Abstract
This introduction provides readers with a summation of what the volume Transnational generations in the Arab Gulf states and beyond attempts to analyse and illuminate. The relatively recent migration movements towards countries in the Global South has brought about new orientations of transnationality which can be found in different groups of migrants across different generations. These migrants can be characterised as having multiple senses of belonging and orientations to perpetual border-crossing. For example, in the Arab Gulf states covered in this volume, children born and raised there have multilayered personal and group identities and a complex sense of belonging. This manifests itself, for example, with career strategy options in various locations. This is unlike the experience of the first generation of migrants who had only two main options: settling down in the host country or returning to their home countries. We call this dynamic shift as embodying ‘transnational generations’. In this chapter, we first introduce the theoretical frameworks for analysing migrants and migration in the contemporary world and their transnational movements. Second, we contextualise labour and citizenship in the Arab Gulf states which are the bases for producing transnational generations. Third, we describe the sociocultural situation of migrants in the Arab Gulf states. Finally, we provide an overview of the chapters in this volume.
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Notes
- 1.
We use Arab Gulf states to refer to six countries that are the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC): Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. GCC states/countries are used interchangeably to stand for the same in this volume.
- 2.
The peculiarity of the transnational migration phenomenon in the Arab Gulf states has already been discussed by Karen Leonard in the early 2000s (Leonard 2002, 2003). She argues that the main driving force for South Asian expatriates to work in the Gulf was economic and many middle-class parents considered moving to other destinations such as Australia, Canada or the United States once their economic prospects changed (Leonard 2003: 155–156). However, as shown in the chapters in this volume (especially those in Part II), the transnational generations’ orientation to other countries is more complex than this suggests.
- 3.
See Caroline Plüss and Chan Kwok-bun (2012) who capture the continuous strategic attempts of migrants, moving between different countries in Asia, by utilising intersectionality analysis.
- 4.
In the above-mentioned issue of Migration and Society, the concept of a ‘transit state’ is discussed. It was originally used to refer to the nature and roles of European borderland countries, such as Ukraine and Turkey. Its implication is more extended today and is taken to mean countries that are the points of intersection of migration movements. There are transit states in the South and we can observe how state-level and local actors negotiate there. This concept of transit states can be extended to the situation of the Arab Gulf states as well in the sense of their intersectional nature (Fiddian-Qasmiyeh et al. 2020).
- 5.
‘Return migration’ can be analysed from various aspects such as economics, transnationalism, gender, voluntariness and so on, as summarised in Russell King and Katie Kuschminder (2022).
- 6.
In Qatar, for example, the average foreign worker is male and works in the construction sector. For more on this, see Françoise De Bel-Air (2017).
- 7.
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Matsukawa, K., Watanabe, A., Babar, Z.R. (2023). Introduction. In: Matsukawa, K., Watanabe, A., Babar, Z.R. (eds) Transnational Generations in the Arab Gulf States and Beyond. Gulf Studies, vol 10. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5183-3_1
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