Expatriates’ Labor Within the Gulf Cooperation Council Framework. Steps forward in ending abuses?

Abstract

The Arabian Peninsula, until few decades ago, used to be just an endless stretch of desert, and its beating hearts were its trading ports. Oil discovery and its exploitation lead to an unprecedented economic development, whose results are futuristic skylines and unlimited luxury. The native populations of the six oil-rich member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council, namely The State of Bahrain, The State of Kuwait, The Sultanate of Oman, The State of Qatar, The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, were way too small and they lacked the necessary skills in order to sustain the new economic scenario. Gulf governments, therefore, decided to look outside their borders for an easy solution: immigration. Foreign workforce has started flowing massively into the Arabian Peninsula, whereby a combination of natives’ hostility, a subtle layer of racism, and cultural differences has created a breeding ground for denied rights and abuses. Two are the main driving question for this work:

- How much has the legislative framework contributed to the creation of such a hostile environment for foreign workforce?

- Which could be the actors of change in this scenario? States, the Gulf Cooperation Council, International Organization such as the ILO, or other pressure groups?

In order to answer to the aforementioned questions, the work is structured as follows: in the first chapter, it has been carried out a comprehensive portrait of the foreigners’ labor market within the Gulf States, in which it has been given emphasis to an historical, a demographic, and a legislative perspective. Having depicted some of the technical causes of the current situation, the second chapter focus on their consequence, namely the sponsorship system, better known as kafala. Kafala appears to be the mean through which the states outsource to the private sector the responsibility of migrant workers; however, succumbing to external pressure, some of the GCC Member States have proposed some reforms to the sponsorship system, whose effectiveness is going to be under the spotlight. Finally, in the last chapter, the focus is going to be on the actors involved in the process of reformation, if any, and if they have contributed, directly or indirectly, to the implementation of successful measures.