This book addresses critical aspects of the nationalization of labour markets in the Gulf countries. It examines the role of higher education institutions in providing the market with the right skills that are most needed in the era of the fourth industrial revolution (industry 4.0). The book also explores the new dynamics of technology and information systems in upgrading the skills, changing the work environment, and generating employment for the youth in the Gulf countries. The holistic approach of the subject area makes this volume indispensable to academics, researchers, students, and policy makers in the Gulf region and beyond. The book covers a broad range of topics including the nationalization of labour market programmes such as Emiratization and Saudization, attitudes toward women in workplace, the role of high-tech firms in upskilling and enhancing the productivity of workforce, while also providing sector-specific investigations in healthcare, banking, finance, tourism, and hospitality. The analysis is based on original research and primary data collected by a group of scholars from 15 countries and presented in an illustrative, accessible, and concise manner.

This book combines classic and recent studies investigating challenges to Emiratization – full employment of Emirati nationals who make up only about 10% of the total workforce – in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The book offers a comprehensive overview of the events leading to the country’s rapid growth and development, as well as important social and cultural issues arising as the country transitioned from an isolated traditional economy to an open globalized one, and explores the specific challenges of incorporating Emiratis in their own vibrant economy. This topic is of interest to scholars, policymakers, and those considering investing or seeking employment in the UAE since it emerged as a Western-friendly, politically stable, and prospering oil-producing country in a region plagued by political, social, and economic turmoil.

The four volumes in this major research collection address the key economic issues which affect the future development and diversification of the member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), namely Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE and Oman. The work brings together state-of-the-art analysis by some 40 international scholars who participated in a major joint initiative by the EU and the GCC, the al-Jisr Gulf-Europe Research Program. This collection will prove an essential reference work for policy makers and scholars on all the critical issues facing the Gulf countries as their economies develop beyond dependence on the oil and gas sector and forge new international alliances.

This is the first book-length empirical study of free zones (FZs) in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. The volume systematically illustrates the development processes behind FZs in Gulf Arab states and assesses the impact of these commercial entities on regional integration, global trade and investment trends, and the Gulf’s foreign relations. In the process, the work maps how economic strategies involving FZs evolve alongside varying levels of resource availability and state capacity on a local level while also revealing how development paths in Gulf Arab states are linked to regional and global accumulation circuits. FZ development is an under-examined topic in the wider literature on the Gulf. The empirical findings and theoretical implications of the work therefore offer an original contribution to prevailing political economy discussions concerning the Gulf region.

Political and scientific debates on migration policies have mostly focused on governments' efforts to control or reduce low-skilled, asylum, and irregular migration or to encourage the return migration of these categories. Less research and constructive discourse has been conducted on the role and effectiveness of policies to attract or retain high-skilled workers. An improved understanding of the drivers and dynamics of high-skilled migration is essential for effective policy-making, as most highly developed and emerging economies experience growing shortages of high-skilled labour supply in certain occupations and sectors, and skilled immigration is often viewed as one way of addressing these. Simplistic assumptions that high-skilled migrants are primarily in pursuit of higher wages raise the expectation that policies which open channels for high-skilled immigration are generally successful. Although many countries have introduced policies aimed at attracting and facilitating the recruitment of high-skilled workers, not all recruitment efforts have had the desired effects, and anecdotal evidence on the effectiveness of these programmes is rather mixed. The reason is that the rather narrow focus on migration policy coincides with a lack of systematic and rigorous consideration of other economic, social, and political drivers of migration, which may be equally - or sometimes even more - important than migration policies per se. A better understanding of migration policies, their making, consequences and limitations, requires a systematic knowledge of the broader economic, social and political structures and their interaction in both origin and destination countries. This book enhances this vibrant field of social scientific enquiry by providing a systematic, multidisciplinary, and global analysis of policies driving international high-skilled migration processes in their interaction with other migration drivers at the individual, city, national, and international level.

India Migration Report 2016 discusses migration to the Persian Gulf region. This volume: looks at contemporary labour recruitment and policy, both in India and in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries; explores gender issues in migration to Gulf countries; and brings together the latest field data on migrants across states in India. Part of the prestigious annual series, this volume will interest scholars and researchers of economics, development studies, migration and diaspora studies, labour studies, and sociology. It will also be useful to policymakers and government institutions working in the area.

This study of citizenship and migration policies in the Gulf shows how temporary residency can become a permanent citizenship status.

The states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar) form the largest destination for labour migration in the global South. In all of these states, however, the majority of the working population is composed of temporary, migrant workers with no citizenship rights. The cheap and transitory labour power these workers provide has created the prodigious and extraordinary development boom across the region, and neighbouring countries are almost fully dependent on the labour markets of the Gulf to employ their working populations. For these reasons, the Gulf takes a central place in contemporary debates around migration and labour in the global economy. This book attempts to bring together and explore these issues. The relationship between 'citizen' and 'non-citizen' holds immense significance for understanding the construction of class, gender, city and state in the Gulf, however too often these questions are occluded in too scholarly or overly-popular accounts of the region. Bringing together experts on the Gulf, Transit States confronts the precarious working conditions of migrants in a accessible, yet in-depth manner.

This book analyzes the recent development of Gulf capitalism through to the aftermath of the 2008 economic crisis. Situating the Gulf within the evolution of capitalism at a global scale, it presents a novel theoretical interpretation of this important region of the Middle East political economy.

This book explores the national security implications of the Arab Gulf states' reliance on desalination plants, and their related infrastructure. It provides the first systematic and comprehensive discussion of current and future threats to the supply of freshwater from a desalination plant, including actual and virtual attacks by terrorists, mechanical failure, contamination, sabotage by aggrieved workers, and attacks relating to regional conflicts, as well as their vulnerability to natural disasters. It also provides a detailed analysis of the effects of a potential disruption to the water supply, and proposes possible measures, both political and technological, that can be used to increase resilience to these threats. Arab Water Security is a valuable reference for researchers and graduate students, as well as for policy makers and professionals, interested in water security, natural resources, and environmental terrorism.