Social Change and Migration in the Gulf Monarchies
Conveners : Christophe Jaffrelot (CNRS / Sciences Po -‐ CERI), Laurence Louër (Sciences Po -‐
CERI), Hélène Thiollet (Sciences Po – CERI, Mobglob ANR Program), Leïla Vignal (Chaire d'excellence CNRS/Université Rennes-‐2, Sysremo ANR Program, ESO-‐Rennes)
This conference follows up on “Feedback : the impact of migration to the Middle East on sending countries », organized at CERI in September 20121. While the first venue explored the return effect of mobility on countries and societies of origin, the conference to be held in July 2013 will be looking at the consequences of mass-‐migration on Gulf societies, GCC states and economies. It is also building up on a previous workshop organised at the IMI – Oxford university in 20102.
The six Gulf Cooperation Council countries (GCC) are the largest recipients of labour migrants in the world. In countries like Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), migrants represent more than 80% of the countries population and 95% of the labour force in the UAE. However, the political and social models that regulate the interactions between nationals and foreigner is strongly emphasizing the social and spatial segregation of both categories. Migration is presented as temporary with little of no prospect of legal integration, citizenship and permanent settlement.
Migration management is geared towards “anti integration” policies promoting urban segregation, little access to socio-‐economic rights and zero access to political rights3. One of the premises of both research and political discourses on migration to the Gulf is that immigrants have very little interaction with their host societies, considering both the policy efforts of the GCC states and ‘the exceptional closure of local societies (Philippe Fargues)4. Migration theory on the contrary has long been demonstrating the social impact of mobility on both host and home societies, looking both qualitatively and quantitatively at the consequences of material, cultural, financial, informational
1. http://www.sciencespo.fr/ceri/evenements/#/?lang=fr&id=1202
2.“Migration to the Gulf Countries: From Exception to Normality”, Hein de Haas, Helene Thiollet, Leila Vignal, June 18 2010 ; http://www.imi.ox.ac.uk/event-‐store/pdfs/migrations-‐to-‐the-‐gulf-‐countries-‐detailed-‐
programme
3. Hélène Thiollet (2010) “Nationalisme d'Etat et nationalisme ordinaire en Arabie Saoudite : la nation saoudienne et ses immigrés”, Raisons politiques, 37, 89-‐101. URL : www.cairn.info/revue-‐raisons-‐politiques-‐
2010-‐1-‐page-‐89.htm
4. p. 274 in Philippe Fargues, (2011). “Immigration Without Inclusion: Non-‐ Nationals in Nation-‐Building in the Gulf States.” Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 20, 3-‐4: 273–289.
transfers on individuals and groups5. This symposium is an opportunity to look at social change in the context of the Arab springs through the lenses of migrations.
Our interest for migration in the GCC countries boiling down to a theoretical puzzle: does anti-‐
integration policies and the lack of socio-‐political and economic rights prevent processes of social interactions and even integration? In other terms, does authoritarian regimes in the Gulf monarchies and the management of migrants as commodities undermine the social dynamics of human mobility?
Our goal in this conference is to question the “conventional wisdom” on migration to the GCC countries, to explore the dynamics of change both in migrants’ communities and in host societies and the policies of host countries. We shall examine both practices and norms of segregation as well a interactions between migrant communities and between migrants and nationals, either mediated by public institutions or by social and economic institutions.
5. See Nicholas Van Hear (2010): Theories of Migration and Social Change, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 36:10, 1531-‐1536 and particularly Stephen Castles (2010): Understanding Global Migration: A Social Transformation Perspective, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 36:10, 1565-‐1586
PROGRAM
Monday, July 1st, 2013
CERI -‐ Sciences Po, 56 rue Jacob, 75006 PARIS
9 : 15 AM Welcoming participants and audience -‐ coffee 9: 30 AM
Introduction
From migration to migrants : the social change approach to mobility in Gulf Monarchies by Hélène Thiollet (Sciences Po – CERI, Mobglob ANR Program)
Christophe Jaffrelot (CNRS / Sciences Po -‐ CERI), Laurence Louër
(Sciences Po -‐ CERI), Leïla
Vignal (Chaire d'excellence CNRS/Université Rennes-‐2, Sysremo ANR Program, ESO-‐Rennes)
10-‐12:45 AM
Policies and social change
Claire Beaugrand (IFPO) Emergence and Persistence of Statelessness: Framing Nationality in Kuwait in the Migratory Context
Hélène Thiollet (Sciences Po, Paris) Migration policies in Saudi Arabia: the ambivalence of State control over social and economic dynamics
11 : 00 – 11 : 15 AM Coffee break
Neha Vora (Lafayette College, Easton) Between Global citizenship and Qatarization: Negotiating Qatar’s new knowledge economy within American branch campuses
Philippe Fargues (MPC Director, Florence) Does migration create bridges or divides in the Gulf?
1 : 00 – 2 : 30 PM Lunch
2:30-‐4:30 PM
Ethnographies of change
Andrew Gardner (Puget Sound University, USA) A Portrait of Low Income Migrants in Qatar
Sylvaine Camelin (Paris Ouest Nanterre University) Qualified Arabic Women in UAE : A Migration Between Constraints and Strategies
Amélie Le Renard (CMH-‐PRO, CNRS) Gender norms and hierarchies between nationalities. A multinational firm in Riyadh
Tuesday, July 2nd, 2013
Sciences Po, 13 rue de l’université, 75007 PARIS room J208
2:30 pm – 4:30pm
« Migration, Urban Space, and the Shape of the Contemporary Gulf City »
Andrew Gardner, Puget Sound University, USA
At the current historical juncture, foreign residents comprise more than 90% of Qatar’s population. With extraordinary and unparalleled proportions of foreigners to citizens, it seems clear that this population of migrants have played a role in the shape of the astonishing urban growth that characterizes Qatar and the cities of the GCC as a whole. This paper begins with an ethnographically grounded exploration of how these foreign residents have patterned contemporary Doha, with a principle thesis that spotlights their spatial segregation in the modern city. From proposals for
“bachelor cities” and the ad hoc arrangement of Doha’s “Industrial Area” to the walled compounds where elite professional foreign residents dwell, I contend that foreigners in contemporary Doha are placed in a constellation of spaces that segregate them in the urban space of the modern city. By combining Paul Dresch’s notion of “foreign matter” and its place in modern Arabian society with Aihwa Ong’s insightful ideas about the “graduated sovereignty” resulting in the neoliberal era, I contend that the spatial segregation of foreign residents is actually part of a more comprehensive spatial discourse that characterizes Doha and urban modernity throughout the GCC. The compartmentalization and segregation of “foreign matter” incorporates much more than foreign residents in the human, corporeal sense: this spatial discourse underpins multiple aspects of Qatar’s long and sustained embrace of “foreign matter” in the sense of cultural life, economic processes, social relations, and much more. I argue that the segregation and spatialization of foreign matter is a spatial discourse interwoven with urban modernity and urban planning throughout the region, and represents the keystone to understanding contemporary urbanization throughout the Arabian peninsula.
Contact : sophiebrones@yahoo.com
