International Labor Migration and the Arab Gulf States: Trends, Institutions, and Relations

The six oil monarchies of the Persian Gulf together form one of the most concentrated global sites of international labor migration, with some of the highest densities of non-citizens to citizens seen anywhere in the world. A somewhat unique feature of the region is that while it hosts millions of migrants, it allows almost no access to permanent settlement. Gulf States have hosted large cohorts of migrants for more than half a century but have done so without efforts toward formal integration through citizenship. Although labor migration as a phenomenon is both permanent and prominent, the Gulf States’ mechanism for governing migration systematically reinforces the temporariness and transience of their migrant populations.

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Time preference and international labor migration

Journal of Economic Theory ◽

10.1016/0022-0531(86)90085-2 ◽

1986 ◽

Vol 38 (1) ◽

pp. 1-20 ◽

Cited By ~ 48

Author(s):

Oded Galor

Keyword(s):

Labor Migration ◽

Time Preference ◽

International Labor ◽

International Labor Migration

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Conceptualizing International Labor Migration: A Structuration Perspective

International Migration Review ◽

10.1177/019791839502900201 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 29 (2) ◽

pp. 317-351 ◽

Cited By ~ 86

Author(s):

Jon Goss ◽

Bruce Lindquist

Keyword(s):

Social Networks ◽

Labor Migration ◽

Structuration Theory ◽

The Philippines ◽

Levels Of Analysis ◽

International Labor ◽

Anthony Giddens ◽

Theory Of Structuration ◽

International Labor Migration

This article applies the theory of structuration to international labor migration using case study material from the Philippines. It first provides a brief review of the functional and structural approaches to understanding labor migration and the theoretical impasse that has been created between them. It then reviews several attempts to resolve this impasse, including systems and networks approaches; these solutions are rejected on theoretical and empirical grounds. We suggest that migrant institutions may be a more appropriate mid-level concept than households or social networks to articulate various levels of analysis. We develop this concept in the context of the structuration theory of Anthony Giddens and attempt to apply this to the Philippines, concluding that this framework is eminently suited for further research on international labor migration.

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