Temporary Workers or Permanent Migrants? The Kafala System and Contestations over Residency in the Arab Gulf States

Note de l'Ifri

Overview

The Arab Gulf is the third largest receiving region for global migrants (after North America and the European Union). The six states of the Gulf Corporation Council (GCC) are the richest Arab economies, boast some of the highest GDP per capita rankings in the world, and they all depend upon guest workers in virtually every economic sector. Guest workers have played an integral role in the Gulf since the 1970s, supplying the skills and manpower needed to implement ambitious development plans.

Officially, the non-citizens residing in the Gulf are not migrants but temporary contractual laborers with little to no recourse for permanent settlement or citizenship. They enter the country as guest workers under fixed-term employment contracts and are obliged to leave upon the termination of their work. Their stay is regulated through the Kalafa or sponsorship system, which makes an individual national citizen or company sponsor (known as the Kafeel) legally and economically responsible for the foreign worker for the duration of the contract period. However, following the trend of most other guest worker schemes, the Kafala has produced a structural dependence on foreign labor that is not subsiding despite growing public discontent and rising unemployment rates among Gulf citizens.

In this paper, Noora Lori examines the formal and informal institutions that support the inward flows of large numbers of foreign laborers while excluding non-citizens from full integration into Gulf societies.