Chasing a Mirage: A Policy Analysis of Indian Labor Migration to the Gulf

Abstract

A natural part of the process of globalization, human mobility is an important and contentious issue in today’s world. As nations formulate policy to manage mobility, temporary workers have emerged as a distinct category of immigrants. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries have implemented guest worker programs, allowing for short-term immigration of labor. Unfortunately, these programs often lack accountability and perpetuate migrant abuses. This thesis explores the complex emigration path of Indian migrant workers from the Indian state of Kerala to the Emirati sheikdom of Dubai. Kerala has historically been the Indian state with the highest level of emigration; the United Arab Emirates (UAE) shares a migration regime, known as the kafala system, with most other GCC countries. This makes the Kerala-Dubai migration stream a useful case study of broader conditions encountered by migrants making the journey from India to the Gulf, one of the most commonly undertaken migration routes in the world. This thesis attempts to pinpoint and propose solutions to the many abuses faced by Indian labor migrants in the Gulf. It starts by exploring the current legal framework concerning migrant laborers issued by the international community, India and the UAE. It then untangles the myriad steps and players in the complex emigration process, the many points at which emigrants face abuse and their motivations for undertaking such a risky journey. Finally, it proposes possible policy solutions that could be implemented by the Indian government to minimize abuses in the journeys of future migrant