Froilan Malit, Jr.

Little empirical studies have examined Sub-Saharan African labor migration to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, particularly in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). With growing unemployment and sociopolitical conflicts, combined with increasing immigration restrictions in the West, many Sub-Saharan African labor migrants have increasingly migrating to the GCC countries as temporary labor migrants, entrepreneurs, refugees, and students. Unlike other foreign labor migrants, many Sub-Saharan Africans tend to have acquired more formal education and advanced professional qualifications. Yet they often severely face deskilling problems in the UAE, which directly impact their social and economic contribution (i.e. remittances, knowledge transfer) to their origin countries. Drawing from 50 in-depth qualitative interviews and newspaper/document analyses, we examine the labor migration integration patterns, causes, and implications of deskilling on high-skilled Cameroonian labor migrants in the UAE. Several causes of deskilling problems among Cameroonian labor migrants have been identified: (1) non-recognition of foreign credentials; (2) social/racial prejudices; (3) unorganized social network institutions/communities; and (4) absence of the Cameroonian state embassy/consulate in the host country. These labor market constraints do not only produce economic losses and psychological/health related problems, but also reinforce their low-skilled labor market segmentation in the UAE labor market. It also raises critical questions about the appropriate role of the Cameroonian state in managing contemporary labor migration as a development strategy. This paper will also broadly examine the role of Cameroonian labor migrants as development agents in Cameroonian future development process

Since the 1970s, many labor-sending countries (LSCs) like the Philippines have increasingly faced a policy dilemma between protecting their citizens’ labor rights and maintaining labor market access in the Arab Gulf region. To address such constraint, many LSCs have increasingly developed emigration policies and institutions to protect and promote workers’ rights. This paper examines how and why labor-sending countries influence their emigration policies, particularly in the case of Qatar. Based on 45 in-depth qualitative interviews between 2011 and 2012 with labor diplomats, domestic workers, and labor rights leaders in Qatar, I find that despite the absence of legal protection mechanisms, frontline welfare bureaucrats have influenced Philippine emigration policies and the Kafala Sponsorship program. Three informal governance practices have been identified—labor mediation program, 48 hour ban policy (“burden-sharing” strategies), and informal diplomacy network (“burden-shifting” strategy)—which appeared to have enabled frontline welfare bureaucrats to mitigate domestic workers’ cases within the Qatari labor market. These informal policymaking practices have not only reinforced frontline welfare bureaucrats’ capacity to rule but also their abilities to cultivate relationships, power, and conflicts that determine policy outcomes. These empirical findings particularly contribute to the larger theoretical debates on the role of state in international migration by shifting the discourse to the human agency of the state (mainly of state bureaucrats) to understand how labor-sending countries determine policy outcomes in the host countries.

Over the past few decades, Sub-Saharan African labor migration to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries has rarely been examined in existing literature. Despite the massive inflow of migrants to the GCC, many Sub-Saharan African governments have
not fully developed consistent institutional and policy frameworks to provide labor protection in the host countries. Drawing from extensive
interviews with migrants and policy document analyses, we argue that Ugandan government’s incoherent policies on migration have increased the vulnerability of the migrants in host countries and limited the capacity to optimize migration as a national development strategy. This paper is divided into six sections. The first section explains the Sub-Saharan African migration to the GCC from the era of slave trade up to current labor migration. The second section contextualizes the patterns of Ugandan migration to the United Arab
Emirates (UAE). The third section analyses the Ugandan migration policy framework and institutions while the fourth section examines
the Ugandan government’s role in implementing migration policies with a focus on labor protection in the UAE. The fifth section explores migration as a co-responsibility of both Uganda and the GCC
countries in addressing labor issues. The final section broadly offers some policy recommendations to increase protection measures for Ugandan and other Sub-Saharan African migrants in the host country.

Since the early 1960s, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries have augmented the recruitment of foreign domestic workers – mostly from Asia and Africa – to work in various GCC and expatriate households.  The GCC-led nationalization policies increased employment opportunities for GCC female populations in particular, creating a significant demand for foreign domestic workers within the GCC region, currently totaling 2.5 million.  Given the large-scale domestic work population, the GCC governments have faced a dilemma in regulating the domestic work sector.  Although the GCC governments have implemented ongoing policy measures to improve foreign domestic work conditions, they neither have a coherent legal framework nor strong policy implementation to mitigate labor violations within the domestic work sector. Drawing from field observations and in-depth document analyses, we argue that the GCC governments’ incoherent national and international labor regulatory framework for domestic workers has not only reduced institutional effectiveness, but also undermined the GCC domestic work market stability.  This paper is divided into four sections.  The first section explores the domestic worker migration to the GCC region, highlighting domestic workers’ demographic characteristics.  The second section reviews current domestic work policies/legislations, identifying GCC countries’ attempts at regulation.  The third section examines the GCC countries’ compliance with selected international labor conventions, highlighting the challenges in translating them into their national legislative framework.  The final section specifically examines Qatar’s domestic work sector to recommend policies for mitigating potential labor violations within the GCC labor markets.

Most GCC  countries depend on millions of foreign workers to keep their economies moving. Their presence is often the cause of debate, and sometimes controversy. In this op-ed for oxgaps.org, Oxford graduates Froilan T Malit Jr and Ali al Youha argue for a four-tier approach in dealing with the issue in the United Arab Emirates, as the country moves forward with plans for a knowledge-based econom

The six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), are among the most dependent on foreign workers to fill private-sector jobs. A combination of lower oil prices and rapid native labour force growth has given new impetus to efforts to diversify GCC economies away from oil and encourage natives to fill private sector jobs. This article summarizes the current status of foreigners and foreign workers in GCC countries and considers several scenarios, including maintaining the status quo, improving protections for foreign workers in countries of destination (CODs) and countries of origin (COOs), and changing the current migration system to employ fewer and more skilled workers.

This paper is an inquiry on the impact of globalization on the livelihood of unionized tricycle drivers in the rural Philippines. In particular, it analyzes how the influx of motorcycles undermined the business of local tricycle drivers in Floridablanca, the third largest municipality in Pampanga. This paper examines the effects of these imported vehicles in the informal economy.  The paper supports measures strengthening or providing social and labor protection for Filipino tricycle drivers in the Philippine informal economy.

Since the oil-boom period in the 1970s, many labor-exporting countries like Pakistan have massively deployed Pakistani migrant workers to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the Middle East region to reduce high unemployment and maximize migrants’ remittance transfers as “safety valves” into the Pakistani economy. At least 9 million Pakistani migrants work in the GCC region, providing the second largest source of foreign exchange remittances to Pakistan after country exports. To further intensify their potential economic
contribution, the Pakistani state has established in
2008 diaspora institutions – mainly the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis – to address migrant labor/welfare concerns abroad, while harnessing their long-term economic development contributions. Drawing from 150 semi-structured interviews in the UAE, this paper explores the following questions: what are the prevailing views/perspectives of Pakistani migrant workers towards the Pakistani state diaspora institutions? How do these theoretically impact state-citizenship relations and development in the long-run? Given the high labor demand from Pakistan for the upcoming UAE Expo 2020, I particularly give attention to Pakistani migrants’ ongoing labor challenges and legal constraints in the UAE (i.e. Pakistani-UAE state relations, embassy services). These particular empirical and theoretical findings are critically relevant in current Pakistani discourse because they have deeper long-term development policy implications between the Pakistan-UAE/GCC labor migrations in the
21st century."

Since the 1960s, many labor-sending countries (LSCs)1 like the Philippines have increasingly faced a policy dilemma between protecting their citizens' labor rights and maintaining labor market access in the Arab Gulf region. To address such constraint, many LSCs have increasingly developed emigration policies and institutions to protect and promote workers' rights. This research examines how and why labor-sending countries influence their emigration policies, particularly in the case of Qatar. Based on 45 in-depth qualitative interviews between 2011 and 2012 with labor diplomats, domestic workers, and labor rights leaders in Qatar, this research finds that despite the absence of legal protection mechanisms, frontline welfare bureaucrats have influenced Philippine emigration policies and the Kafala Sponsorship program. Three informal governance practices have been identified-labor mediation program, 48 hour ban policy ("burden-sharing" strategies), and informal diplomacy network ("burden-shifting" strategy)-which appeared to have enabled frontline welfare bureaucrats to mitigate domestic workers' cases within the Qatari labor market. These informal policymaking practices have not only reinforced frontline welfare bureaucrats' capacity to rule but also their abilities to cultivate relationships, power, and conflicts that determine policy outcomes. These empirical findings particularly contribute to the larger theoretical debates on the role of state in international migration by shifting the discourse to the human agency of the state (mainly of state bureaucrats) to understand how labor-sending countries determine policy outcomes in the host countries.

Domestic work is a large and growing employment sector in the global economy.  The United Nations - International Labor Organization reported at least 52 million people -mainly women-around the world are domestic workers.  In the Middle East, female domestic workers constitute 1.5 million, largely employed in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region.  While numerous small-scale qualitative studies have extensively examined the ongoing labor abuses and struggles of domestic workers and their legal and social issues, few studies have empirically examined the roles and impacts of abuse on runaway domestic workers' long-term migration plans.  Drawing from field-based data collection between 2012 and 2013 in Qatar, we analyzed the demographic profile, labor conditions, contractual violations, and long-term migration plans of runaway Filipina domestic workers in Qatar.  Given the highly anticipated events like the First World Cup Qatar 2022 and the Expo 2020, these particular findings are critically important because they have development and immigration policy implications both for the GCC and major labor-sending countries in the long-run.