Introduction

Beyond important differences with regard to the geography, history and size of the nation, the six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – share as a common feature a high dependency on a foreign workforce and a persistently high and, in some cases, growing proportion of non-nationals in the resident population. The Gulf 's uniqueness, however, does not lie in the high level of immigration – as various countries from the Americas to Oceania have also experienced large and durable waves of immigration combined with (relatively) scarce local populations at the beginning of mass immigration – as much as in the persistence over time of a high, or extremely high, proportion of non-citizens.

Without downplaying the importance of some unique characteristics deriving both from tradition (patriarchy) and modernity (oil economy), insisting on GCC uniqueness may lead to the wrong notion that the migration it receives is entirely different from migration to other countries in the world with regard to its causes and consequences. The reluctance of GCC governments to use the term ‘immigrant,’ preferring terms such as ‘foreign worker’ and ‘expatriate,’ also facilitates

the classification of the GCC countries as unique. However, the fact that these countries allow foreign workers to enter for a limited amount of time and only if they have a contract is not unique.

As in many other countries with a guest-workers system, the number of nonworking foreign nationals has continuously grown in the Gulf, as a result of family reunification leading to immigration of non-national spouses and children as well as the emergence of the phenomenon of foreign nationals retiring in the Gulf countries where they have spent their active life. In other words, the Gulf countries are experiencing that many guest-workers gradually transform into immigrants, but governments do not yet formally acknowledge this fact. In fact, far from being unique the GCC countries are subject to similar economic, social, and political challenges as other countries that experience significant immigration. Furthermore, the GCC countries recently started to sign (generally with reservations) international agreements that have an impact on migrants’ rights, thereby implicitly acknowledging that they have a long-term and permanent migrant population and not simply temporary guest-workers.