“Global Labour” in the Arab Gulf States: Opportunity or Threat to Global/Regional Development and Security?

This article starts from the premise that the increasing globalisation of economic, political, social and cultural processes reflects a period of simultaneous opportunity and danger. It addresses this with reference to transformations in the Arab regional economy since the mid-1970s, and a focus on the role of the oil-rich Arab Gulf states in the integration of the Arab regional labour market. Furthermore, this contribution relies upon the analysis of the Arab Gulf oil-driven experience in order to underline the centrality of labour mobility in the process of globalisation and thus highlight the profound implications for the future of the nation state, democracy, citizenship, nationalism, and the formation of socio-cultural identities and collectivities in this region of the global economy. This derives from the unprecedented magnitude of labour mobility within the region and the manner in which global labour is socially, politically and culturally excluded in the host societies. In this respect, this is a contribution to the problem of theorising new understandings of national, regional and political identities and a consideration of their implications for broader definitions of such concepts as democracy and citizenship in the wake of globalisation. The contribution concludes with a consideration of the problem of social order in the Arab region, with particular reference to the emergence of Political Islam as a socio-political force which challenges regional and global development and security.