea-based workers and contractors (17%) for land-based construction companies. The small percentage where the government is involved in recruitment is focused on bilateral agreements between the Philippine government and the foreign government.53 For private recruitment agencies to participate in the overseas employment programme, they must obtain a license from the POEA by demonstrating that at least 75% of the company controlled by Filipino citizens; paying a 10,000 peso application fee, a 50,000 peso licensing fee, a bond to the government in the amount of one million pesos; and demonstrating a minimum capitalization of two million pesos.54 New licenses are given on a year-by-year conditional basis to ensure that the recruitment agency complies with the regulations. After 3 years, the agency can obtain a full license that lasts for another 3 years. The POEA may also ban travel agencies and members of government agencies dealing with migration from obtaining licenses. As of 2013, there were 3479 private recruitment agencies listed in the POEA directory. Of these, 876 have valid licenses to recruit for land-based overseas jobs and 400 have licenses as manning agencies that recruit for sea-based positions.55 The large majority of this directory consisted of private agencies that at one  Ibid.  Patricia Santo Tomas, former Secretary of Labor and Employment, Republic of the Philippines, Personal Interview, July 22, 2004. 54  Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, ‘Participation of the Private Sector in the Overseas Employment Program’, available at http://www.poea.gov.ph/rules/POEA%20Rules.pdf 55  Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, ‘Status of Recruitment Agencies’, accessed August 11, 2013. Available at http://www.poea.gov.ph/cgi-bin/agList.asp?mode=all 52 53

144

N. G. Ruiz

Table 8.5  Estimates of placement expenses, 1980–1987 (in Philippine pesos) Year 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987

Placement fees (average) 2020 1821 3897 5658 6421 3002 11,707 9381

New hires total 214,590 266,243 314,284 291,197 260,161 232,391 255,341 314,250

Total expenses 433 million 485 million 1.2 billion 1.6 billion 1.6 billion 3.0 billion 2.9 billion 2.9 billion

Source: Alcestis Abrera-Mangahas, ‘Response to New Market Opportunities: The Case of the Overseas Employment Sector’, Philippine Institute of Development Studies, Working Paper Series No. 89–11, June 1989

point had licenses but were either ‘delisted’, ‘suspended’ or ‘banned’ from recruiting overseas employees because of rules violations or fraudulent activity. According to the former Secretary of Labor and Employment, Patricia Santo Tomas, the purpose of POEA is to ensure that OFWs are not being taken advantage off. It is a complete public–private partnership, where the government concentrates its efforts on protecting the OFW and the private recruitment agencies concentrate on negotiating the details of the position with the employer abroad and with the employee.56 Private recruitment agencies require fees and payments from the prospective OFW in order to operate. By law, the POEA does not allow recruitment agencies to charge more than the maximum placement fee to the OFW. This maximum placement fee grew from 300 pesos in 1979 to 5000 pesos in 1985, to the equivalent of one month’s salary from 1995 onwards.57 To provide an idea of placement expenses, a 1989 study by Abrera-Mangahas provides recruitment costs for migrating abroad. The paper shows that between 1980 and 1987, placement fees averaged between 2020 pesos and 11,707 pesos (Table 8.5). Examples of specific destinations reveal how it varies by destination country. In 1999, the costs for migrating OFWs going to Hong Kong and Italy are between $784 and $1487 for Hong Kong and between $1556 and $6038 for those bound for Italy. These included the placement fee charged by the recruitment agency, the OWWA contribution, a POEA administrative fee and fees for medical treatment,

 Patricia Santo Tomas, former Secretary of Labor and Employment, Republic of the Philippines, Personal Interview, July 22, 2004. Patricia Santo Tomas was also the first Administrator of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and also worked for Blas Ople, the architect of the Philippine Labor Export Policy. 57  Dean Tiburcio Alegado, ‘The Political Economy of International Labor Migration from the Philippines’, Ph.D.  Dissertation, University of Hawaii, 1992; Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, ‘Hiring Filipino Workers’, accessed August 11, 2013, available at http://www. poea.gov.ph/about/hiring.htm 56

8  The Rise of the Philippine Emigration State: Protecting Migrant Workers…

145

passports, medical clearances, a pre-departure orientation, a POEA certificate of overseas employment and agency registration.58 Where do potential OFWs obtain the capital to pay these fees before working? A 1990 survey was conducted to understand the financing of overseas employment. The large majority of financing came from loans (8 of 10 respondents exclusively relied on loans). Additionally, 10% supplemented these loans by selling property and another 5% supplemented the loans with personal savings.59 The large majority of loans were provided by relatives (50%), money lenders (38.9%) and banks (6.1%); 27.7% of these loans were interest free; 29.5% had preferred rates of 10%; 10.4% carried a yearly interest rate between 11% and 30% a year; and the balance of 32.3% carried rates of 120% a year. The Philippine government does have a lending wing of OWWA to offset the costs of working abroad, but these programmes are a marginal source, accounting for only 1.8% of all funding transactions in overseas employment and used only by 2.6% of all OFWs in 1990.60

The Remittance Industry The Philippine state has always had an interest in securing the foreign currency that overseas Filipinos send to the Philippines as remittances. Since 1968, mandatory remittances of OFW earnings were a requirement for overseas employment, although this remittance policy proved difficult to enforce. In 1982, an interagency body formed by the Central Bank, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Labor and Employment issued Executive Order (EO) 857, which required migrants to send mandatory remittances of 50%–70% of overseas workers’ salaries.61 Under EO 857, if overseas workers did not show proof of sending remittances back to the country, they would be unable to renew their Philippine passports – making it impossible to continue working abroad.62 Sea-based workers and overseas workers employed by contractor and construction companies and various professional workers were required to send 70% of their salaries as remittances through official banks or intermediaries approved by the Central Bank. Other land-based workers such as domestic and service workers and workers who are not provided free housing during their overseas work had to send 50% of their salaries.63  Edita A. Tan, ‘The Wage Structure of Overseas Filipino Workers’, University of the Philippines School of Economics Discussion Paper Series, No. 0503, March 2005, 18. 59  Alcestis Abrera-Mangahas and Luz Aguila-Bautista, Profiling Filipino Worker-Families through a Socio-Economic Survey Module (Geneva: International Labour Organisation, 1990), 36–37. 60  Ibid., 43. 61  Rodriguez, Edgar and Susan Horton, ‘International Return Migration and Remittances in the Philippines’, 19–20. 62  Dean Tiburcio Alegado, ‘The Political Economy of International Labor Migration from the Philippines’, 192–193. 63  Dean Tiburcio Alegado, ‘The Political Economy of International Labor Migration from the Philippines’, 193. 58

146 Table 8.6 Philippine remittance industry revenue estimate, 2004

N. G. Ruiz Central bank remittance figures Average transaction size Transaction volume Average price Average foreign exchange spread Transaction revenue Foreign exchange revenue Total revenue

$7.6 billion $350 21.7 million $8.00 1% $174 million $76 million $250 million

Source: Asian Development Bank, Enhancing the Efficiency of Overseas Workers Remittances (Manila: Asian Development Bank, July 2004)

The Central Bank enforced this policy by requiring all recruitment agencies approved by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) to submit basic information about each OFW that included the names and account numbers of the bank(s) that the worker used to send remittances back to the Philippines. This top-down state policy met protest by OFWs and private recruitment agencies, as well as criticism from the International Labour Organization for violating article 6 saying that employees should have freedom to use their earnings as they wish.64 The policy was ineffective, and the government eventually abandoned it in the mid-1980s. There have been few estimates of the size of the Philippine remittance market. In 2004, the Asian Development Bank estimated that the remittance industry produces about $250 million to $500 million dollars in revenues per year.65 Table 8.6 outlines how this estimate, which is based on official remittances that have flowed through the Philippine Central Bank, the size of remittances and average price for each transaction based on surveys and internal estimates from the Central Bank. In 2004, the formal remittance industry had 17 Philippine-headquartered financial institutions that provided services through their branches or affiliates abroad. About 80%–90% of the formal remittance market is controlled by six major financial institutions: Philippine National Bank (PNB), Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), Equitable PCI Bank, MetroBank, Rizal Commercial and Banking Corporation (RCBC) and Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP). Each of these banks reported handling at least $700 million dollars of remittances annually from overseas Filipinos annually.66 These private financial institutions are part of the Association of Bank Remittances Officers Incorporated (ABROI) that promotes the interests of the private remittance industry. In particular, ABROI has worked with the Central

 Ibid., 193–194.  Asian Development Bank, Enhancing the Efficiency of Overseas Workers Remittances (Manila: Asian Development Bank, July 2004), 21. 66  Asian Development Bank, Enhancing the Efficiency of Overseas Workers Remittances, 21–22. 64 65

8  The Rise of the Philippine Emigration State: Protecting Migrant Workers…

147

Bank of the Philippines to reduce the price of remittances by agreeing that 11 of the ABROI members would use the Central Bank’s real-time settlement system called PhilPass  – that would serve as a local clearing house to credit banks.67 Before PhilPass, banks used different clearing houses for interbank transfers that would pass on another 150-peso charge to the remittance sender.68 The PhilPass payment system infrastructure eliminates settlement risks when money passes through different clearing houses – making it faster, efficient and less risky to transfer money from the origin institution abroad to the Philippine bank account. This also allows ABROI member banks to reduce costs. There are also non-financial institutions such as cargo companies that are in the business of transferring overseas remittances. Companies such as iRemit Incorporated and LBC Express handle about $25–$500 million in remittances volume per year. Other key players in the remittance market are the international money transfer agencies (MTAs), such as Western Union and MoneyGram. Western Union has the largest presence in the Philippines with a large network of 6000 agents, sub-­ agents and partnerships with BPI and many pawnshops and rural financial institutions. These international MTAs are able to deliver remittances in the least amount of time, although they are also the most expensive.69 The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) coordinates with private remittance companies – whether banks or money transfer operators – to educate migrants before they depart the Philippines. Every Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) is required to attend Pre-Departure Orientation Seminars (PDOS) that orients the departing emigrant with information about their destination country; what to do in case of emergency, labour disputes or maltreatment; and government assistance programmes abroad. Additionally, the PDOS has financial education seminars that a bank or money transfer operator conducts to inform the OFW about financial planning, savings and options for sending remittances to their families back in the Philippines. During this multi-hour session, the OFW has the opportunity to open a bank account with the bank conducting the PDOS seminar that day.70 Although this is a great opportunity for OFWs to open a bank account prior to departing the Philippines, it also prevents OFWs from getting perfect information about competitor remittance transfer companies. In order to run the PDOS financial seminar, the individual remittance service provider must submit a bid to OWWA for a multi-year partnership. OWWA has received multimillion dollar bids to conduct these seminars since it is one of the best opportunities to capture the remittance sender before being deployed for overseas work. The PDOS seminars are just one example of the intense competition among migration-centred businesses.

 Amando M. Tetangco, ‘Supporting Overseas Workers through lower Remittances Fees’, Speech made at PhilPass-ABROI Memorandum of Agreement Signing, Manila, December 2, 2009. 68  Asian Development Bank, Enhancing the Efficiency of Overseas Workers Remittances, 11. 69  Ibid., 21–22. 70  Based on observations during author’s participation in Pre-Departure Orientation Seminars in September 2004. 67

148

N. G. Ruiz

The Evolution of Labour Export Institutions This chapter illustrated how labour export extended the economic and political boundaries of the Philippine state abroad. It argued that new political and economic forces arising from overseas employment led to the institutionalization of the overseas labour export programme that made the Philippine state increasingly responsible for not only managing the emigration process but also the protection of Filipinos working abroad. From 1986 to 2006, the labour export industry became entrenched into the economic, political and social institutions of the Philippines. The returns for labour export were high for Filipino households and the Philippine government through the flow of foreign currency into the country as remittances from Filipinos working abroad. The Philippine state expanded its role to protect and manage the labour export programme and developed institutions for extending citizenship rights to overseas Filipinos. Not only did labour export expand employment opportunities beyond the limited domestic labour market overseas, but it also reaped major financial returns for the overseas worker and the migrant household-receiving remittances. For the Philippine state, the labour export programme continues to expand the labour market so that educated Filipinos can obtain a job – whether in their preferred profession or in a different occupation with higher salaries than if they stayed in the Philippines. For private businesses, the overseas employment programme was filled with business opportunities to make a profit. The overseas labour market has penetrated the recruitment, remittances and education industries. Altogether, labour export has penetrated all aspects of Philippine society. As the former Secretary of Labor and Employment Patricia Santo Tomas said, ‘overseas migration is now part of Philippine life’.71 The ability of the Philippine state to control the benefits of migration depends on its ability to provide for its migrants abroad. This chapter showed that a close analysis of the development of policies and emigrant institutions in the Philippines helps us understand how states can gain from migration. The Philippine government relied heavily on foreign borrowing from official and private lenders to finance both agricultural and industrial growth. This reliance led to the rise of external debt from $360 million in 1962 to $28.3 billion by 1986, making the Philippines one of the most heavily indebted countries in the developing world.72 The development of emigrant institutions allowed the state to capture the benefits from migration. The Philippine case provided a picture of how emigrant institutions can give the state powers in areas that are normally considered a loss. As pointed out in this analysis, emigration does not necessarily hurt national economies. Instead, domestic institutions are capable of restructuring to transform the benefits from migration into  Patricia Santo Tomas, ‘Filipinos Working Overseas: Opportunity and Challenge’, in World Migration 2005: Costs and Benefits of International Migration. 72  James K. Boyce, The Philippines: The Political Economy of Growth and Impoverishment in the Marcos Era (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1993), 10. 71

8  The Rise of the Philippine Emigration State: Protecting Migrant Workers… Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE)

Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA)

International Offices

Welfare Officers

Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA)

Philippine Overseas Labor Offices (POLOs)

Labor Attachés

149

Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA)

Commission on Overseas Filipinos (CFO)

Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs (OUMWA)

Migrant Workers and other overseas Filipinos resource centers

Embassies and Consulates

Foreign Service Personnel

Office of the Undersecretary for Special and Ocean Concerns

Overseas Absentee Voting Secretariat (Representation in Philippine Elections)

Fig. 8.3  Philippine government emigration institutional organizational chart

sources of state strength for the government and private businesses. The Philippine government continues to be deeply involved in facilitating the labour migration of its citizens throughout the world. The state negotiated, intervened and provided resources in its attempt to increase the flow of remittances back to the domestic economy. In response to problems occurring abroad, the Philippine state developed emigrant institutions to protect and facilitate the employment of its OFWs. Citizenship rights were also given to Filipinos abroad to increase their representation. The Philippine state stood at the centre of all of this with its ability to design policies and emigrant institutions to extend its arms beyond the territory of the state (see Fig. 8.3 for overview of the Philippine government emigrant institutions).

Chapter 9

Nitaqat – Saudi Arabia’s New Labour Policy: Is It a Rentier Response to Domestic Discontent? Zakir Hussain

Abstract  This chapter attempts to answer two aspects of the Nitaqat programme: (1) How does Nitaqat differ from the earlier versions of Saudization? and (2) What is the contextual reality of Nitaqat? Is it a rentier response to the Arab Uprising? The timing of the renewed emphasis of Saudization under the new name of ‘Nitaqat’ seems essential and opportune for the Kingdom now, both from the political and economic angles. Politically, Saudi Arabia needs to insulate itself from the political ‘tsunami’ of the Arab Uprising, spearheaded by the youth who are mainly discontent with the growing unemployment, social inequality and suspicious role of the regime. The government has vigorously revised, at least in policy prescription, the employment policy of the private sector and attempted to generate employment opportunities. It has mandated the private sector firms to employ a certain percentage of the nationals. Economically, the regime can afford the high cost of addressing emergent problems and create an enabling atmosphere for redressing and mitigating socio-economic and political discontent. The high level of oil prices has given an enormous economic capability to the regime to afford a lavish lifestyle and largely unproductive policies to appease the citizens, particularly the youth who are witnessing relatively a high level of unemployment. On September 12, 2011, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Labour (MoL) announced Resolution 4040 (Hussain 2014), ‘necessitating some radical rethinking of its current “localisation” policies’ of jobs in the country’ (Ramady 2013). The Resolution termed the new labour law as Nitaqat, which classified local companies broadly in four different colour code zones according to the percentage compliance in terms of Saudi nationals employed, with penalties imposed for non-compliance (ibid.). The broad aim of Nitaqat appeared to be focusing on two major aspects: First, to showcase the government’s determination to reduce and finally weed out the existing and growing unemployment among the Saudi national labour force, and second, to force private sector to strictly adhere to the norms of Nitaqat, which has been a more systematic, comprehensive and time-framed result-oriented plan for achieving Z. Hussain (*) Indian Council for World Affairs, Sapru House, New Delhi, India © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 S. I. Rajan, G. Z. Oommen (eds.), Asianization of Migrant Workers in the Gulf Countries, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9287-1_9

151

152

Z. Hussain

Saudization in the Kingdom. Although since the First Five-Year Plan (1970–1975) the government inclined to increase the share of national labour force in the ­economy, due to one or other reasons, it could not implement it firmly. Nevertheless, the regime kept passing royal decrees time and again to reserve or fix quotas for the nationals in different business units and professions, but unemployment among them remained one of the chronic issues of the Kingdom’s labour policies. Though the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country in real terms grew from USD 70 billion to USD 365 billion between 1970 and 2005, it also created thousands of employment opportunities, but the rate of joblessness among the nationals continued to grow. On the other side, the share of foreign workers in the Kingdom steadily grew (Table 9.1). Today, amid nine million foreign workers employed in gainful professions in the Kingdom; officially, 12–15% Saudi labourers are unemployed; currently, over 6,22,533 Saudis are reported to be the active job seekers in Saudi labour market. Against this backdrop, this chapter attempts to examine the following aspects of the Nitaqat programme: A. How does Nitaqat differ from the earlier versions of Saudization? B. What is the contextual reality of Nitaqat? Is it a rentier response to the Arab Uprising?

Defining Nitaqat In the present context, Nitaqat (‘scope’ in Arabic) is meant to limit private sector companies’ employment of expatriate workers. According to Al-Alami, a US-educated management consultant, the new Nitaqat programme was part of a 25-year plan drawn up in the mid-2000s to gradually wean the economy off foreign labour dependence by a skilled Saudi workforce to replace it. Official statistics reveal that the private sector employs above 90% of the total nine million expatriates in Saudi Arabia. Nitaqat aims to achieve its objective by applying three distinct policy measures: (1) constricting the ‘scope’ or ‘ability’ of the private-­sector enterprises to employ foreign workers, (2) limiting the ‘duration’ of foreigners’ stay in the Kingdom and (3) a ‘stick-and-carrot’ policy approach to penalize and support the abiding and non-abiding private enterprises. Broadly Nitaqat has three distinct features: (1) identification of business/market activities, (2) determination of Nitaqat zones/bands and (3) fixation of quota for Saudization. (i) Identification of Business/Market Activities Nitaqat divides private sector enterprises into four categories: Silver/Excellent, Green, Yellow and Red  – depending on the degree of adherence to quotas of

1975 1027 773 1800 42.9

1985 1440 2662 4102 64.9

1990 1934 2878 4812 59.8

1995 2357.10 3628.20 5985.30 60.6

2000 3172.9 4003.4 7176.3 55.8

2005 3284.8 3835.7 7120.5 53.9

2006 3431.6 4091 7523 54.4

2007 3584.8 4181.6 7766.4 53.8

Source: Hertog 2012; Ramady 2005; Data from Ministry of Economy and Planning, 2013, Saudi Arabia

Saudi Non-Saudi Total Percentage of non-Saudi in total

Table 9.1  Share of foreign workers in total Saudi labour force (in thousands) 2008 3681.6 4278.20 7959.80 53.7

2009 3838 4310 8148 52.9

2010 3955.2 4879.7 8834.9 55.2

2011 4143 5792.5 9935.5 58.3

2012 4397.4 5992.9 10,390.3 57.7

9  Nitaqat – Saudi Arabia’s New Labour Policy: Is It a Rentier Response to Domestic… 153

154 Table 9.2  Categories of business units under Nitaqat

Z. Hussain Business unit Micro Small Medium Large Giant

Labours employed Less than 9 10–49 50–499 500–2999 3000 and more

Source: Labour Bureau, Saudi Arabia

Saudization. The new programme avoids the earlier blanket imposition of 30% Saudization on all companies; it identifies 41 business/market activities, each consisting of five units, namely, giant, large, medium, small and micro, which depends on the number of persons employed in each units, that is, 41 × 5 = 205 (Table 9.2). The business units, which employ less than nine workers, are exempted from the purview of Nitaqat mandates. These units are termed as Micro or White Zones companies. As a result, a total of 164 (41 × 4 = 164) market activities are identified for implementing Nitaqat-determined quota policies by the Ministry of Labour (MoL). The percentage of quota for these market/business categories depends on the number of workers employed as well as nature of work. For instance, in the banking sector, 70% employment will be reserved for Saudis; in the media, 19%; and in the construction sector, 10% as reported in Arab News; ‘[c]ommercial establishments, insurance companies and public schools will have the same-19 per cent quota’, according to Al-Madinah. Some job categories do not have quotas, while others are reserved exclusively for Saudis ... [t]he Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry ordered the immediate Saudization of shops selling women’s attire, including abayas and lingerie (Arab News 2011b). It further stated that ‘all saleswomen should be Saudis’ and that the working time should follow ministry regulations (ibid.). In addition, there are ‘exclusive working zones’ for women (ibid.). A total of 49 economic activities, including four recent ones – petrol stations; works related to stone, granite and tiles; four – transport of goods and passenger outside cities – have been added to the Nitaqat list (Arab News 2012). (ii) Determination of Nitaqat Zone/Bands Nitaqat divides the total 164 market activities into four zones or bands: Silver or Excellent, Green, Yellow and Red. The division of bands or zones is determined by the outcome of their quota adherence. Nitaqat also gives grace period to the companies to improve their records. Companies categorized as ‘Silver/Excellent’ and ‘Green’ need to meet 100% Saudization. ‘Silver’ companies have a grace period of 1 year, ‘Green’ companies have 6 months and ‘Yellow’ companies have 9 months. ‘Red’ enterprises are deprived of all benefits, including issue of visas, renewal of iqama (work permit), transfer of visas, opening new branches or facilities with Labour Offices. If they do not improve their nationalization records within 6 months, they also face closure. According to the Labour Minister, around 30%–40% enterprises fall in this category.

9  Nitaqat – Saudi Arabia’s New Labour Policy: Is It a Rentier Response to Domestic…

155

‘Green’ companies enjoy complete freedom to manage their expatriate workers. They can transfer or change the services or professions of expatriate workers and even transfer them without fulfilling the condition of spending 2 years with their current employers. They can renew the iqama irrespective of their period of stay in the Kingdom. They are also authorized to sign up expatriate workers of the ‘Red’ and ‘Yellow’ categories directly even without taking permission of their current employers (Tables 9.3 and 9.4). According to Haatab Al Anazi, spokesman of the Ministry of Labour, the new system allows renewal of iqama for expatriates working in ‘Green’ and ‘Silver’ companies freely; iqama of the foreign workers in ‘Red’ companies will not be renewed, irrespective of the years they have spent in the Kingdom, ‘Yellow’ companies will need to correct the Saudization conditions to get the iqama of their workers to be renewed. Expatriate workers of ‘Red’ companies would not be allowed residency of above 6 years. The Nitaqat system does not apply to the household sector, which absorbs a sizeable percentage of expatriate workers. Table 9.4 schematizes the provisions of the programme for different categories. (iii) Fixation of Saudization Quota The MoL has fixed quota for every business units falling under different Nitaqat zones. For instance, if a company that wants to be in the Silver zone, it has to reserve 40% of its jobs for Saudis. Likewise, companies falling under Green zone will have Table 9.3  Nitaqat zones

Source: Compiled from FAQs Document: Nitaqat-Incentive Programme for Entities to Nationalise Jobs, Ministry of Labour, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

156

Z. Hussain

Table 9.4  Schematization of the Nitaqat provisions for business units under different categories Category Provision Features regarding expatriate workers Silver/ Concession Can change their professions, including those restricted to Saudi excellent nationals except for professions exempted (these professions are reserved for Saudis even in the silver/excellent categories like receptionists, expediter, cashier, civil security guard, etc.) Can transfer their services to themselves together with change of profession simultaneously (in silver/excellent category, an enterprise will be allowed to transfer the services of expatriate workers to it together with change of profession simultaneously provided the enterprise does not fall below the excellent category; it does not submit applications for transfer of workers’ services more than once every 2 months). Can transfer their services to themselves even if the worker has not spent 2 years with his current employer (silver/excellent group companies will be allowed to transfer the services to expatriate workers to it without the need to fulfil the condition that the workers should spend 2 years with the current employees). Can renew their work permits irrespective of their period of stay in the kingdom, provided the remaining period before the expiry of the iqama is at least 3 months on the day of renewal of the work permit. Can sign contracts with expatriate workers from companies and establishments falling in the red and yellow categories and transfer their services to themselves without the consent of the employer. Penal action Applications for visas will be received according to the new rules provided the enterprises do not fall to a category lower than green after granting the visas. Also, an enterprise must not apply for visas more than once every 2 months. Grace 1 year period Green Concession Can obtain one (replacement) visa for every two transactions for exit-only visas (i.e. one visa for every two workers departing from the kingdom for good). Can change the profession of their expatriate workers except for professions restricted for Saudi nationals. Can renew work permits irrespective of the workers’ period of stay in the kingdom. Can directly sign contracts with expatriate workers from yellow and red companies (provided it does not drop below the green category). Penal action Can avail the benefits provided they do not fall to a lower category after granting the visas. Also, an enterprise must not apply for visas more than once every 2 months. Grace 6 months period (continued)

9  Nitaqat – Saudi Arabia’s New Labour Policy: Is It a Rentier Response to Domestic…

157

Table 9.4 (continued) Category Provision Features regarding expatriate workers Yellow Concession Can obtain one (replacement) visa for every two transactions for exit-only visas, provided the two workers have actually departed from the kingdom and the application for replacement visa is submitted within 1 year from the date of departure of the first worker. Can renew the work permits of its expatriate workers provided they have not spent a total of more than 6 years in the kingdom, irrespective of the period the worker has spent with the employer. Penal action Applications for new or seasonal visas will not be accepted. Cannot transfer the services of expatriate workers to itself. Cannot change the profession of its workers. Their expatriate workers can freely sign contracts with a new employer. Grace 9 months period Red Concession Can renew the work permits of expatriate workers irrespective of their period of stay on condition that the remaining period in the visa does not exceed 3 months on the date of renewal of work permit. Penal action Cannot change workers’ professions. Cannot transfer expatriate workers’ services to themselves. Cannot get any new, replacement or seasonal visas. Cannot open files for new enterprises (whether they are entities or branches) at the labour offices. Cannot renew work permits. Cannot stop their expatriate workers from signing contracts with a new silver or green company employer. Grace 6 months period New rules do not apply to household servants. White Nitaqat rules do not Renewal of their iqama is not linked to the duration of stay in the country. apply Their visa would be automatically renewed, depending on the sponsors’ will. Source: Compiled by the author from various Gulf-based newspapers and concerned websites

to reserve 10%–39% of the jobs for the Saudi nationals. The companies, which fail to meet the quota targets, will be listed under Yellow and Red zones (Table 9.5). Ultimately, a company has to attain Silver status if it wants to continue its business in the country. ‘The quota compliance is monitored through the government integrated social and visa records’ (Peck 2014). Peck (2014) also views Nitaqat as a government instrument to combat the ‘resource curse’ on the labour market and manage common economic problems, including corruption, political instability, high unemployment, problem arising due to weak institutions, etc. By this, government plans to generate approximately or absorb around 50%, including graduates, of the total national labour force. According to David B. Ottawy, the Saudi government has ‘adopted the U.S.  Republican political mantra, “jobs, jobs, jobs.” It is pressing the private sector as never before to solve a problem it can-

158

Z. Hussain

Table 9.5  Percentage of Saudization under different Nitaqat zones Business size Small (10–49) Medium (50–499) Large (500–2999) Giant (3000+)

Silver/excellent 40 40 40 40

Green 10–39 12–39 12–39 12–39

Yellow 5–9 6–11 7–11 7–11

Red 0–4 0–5 0–6 0–6

Source: Tala Al-Hejaila: ‘Be Aware: Focus on Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’, Be Aware Newsletter, June (2012)

not: jobs for 250,000 to 300,000 Saudi university graduates and other youth entering the labour market every year’ (2012: 5). The Labour Minister Adel Fakeih recently announced the launch of a new programme ‘Jahiz’ or ‘ready’ and ‘will create job opportunities for Saudi students who have just finished their scholarship programmes abroad and returned home’ (Zawya 2012). Since King Abdullah ascended the throne in 2005, under international scholarship programme, the Kingdom has sent large number of students, particularly to the USA for higher education. Approximately 130,000 students are abroad and the total cost incurred on their scholarship is estimated approximately of USD 5 billion (Knickmeyer 2012). Prior to 2001, 66,000 Saudi students were present in different universities and colleges of the USA; however, after 9/11, the US authorities almost closed the visa service to Saudi students. As result, by 2004, their number declined to 1000. It was only after the pivotal meeting in 2005 at the president’s ranch in Crawford, Texas, the King was able to convince George W. Bush that ‘the education program between the two countries “was crucial for the two countries” long-term relationship’ (Knickmeyer 2012). ‘The stated goal of the program, which, the Arab News daily in December reported cost more than 20 billion riyals [USD5.3 billion], is to prepare Saudi nationals to replace expatriate workers in better-paid technical jobs in the kingdom, reducing unemployment’ (McDowall 2012). The wave of returnees ... is growing yearly. From just a few hundred graduates from U.S. institutions in 2006, their number reached 6000 in 2012, a 50 per cent increase...[Mody] Alkhalif [Director of Cultural Affairs at the Saudi Embassy in Washington] said, “very few” graduates were electing not to return home. Another embassy official quoted in March by the English-language Arab News said that so far “only 13 students applied for citizenship in the United States” (Ottaway 2012: 4).

How Nitaqat Is Different from Past Efforts The Nitaqat programme avoids taking direct administrative measures by imposing a blanket quota or restricting inflow of contract workers in the country. But, it has indirectly prepared the ground for it by tightening the private companies’ employability of expatriate workers: ‘the state will impose a six-year cap on residency visas for expatriate workers, if their employers fail to meet quotas’ (Sfakianakis 2011). The new programme ‘is more dynamic and pragmatic’; it is based on ‘applying 205

9  Nitaqat – Saudi Arabia’s New Labour Policy: Is It a Rentier Response to Domestic…

159

categories of quotas that vary on the line of the nature of “work” and “employment size” of the company’ (ibid.). The new labour policy divides all the 205 business activities into four categories termed as Nitaqat zones (Table 9.3). Each zone has to reserve fixed percentage of jobs for Saudis, which depend on the number of workers employed by these business units (Table 9.4). However, a business unit that employs less than nine workers is not subjected to Nitaqat mandates. This is known as White Zone category firms. The criterion of reserving jobs is based on a meticulous approach of striking a balance between creation of employment opportunities for Saudis and economic viability of private enterprises. The programme systematically analyses current and projected demands for jobs and the economic capacity of different enterprises to absorb Saudi employees. Its provisions also seem futuristic, proposing adoption of Saudization in a phased manner. Table 9.6 provides the estimated level of nationalization required for companies employing 3000 and more people in Saudi Arabia. The thriving private sector has Table 9.6  Saudization bands across the select business lines (in per cent) Category Category I (preferred by Saudis)

Category II (mixed preferences)

Profession category Personal services Printing, publishing and media Electricity, gas and water Kindergartens, institutes and colleges Maritime transport Communications Community services and social Petrochemical, coal and rubber Private and public schools girls Oil and gas extraction Employment agencies Financial institutions Offices of public services Recruiters eligibility Nutrition services Manufacturing Wholesale and retail trade Private and public schools boys Accommodation and tourism Ground transportation to passengers, within cities Insurance and business services Cement industry Trading gold and jewellery Air transport Collection offices and real estate services

Red 4% 14% 7% 14%

Yellow 12% 34% 19% 34%

Green 64% 64% 69% 69%

Silver 65% 65% 70% 70%

9% 9% 9% 19% 39% 14% 51% 49% 9% 9% 4% 7% 9% 14% 5% 4%

29% 29% 21% 44% 49% 34% 76% 64% 29% 29% 15% 19% 24% 19% 17% 11%

74% 74% 74% 74% 79% 84% 86% 89% 89% 89% 30% 34% 36% 39% 41% 44%

75% 75% 75% 75% 80% 85% 87% 90% 90% 90% 31% 35% 37% 40% 42% 45%

4% 7% 9% 9% 4%

19% 29% 28% 29% 17%

54% 59% 59% 59% 59%

55% 60% 60% 60% 60%

(continued)

160

Z. Hussain

Table 9.6 (continued) Category Profession category Category III (predominantly Transport of goods within cities for expatriates) Farmers, fishermen and herdsmen Agriculture, fishing, grazing and horse raising Agriculture and livestock production Pharmacies and drug stores Foreign schools Building materials and construction Construction maintenance, operation and subsistence

Red Yellow 7% 11% 1% 8%

Green Silver 21% 22% 26% 27%

4%

13%

26%

27%

5%

9%

26%

27%

9% 6% 4%

14% 14% 7%

29% 29% 30%

30% 30% 31%

3%

6%

30%

31%

Source: Al Masha Capital Limited (2011:33)

maintained its growth and competitiveness on account of cheap, efficient contract workers working for long hours; non-Saudis are paid one-fourth the average salary of Saudis. For instance, in 2009, the average monthly private sector wage for nationals was SR3,137 per month, and for expatriates for the same job, it was around SR765. The authorities have also raised minimum wages in the private sector, to encourage Saudi employment. Failure of the past efforts of Saudization has been another important reason for implementing Nitaqat policy. Although, even before the oil-price revolution (1973–1974), the Saudi government realized the need of maintaining a fair percentage of national labour force in overall employment stream, it could not succeed; rather the percentage of foreign workers steadily kept growing, particularly in private sector (Fig. 9.1). As a result, Nitaqat can be seen as a stringent response to non-abidance of private sector enterprises to the nationalization of employment policy of the government (Alhamad 2014; Al Masiah Capital Limited 2011). Figure 9.1 shows the declining share of Saudis in private sector. In 1970, Saudis were holding 84% of the total jobs in private sector, but in 2010, it reduced to 13%, while the share of non-Saudis increased to 78% from 15% during the same period.

Nitaqat and the Arab Uprising – Is it a Rentier Response? The timing of the renewed emphasis of Saudization under the new name of Nitaqat seems essential and opportune for the Kingdom now, both from the political as well as economic angles. Politically, Saudi Arabia needs to insulate itself from the political ‘tsunami’ of the Arab Uprising, spearheaded by the youth who are mainly discontented with the growing unemployment, social inequality and suspicious role of the regime. The

161

Per cent

9  Nitaqat – Saudi Arabia’s New Labour Policy: Is It a Rentier Response to Domestic…

1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 84.1471.7249.3540.17 34 29 25 10.1 11.6 12.8 13.1 13.3 12 13 Non-Saudis 15.8628.2850.6559.83 66 71 75 89.9 88.4 87.2 86.9 86.7 88 87

Saudis

Fig. 9.1  History of Saudization in private sector (in per cent). (Source: Central Department of Statistics (CDS), Labour Force Statistics in Saudi Arabia, 1977, 1990, 2001 (Jeddah). Figures for 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 are taken from Hertog 2012 and 2009 and 2010 are author’s estimates)

government has vigorously revised, at least in policy prescription, the employment policy of the private sector and attempted to generate employment opportunities. It has mandated the private sector firms to employ a certain percentage of the nationals. Economically, the regime can afford the high cost of addressing emergent problems and create an enabling atmosphere for redressing and mitigating socio-­ economic and political discontent. The high level of oil prices has given an enormous economic capability to the regime to afford a lavish lifestyle and largely unproductive policies to appease the citizens, particularly the youth who are witnessing relatively a high level of unemployment. The immediate objectives of Nitaqat are as follows: (a) Neutralizing the spillover effects of ongoing regional turbulence in the country by reducing unemployment among citizens, thus ensuring a medium- to long-­ term socio-economic and political stability in the country. (b) Stimulating economic growth by plugging the huge remittance outflow. According to Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA), over the last 18 years (1990–2008), expatriate workers remitted approximately SR 524 billion (USD139 billion) (Ramady 2005). (c) Preparing the nationals to take up their labour market responsibilities through better education, training and skill upgradation programmes and weeding out skill mismatch. (d) Reducing dependence upon expatriate workers through effective labour management policy.

162

Z. Hussain

Unemployment John Sfakianakis, Chief Economist, Banque Saudi Fransi (SFB), views the new programme as ‘desperate measures’ in ‘desperate times’ (Sfakianakis et al. 2011). Another reason that perhaps goaded the Saudi authorities to announce the new policy is the increasing unemployment among nationals, despite the large number of jobs generated in recent years and the robust economic growth. Today, ‘there is a striking paradox in Saudi Arabia’s labour market. Expatriates working in the kingdom send home more remittances than those living in any country in the world apart from the U.S. Yet youth unemployment among Saudi citizens are higher than [in] every country in the Middle East and North Africa, except Iraq’ (cited in Focus Migration 2012). According to official statistics, unemployment is currently running as high as 10.5% (Fig. 9.2). Men in the age group 20–24 experienced 30.3% unemployment, while 12.7% men in the age group 25–29 are without work. According to Al-Dosary et al. (2005), around 20%–30% university graduates are unemployed. Another source estimates that unemployment rose to more than 30% from about 12% between 2000 and 2005. Citing the latest statistics, the Labour Minister, Adel Fakeih, noted that ‘there were about 500,000 unemployed Saudi men and women against the presence of eight

2010, 35.6 2006, 31.8 2007, 29

2006, 12

2009, 30.2 2008, 27.8

2007, 11

Saudi Youth Unemployment

2008, 10

2009, 10.5

2010, 10.5

Total Saudi Unemplyment

Fig. 9.2  Total and youth unemployment in Saudi Arabia, 2006–2010. (Source: ILO 2009 (G20 Statistical Report))

9  Nitaqat – Saudi Arabia’s New Labour Policy: Is It a Rentier Response to Domestic…

163

million foreigners, of whom about six million are employed by the private sector’ (Arab News 2011a). Overall, unemployment in Saudi Arabia ‘is running at 10.5 per cent’ of which ‘28 per cent... were women and 40 per cent were high school graduates’ (ibid.). Citigroups’ Chief Economist for the Middle East Farouk Soussa warned that. serious imbalances have been building in the country over decades and that we believe require urgent attention: only 40% of Saudis of working age are in employment, 43% of 20–24-year-olds are officially unemployed, 51% are below the age of 21, expat workers make up 90% of the private sector work force (quoted in Zawya 2011).

Locating Causes of Unemployment The foremost reason for high rate of unemployment among nationals lies in resource distribution – the distribution of oil wealth among citizens on the principles of natural justice than on economic rules of efficiency and marginal productivity, which suited the objectives of the political regime to maintain its legitimacy by lavishly purchasing the will and consent of the citizens. Since the first oil bonanza occurred in the region, other productive forces such as agriculture, sea-based economic activities and service sector gradually lost their sheen and the classic ‘Dutch disease’ gripped the economy. Furthermore, private sector jobs came to be regarded as menial and below par socially and culturally, fit only for migrants. The Saudis, consequently, opted to remain unemployed rather than be employed in the private sector. In the Gulf, there is a problem of reluctance by citizens to take up technical and productive jobs and their preference of administrative, office and supervisory jobs... their preference of the public sector is also aggravating the redundancy problem and widening the gap in real production (United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, quoted in Kawach 2010).

There is an economic angle too, which fuelled unemployment or plateaued the employment opportunities for the Saudi nationals even the policy of Saudization had been put into practice more vigorously since. Saudis were generally paid three times higher wages than the expatriates holding the same position. Since the Arab Uprising started the government has also raised the amount of the minimum wage to SR 3000 per month to the Saudis, but there has been no such upgradation to the expatriates’ wages (Table  9.7). This variation in wage rates is present across the professions. Table 9.8 shows the gap of salaries paid to the Saudis and non-Saudi in select professions. It is noted that the gap is as high as 61% (clerical jobs) between nationals and expatriates. As a result, most of the jobs created in the Kingdom went to the foreign workers. During the 6  years (2005–2011), almost 2.5 million jobs were created in Saudi Arabia, and it went to the benefit of foreign labourers (Bel-Air 2014). This is also evident from the increased number of work permits issued to the foreign workers to different private enterprises in the country (Fig. 9.3). In fact, job creation has not been a problem in the entire GCC bloc, including Saudi Arabia. According to the

164

Z. Hussain

Table 9.7  Average monthly wage to Saudis and non-Saudis in private sector in Saudi Arabia (in Saudi Riyal) Years Saudis Non-Saudis

2004 4367 1037

2005 3878 1028

2006 3596 1060

2007 3624 1011

Source: Hertog (2012)

Table 9.8  Salary gap between Saudis and non-Saudis in select profession (in per cent) Main occupation Building and construction Professional, technical and related work Administrative Clerical Sales Electricity, gas and water Service Agriculture, animal husbandry and fishermen Production, transport, equipment operator and related work Mining, oil and gas Not reported General average

Saudi nationals 3320 9394

Non-­ Saudis 1029 4758

Salary gap between Saudis and non-Saudis (%) 31.0 50.6

14,858 6212 3676 8659 3619 3191

13,160 3816 777 4187 1204 1000

88.6 61.4 21.1 48.4 33.3 31.3

6721

1119

16.6

16,927 3963 7034

4916 2512 2354

29.0 63.4 33.5

Source: Alshanbri et al. (2014)

11,41,601 9,70,805 7,16,347 5,97,272 5,65,124 5,31,434 5,16,826 538892 4,20,928 4,23,172 4,15,619 3,52,924

Fig. 9.3  Work permits issued to foreign workers to different enterprises, 2001. (Source: Hertog 2010)

9  Nitaqat – Saudi Arabia’s New Labour Policy: Is It a Rentier Response to Domestic…

165

Table 9.9  Reasons for Saudi unemployment Issue Labour Social and cultural perceptions

Control over process of production Lack of social integration in a multi-cultural environment Job tenure Inadequate qualifications Mobility

Private sector justifications The relatively high cost of Saudi manpower Saudis are reluctant to take up and seriously pursue certain types of jobs. Work-related social status affects marriage and other social relations Expatriate workers are more disciplined. They are prohibited from changing jobs without their sponsor’s permission Local populations are reluctant to integrate into multi-cultural work environments, fearing that it might diminish their existing status Saudi workers cannot be dismissed easily Saudi employees may have inadequate qualifications, lack English fluency, or have a non-technical background Saudi workers are less mobile than foreign workers

Source: Ramady (2005)

Ahmed, ‘Over the past 10 years, the GCC created about seven million new jobs – a significant achievement for a region with a total population of about 40 million.’ But, fewer than two million – less than one-third – went to nationals. The sharp rise in expatriate employment took place mostly in the private sector (Ahmed 2012). According to Torofdar (2011), ‘unemployment among nationals is driven by a number of factors such as lack of skills, low motivation to work, and high salary expectations’. Ramady (2005) cites the reasons for Saudi unemployment as given in Table 9.9. Figure 9.4 shows the projected rate of job requirements over the next five decades. It also characterizes the possibility of two major trends in the Saudi labour markets, including its impact on society in the long term: one, an ever-increasing rate of male–female labour force participation; and second, increasing share of female labour force in the total. The participation of male and female labour force will almost become equal, with economic necessity giving way to gender equality and mitigating gender bias. Willoughby (2004) termed this a silent revolution in the GCC labour market, which would potentially replace the expatriate workers. Politically, the new programme seems a timely motivated intervention in the labour market, which has become a hot playground of restive youth politics. This is most likely due to the demonstration effect (emphasis added) of the Arab Uprising currently underway in the entire Islamic Crescent. Another plausible reason for the Nitaqat policy is the aspect of diverting the hearts and minds of the Sunni-majority population through regional balancing. The Kingdom appears more concerned with maintaining peace and stability in the oil-rich eastern region, which is Shia dominated. Shias account for approximately 10–11% of Saudi Arabia’s population and are more susceptible to the current upheaval. The Sunni Saudi regime is also cautious about the rising Shia crescent in the post-Saddam Gulf era and in the wake of the Arab Uprising, which emphasizes rule by majority. Demographically, the Shia population is larger than the Sunnis in the Gulf region, constituting approximately

166

Z. Hussain

15Million

11 Million

7 Million

3Million Total, 20202024, 0

Total, 2030- Total, 20402044, 0 2034, 0

Women Fig. 9.4  Projected national labour force, 2010–2050. (Source: http://www.zwaya.com (accessed 11 December 2013))

61% of the total population (Hussain 2011, 2012). Iran is emerging as a natural leader of the Shia sect, leading to a Shia encirclement of Sunni Saudi Arabia (emphasis added). To counter Iran’s growing influence and isolate it in the region, Saudi Arabia invited, in the recent annual GCC meeting, two Sunni-majority countries – Morocco and Jordan – to join the bloc. It has also renewed its interest in Yemen and is ­promoting a regime change in Syria, a staunch Iranian ally. The Saudi king also proposed to form a Gulf Union by forgoing an alliance with Bahrain. He urged the kings, emirs and sultans gathered at the meeting, ‘you all know that we are targeted in our safety and security’ (Knickmeyer and Delmar-Morgan 2012).

Economic Rationale of the New Labour Programme Another significant reason for announcing the new labour policy is the financial luxury which allows Saudi Arabia the fiscal profligacy after a long time. It is estimated that due to sustained rise in oil prices, the Kingdom has a surplus of approximately USD 900 billion (The Economist 2014). This luxury of surplus finance has occurred after more than one and half decades; between 1985 and 1998, the Kingdom managed its expenditure through deficit financing and increasing its debt–GDP ratio reached almost 100%, which was reduced to 16.7% in 2010 from 21.6% in 2009. Besides these surpluses, Saudi Arabia has huge cash deposits in Western countries and a huge sovereign wealth fund (see IMF 2011; Hussain 2009). It has more than 1.5 trillion SR wealth for emergencies.

9  Nitaqat – Saudi Arabia’s New Labour Policy: Is It a Rentier Response to Domestic…

167

In addition, growth rate of the non-oil economy is less prone to fluctuation and has maintained a consistent rate of growth than the oil economy. This means that the Saudi economy is heading towards diversification, which will open more avenues for job creation (Looney 2004a, b; Sadi 2013). The economy will expand laterally. Thus, more people will be involved in the economic and political systems, and the country will move towards democratization in the medium to long run.

Feasibility, Expectations and Impact of the New Programme The Nitaqat programme has evoked a mixed response among different stakeholders.

Officials and Government Employees According to the Labour Minister, the plan will help reduce joblessness in the country. He also ‘expects to end 99 per cent of black-market visas and with help from the private sector, this market would be totally dissolved’. ‘The program will also end commercial concealment, where foreigners run businesses under Saudi cover’ (Arab News 2011a). According to the ministry, ‘50 per cent transport companies have achieved the required Nitaqat level. “The Saudization levels set by the Nitaqat program in each sector are determined by what can be achieved practically”, it said’ (Arab News 2012). Due to Nitaqat, ‘250,000 Saudis were employed in less than a year. Before introducing the system in Shawwal 1432H, it took five years to create such amount of jobs for Saudis. Nitaqat has also helped 54,000 women get jobs within seven months’ (ibid.). The Labour Minister has great hopes of meeting the challenges of unemployment. He maintains that ‘if the government succeeds in pushing 50 per cent of private Saudi companies into the green zone, “after three to five years, we will run out of real Saudi job seekers” in the kingdom’ (Ottaway 2012:6). Peck (2014) has collected a detailed data of the number of firms of different categories, employing both Saudis and non-Saudis. He reached to the conclusion that between July 2011 and October 2012, Nitaqat succeeded in creating approximately 462,000 jobs for Saudis in private sector as well as ‘improving the colour-­ band assignments, with most Red and Yellow firms moving into the Green or Platinum bands’. He found that the industries/firms falling under large and medium business groups have absorbed the highest percentage of Saudi workforce, 36.84% and 29.47%, respectively, while Giant Business group employed only 18.83% of the total 645,716 Saudi nationals (Table 9.10). A detailed analysis of the share of Saudis employed in different industries is given in Table 9.11.

168

Z. Hussain

Table 9.10  Share of Saudis in different business units Business group Tiny (