Omanization Policy and International Migration in Oman
The six states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)[1]have over five million migrant workers — one of the highest concentrations of migrant workers in the world. According to the World Migration Report (2003), 25% of the workers in Saudi Arabia, 65% in Kuwait, 67% in the UAE, and as much as 70% in Qatar are immigrants or non-nationals.
Paradigm Shifts in India's Migration Policy Toward the Gulf
From fewer than 258,000 in 1975, the migrant Indian population in the Gulf rose to 3.318 million in 2001 and is now estimated at over four million. Indian migrant workers in the GCC countries belong to all three categories of labor: 1) professionals (e.g., doctors, nurses, engineers, architects, accountants, and managers), 2) semi-skilled workers (e.g., craftsmen, drivers, artisans, and other technical workers), and 3) unskilled laborers in construction sites, farmlands, livestock ranches, shops and stores, and households.
Labor Migration in the GCC Countries: Some Reflections on a Chronic Dilemna
After four decades of successive waves of labor migration to the GCC states, three fundamental questions are still subject to debate: In what way can we better comprehend the role and functions in the Arab Gulf societies of this unique phenomenon? How should we assess the labor migrations policies adopted by the countries of this region? What are the possible outcomes of the current trends of this process?
In his book From My Memories, Khaled Sediq recounts the following incident from the mid-1960s regarding a visit by him and some other members of his family to Mohammad Zahir, King of Afghanistan from 1933 to 1973:
Finally, after uttering some conventional statements, such as, Afghanistan belongs to you and you belong to Afghanistan, he also added: ‘Even though unpleasant events have happened, yet, I have forgotten about them, you, too, try to forget.’[1]
What the US Can Learn from the Gulf States about Immigration: Visa Bonds and a Novel Proposal for Financing Them
Consider the following fact pattern regularly encountered by Iraqi immigration officers: a poor South Asian farmer submits an application for a temporary guest worker visa that would allow him to take a housekeeping position on an American military base. The Iraqi immigration officer is concerned about two potential difficulties with the application. First, the prospective migrant may overstay his visa. Second, the applicant may impose welfare costs on the state.
The flow of ideas, people, and commerce across national boundaries has been occurring with breathtaking rapidity in the broader Middle East, as elsewhere. These increasingly dense exchanges have generated new threats and vulnerabilities that have tended to impact women, children, and the poorest members of society disproportionately. At the same time, however, they have given people more resources and opportunities with which to shape their lives and their futures.
The Middle East Institute is proud to host Dr. Mark Katz, professor at George Mason University, for a discussion of current relations between Iran and Russia. The Obama Administration has attempted to improve US relations both with both countries. However, neither Tehran nor Moscow has responded favorably toward the new administration's initiatives. While Tehran and Moscow continue to distrust Washington, they also distrust each other.
Addressing the Crisis in Yemen: Strategies and Solutions
The Middle East Institute is proud to host two former Ambassadors to Yemen, Thomas Krajeski and David Newton, for a discussion about Yemen and the role of US foreign policy in a country some political analysts characterize as a failed state. As Yemen grapples with multiple crises, including the growing influence of Al Qaeda, a Houthi Rebellion in the north, a secessionist movement in the south and severe economic woes, what should the US do to help stabilize and secure one of the Arab world’s poorest countries?
The Middle East Institute is proud to host Moroccan scholar and author Dr. Mohsine El Ahmadi. Dr. El Ahmadi has written extensively on Islamist movements in Morocco and will examine the government’s efforts to fight radical Islamist movements in the wake of the Casablanca bombings of 2003.
Economic Peace in the West Bank and the Fayyad Plan: Are They Working?
There can be a democratic, de facto Palestinian state by 2011, according to Salam Fayyad, the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority (PA). The goal was outlined in an eloquent two-year plan entitled “Ending the Occupation, Establishing the State,”[1] published in August 2009, which called for the formation of the institutional foundations of statehood prior to, and independent of, an agreement with Israel.
From Identity Crisis to Identity in Crisis in Afghanistan
When social order is politically disturbed in a society like Afghanistan, inter- and intra-group dynamics set forces in motion that cannot be harnessed once unleashed. While group dynamics dictate, for instance, that majorities behave as an integrative and cohesive force as their sense of loyalty lies in the wellbeing of the collective whole, a minority’s interests may on occasion diverge in the pursuit of greener pastures across the fence, allowing themselves to be used as vulnerable pawns by others.
Mostafa Fathi’s The World of Boys: The Shabab Literature Movement of Egypt and Breaking Taboos
It is in this capacity of man to receive another man’s expressions of feeling and experience those feelings himself, that the activity of art is based.
The spoken word is the bearer of culture. Common expressions in daily use by ordinary people are not only the means by which they communicate with each other, but are the essential elements of a society bound together in time and place. The continuous injection of new vocabulary and forms of expression into the everyday spoken language further enriches and at the same time alters it. With the passage of time, a new “generation” of idioms and colloquialisms displaces the old.
Sabiha Sumar of Pakistan is not just a pretty face. The smiling, dark eyes, framed by flowing dark hair, and an apparently sunny personality, hide a passionate woman with a lot to say. She is an award-winning documentary maker and film director focusing on ordinary Pakistani women whose lives have been disturbingly disrupted by the political, religious, and social changes that have taken place over the last 60 years or so.
