Temporary Migrant Labour and the Spatial Structuring of Class in the Gulf Cooperation Council

Abstract

The six states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Oman) are marked by a heavy reliance on temporary migrant labour. In all of these states, temporary migrants – workers who lack citizenship rights and whose residency is tied to work – constitute the majority of the labour force. In some GCC countries, migrant workers exceed 80% of the working population. Remittances from these workers are critical to the survival of millions of people throughout the Middle East and South Asia.As such, they represent a particular spatial structuring, or spatialization, of class. Class formation needs to be located and historicized within these spatial structures, which then become critical to interpreting the nature of crises and their possible resolution.