Many of these “temporary” workers, who are estimated to
number over 20 million, have been present in the Gulf for
years or even decades, and their labor has been integral to
the Gulf’s rapid, oil-backed development since at least the
1950s. They have labored in sweltering constructions sites,
staffed sprawling retail complexes, worked in restaurants,
and provided round-the-clock domestic work in millions of
homes.
Yet, despite their overwhelming numbers—foreign
nationals make up roughly a third of the population in
Saudi Arabia, 40 percent in Oman, the majority in Bahrain
and Kuwait, and more than 80 percent in Qatar and the
UAE—most migrants exist in a constant state of precarity.
Even after decades of employment, these workers remain
subject to the kafala system, a carefully engineered legal
limbo that, at its worst, has been likened to modern-day
slavery. Migrant workers remain at the mercy of their
employer throughout their employment, and most are
unable to change jobs, take a leave, or exit the country
without explicit permission of their kafeel, or sponsor.
Labor laws almost uniformly favor the employer, while the
scant protections afforded workers are poorly enforced,
leading to rampant exploitation.
While the sheer numbers of migrant workers makes them,
on the one hand, ubiquitous, the kafala system maintains
the status of the migrant worker as a unit of provisional
labor, categorically separate from the national population
and the benefits of nationality. During her nearly three
years in the UAE, Gurung says she has rarely interacted
with Emiratis. “I never saw Dubai,” she recalls. “I only saw
the airport and the camp. You feel like the UAE citizens
don’t even know you’re there.” But when her company
repeatedly denied her attempts to terminate her work and
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