Labor migration from South Asia to the Gulf: Pakistan as an example | The Gulf Cooperation Council States (GCC) | bpb.de

The Arab States of the Persian Gulf are among the most popular migrant worker destinations globally, with significant growth in recent years. Today, migrants constitute the majority of the populations in all six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries with the exception of Oman and Saudi Arabia. For example, in 2020, an estimated 88 percent of the population in the United Arab Emirates were migrants, 73 percent in Kuwait, 77 percent in Qatar, and 55 percent in Bahrain. The migrant-to-local labour ratio in the GCC states is also among the highest in the world. The majority of these migrant labourers are low-skilled or semi-skilled, employed in industries like construction, factory work (manufacturing), shipyard labour, food and hospitality, landscaping and gardening, and domestic work. A significant proportion of migrant workers in the Gulf region come from South Asia.

In mid-2020, 43.4 million people from South Asia were living outside their country of origin, making South Asia the sub-region with the highest number of emigrants globally. One of the major regions of destination of South Asian migrants is Western Asia, and here especially the oil-rich GCC countries.

Large-scale South Asian migration to the Gulf region started in the 1970s when the oil price boom increased the demand for foreign labor in infrastructure and development projects. In the 1980s migration from South Asia to the GCC countries increased even further, and except some return movements during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and the 1990/91 Gulf war, the GCC countries have remained the main destination of migrant workers from South Asia ever since.

Today, the South Asia-Gulf migratory corridor is one of the world’s busiest migration corridors. Unemployment and low wages in South Asian countries are key drivers of these migration flows. In 2020, an estimated 3.5 million migrants from India and more than one million from Bangladesh were living in the United Arab Emirates alone. South Asian labour migrants are the backbone of the Gulf economy. Most of these labour migrants depart as temporary migrant workers, leaving their families behind.

South Asian labour migrants send large amounts of money to support family members and relatives who stayed behind in the country of origin. Globally, India, being the country with the largest number of emigrants in the world (stock of 18 million emigrants in 2020), remains the largest recipient of remittances (USD 83 billion in 2020) , but Pakistan and Bangladesh also rank among the world’s top ten remittance receiving countries, having received USD 26 billion and USD 22 billion respectively in 2020.

However, many South Asian migrants live under precarious conditions in the Gulf region. The South Asian migrant workforce in Gulf countries lacks a safety net in the face of crises, social security, and policies directed at their welfare, and enjoy little or no labour rights. The pandemic, company closures, border tightening, and the predatory nature of the Kafala sponsorship scheme have all added to their misery.

The Kafala system of foreign labour sponsorship, introduced the 1950s and maintained ever since, ties migrant workers in the GCC states to their employers who are responsible for their visa and legal status. The system was introduced to closely monitor the foreign workforce. It gives employers immense control over migrant workers and opens opportunities for exploitation. This system has embedded two critical implications for international migrants – protectionism and the absence of pathways for integrating into the larger society. As a result, migrant workers in the Gulf are barred from formally integrating into the socioeconomic context in their country of destination.

In the past, high unemployment among locals, economic crises, demographic imbalance, and the Arab spring have driven labour policy in the GCC countries towards the nationalisation of labour. Job chances for South Asian migrants, including those from Pakistan, have seen a declining trend as a result of such nationalisation policies. Additionally, work permit renewal costs and taxes have risen over time shaking the subsistence of migrants in these countries.

Pakistani migrant workers in the GCC states

After India, Pakistan is the largest exporter of labour to the Gulf States. With regard to the destination of labour migrants from Pakistan to the Gulf, Saudi Arabia has been the largest recipient since 1990, followed by the United Arab Emirates (see Table 1).