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5 - Imported Labor

Building/Appeasing the Nation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 November 2024

Miriam R. Lowi
Affiliation:
The College of New Jersey
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Summary

I build upon the earlier discussion – in Chapter 3 – of internal forms of social "tiering" and exclusion to further interrogate the politics of belonging in Gulf monarchies, this time through the employment of foreign labor. I disentangle the ways in which foreign labor plays a role in the shaping and consolidation of the national community, and I distinguish among European "expats," non-GCC Arabs, Asian and African laborers. I argue that labor from the three different categories play similar but also distinct roles in the delineation of national community: While they are differentially incorporated in ways that protect the "nation" and appease the citizen-subject, varying degrees of marginality reflect Gulf society’s perceptions or aspirations of the difference between itself and "the other(s)." Additionally, I examine some of the peculiarities of the importation, organization and incorporation of foreign labor, connect them to the normative tradition, and consider how they serve the ruler’s objective to manage and control society.

Type
Chapter
Information
Refining the Common Good
Oil, Islam and Politics in Gulf Monarchies
, pp. 88 - 111
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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  • Imported Labor
  • Miriam R. Lowi, The College of New Jersey
  • Book: Refining the Common Good
  • Online publication: 08 November 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009463324.006
Available formats
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  • Imported Labor
  • Miriam R. Lowi, The College of New Jersey
  • Book: Refining the Common Good
  • Online publication: 08 November 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009463324.006
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Imported Labor
  • Miriam R. Lowi, The College of New Jersey
  • Book: Refining the Common Good
  • Online publication: 08 November 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009463324.006
Available formats
×