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Sport Labour Migrant Communities from the Maghreb in the GCC

Mahfoud Amara

in Arab Migrant Communities in the GCC

Qatar and the UAE in particular are emerging as a new destination for sport labor migration, including from the Maghreb and the Maghrebi community in Europe, which is the focus of this chapter. ... More

Qatar and the UAE in particular are emerging as a new destination for sport labor migration, including from the Maghreb and the Maghrebi community in Europe, which is the focus of this chapter. Specifically, the study examines the patterns and motives of sport labor migration in three sectors: professional football, elite sport development, and sport TV broadcasting. Migration flows in sport can be understood as a legacy of colonial history, or a dependency of former colonies upon former colonizers in social, cultural, economic, and sport domains. Sport migration is also a product of globalization characterized by increased interconnectedness between territories due to advancements in the means of transportation and communication. While it is becoming more difficult to migrate to Europe and North America, sport migrants from the Maghreb, like other Arab communities, are attracted to the GCC because it offers both material facilities and the familiarity of Arab and Islamic cultures.Less

Introduction

Zahra Babar

in Arab Migrant Communities in the GCC

Over the past fifty years, the primary marker differentiating the developmental conditions amongst Middle Eastern states has been the natural endowment, or lack thereof, of petroleum resources. The ... More

Over the past fifty years, the primary marker differentiating the developmental conditions amongst Middle Eastern states has been the natural endowment, or lack thereof, of petroleum resources. The difference in economic strength between neighboring states has had a profound impact on the dynamics of intra-regional migration. Migration has largely been from the less wealthy states of the Arab world to the small sheikhdoms of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The particular demographic features and economic needs of the states of the GCC have facilitated this enduring pattern of regional migration. Despite the transition in the Gulf’s expatriate labor force to one that is now sourced mostly from South Asia, the continued employment opportunities provided to Arab migrants in the GCC are still of vital importance, particularly because the Middle East is once again in the throes of high levels of conflict. While the Gulf may not be amenable to hosting refugee populations from neighboring Arab states, the desire of Arab workers to find employment in the GCC can only have increased as a result of instability.Less

An Emerging Trend in Arab Migration: Highly Skilled Arab Females in the GCC Countries

Françoise De Bel-Air

in Arab Migrant Communities in the GCC

The growing share of skilled and highly-skilled, often unmarried, young Arab women immigrating to the GCC is generally un-documented. Shedding some light on this population, therefore, will not only ... More

The growing share of skilled and highly-skilled, often unmarried, young Arab women immigrating to the GCC is generally un-documented. Shedding some light on this population, therefore, will not only emphasize a new phenomenon, but it also, first, points at a new structural trend within Arab populations: the emergence of educated female professionals in Arab societies characterized by low female activity rates. Second, it challenges the dominant assumption that Arab migration to Gulf countries is a “male-only” phenomenon in which women are married dependents. This contribution aims at laying some ground to bridge the knowledge gap regarding Arab female highly-skilled workers in the Gulf. The study explores the proximate determinants—rise in age at marriage, development of female celibacy in the Arab world, expansion of female education levels—and structural conditions compelling an increasing number of Arab citizens, male and female, to seek better futures abroad. Findings, such as the widespread denial that patriarchal pressures are important factors in determining Arab female migration, question the categories used, including Arab, female, and Gulf migration patterns. The study also concludes that such partial results beg to be completed by a wider-scale survey involving highly-skilled female migrants from several Arab countries and systematically comparing their migratory patterns and experience.Less

Flexing a New Womanhood

Ula Yvette Taylor

in The Promise of Patriarchy: Women and the Nation of Islam

This chapter details the Muslim Girls Training and General Civilization Class (MGT-GCC) instruction for women. The role of Sister Captain Burnsteen Sharrieff is highlighted along with Lottie and ... More

This chapter details the Muslim Girls Training and General Civilization Class (MGT-GCC) instruction for women. The role of Sister Captain Burnsteen Sharrieff is highlighted along with Lottie and Ethel Muhammad, the daughters of Clara and Elijah Muhammad. Sister Thelma X, a vocal member of the Nation of Islam and her publication, Truth, are examined for both its pro-black and anti-Jewish rhetoric. Sisters Louise Dunlap and Ernestine Scott, two Nation women who defied Jim Crow laws by sitting in a “White Only” section of a railroad station, bring Minister Malcolm X and his future wife, Sister Betty X into the narrative.Less

India and the Middle East: a fine balance

Harsh V. Pant

in Indian foreign policy: An overview

This chapter examines India’s ties with the Middle East as they have evolved over the last two decades.

India in Transition

Gurucharan Gollerkeri and Natasha Chhabra

in Migration Matters: Mobility in a Globalizing World

India is on the threshold of a great transformation through the unfolding in tandem of the processes of demographic and migration transitions that will occur over the next few decades. India has the ... More

India is on the threshold of a great transformation through the unfolding in tandem of the processes of demographic and migration transitions that will occur over the next few decades. India has the opportunity that will soon come but once in its history, when its working age population will be at its highest. India is a major county of origin, transit, and destination. Its migration transition is influenced by its history and experience that demonstrate that migration is integral to Indian society. It has also shaped its economic growth and transformation from a traditional to a modern society. India’s migration future will likely see an increase in independent women economic migrants along with an increasing diversity in the states of origin. There are also challenges that India will face—the lack of a clearly articulated migration policy embedded in its development policy; loopholes in migration governance, and the vulnerability of temporary contractual workers in the Gulf.Less

Faustian Bargains 2011–14

Marieke Brandt

in Tribes and Politics in Yemen: A History of the Houthi Conflict

This chapter summarizes the period between the end of the sixth Ṣaʿdah War in February 2010 and the Houthis’ seizure of the capital, Sanaʿa, in September 2014. It discusses the Houthi seizure of ... More

This chapter summarizes the period between the end of the sixth Ṣaʿdah War in February 2010 and the Houthis’ seizure of the capital, Sanaʿa, in September 2014. It discusses the Houthi seizure of power in the Ṣaʿdah governorate and the beginning of the ‘Arab Spring’ and ‘Change Revolution’ in Yemen in 2011, the GCC Initiative, the fall of President Salih and his rapprochement with the Houthis, and the National Dialogue Conference. The Houthis’ conquest of Sanaʿa in September 2014 is the landmark event that closes this chapter.Less

Threshold Effects of Fiscal-Monetary Interdependence and Exchange Rate Regimes in Oil-Dependent Arab Economies

Ibrahim Elbadawi, Mohamed Goaied, and Moez Ben Tahar

in Institutions and Macroeconomic Policies in Resource-Rich Arab Economies

This chapter contributes to the literature on fiscal-monetary interdependence in resource-dependent economies in the Arab World, specifically during the post-mid-1990s oil boom. It also provides ... More

This chapter contributes to the literature on fiscal-monetary interdependence in resource-dependent economies in the Arab World, specifically during the post-mid-1990s oil boom. It also provides empirical evidence on threshold effects for oil rents per capita. These findings support differentiated exchange rate regime choices in economies with low rent per capita, such as Sudan and Yemen, relative to wealthier Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) economies and Algeria. The first group suffers from fiscal dominance, which explains their choice of soft pegged exchange rate regimes and their failure to sustain credible exchange rate-based stabilization programs. GCC countries, however, managed to maintain credible de facto pegged exchange rate regimes and convertible currencies, while Algeria graduated to a successfully managed exchange rate regime. Nevertheless, in contrast to Chile and Norway, Arab oil economies still need to establish credible fiscal rules for conducting monetary policy in order to withstand the effects of permanently lower oil prices.Less

Small-State Aspirations to Middlepowerhood: The Cases of Qatar and the UAE

Robert Mason

in Unfulfilled Aspirations: Middle Power Politics in the Middle East

This chapter argues that small states such as Qatar and the UAE can break the mold of small-state classification, but that the tipping point to middlepowerhood for Qatar came and went during the ... More

This chapter argues that small states such as Qatar and the UAE can break the mold of small-state classification, but that the tipping point to middlepowerhood for Qatar came and went during the Morsi presidency in Egypt. Furthermore, as a result of the backlash against an active and interventionist Qatari foreign policy, it could yet become an outlying state on the fringes of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The UAE is found to be approaching a “tipping point” to middlepowerhood due to a combination of factors that are generally enhancing its influence in international affairs.Less

Iran’s Nuclear Pursuit and the Shifting Regional Order in the Middle East

Il Hyun Cho

in Global Rogues and Regional Orders: The Multidimensional Challenge of North Korea and Iran

This chapter extends the analytical framework of the book to the Middle East. It explores how the different regional role considerations and regional visions of Middle Eastern countries shaped their ... More

This chapter extends the analytical framework of the book to the Middle East. It explores how the different regional role considerations and regional visions of Middle Eastern countries shaped their understandings of and policies toward Iran. As seen in the East Asian case, Iran’s neighbors thought more about regional order, both in security and economic terms, than about the nuclear dimension. With an empirical focus on Turkey, Israel, and several Persian Gulf States, the chapter examines the regional understandings of Iran and the links to regional role conceptions. It then demonstrates the impact of regional role conceptions on the regional order in the Middle East by examining U.S. alliance dynamics and regional cooperation through the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). As with the North Korean case, focusing narrowly on the nuclear dimension and overlooking a larger shift in the regional strategic landscape was detrimental for both U.S. Middle East strategy and regional stability.Less

The Middle Eastern Regional Order

Volker Perthes and Hanns W. Maull

in The Rise and Decline of the Post-Cold War International Order

The Middle East has long been dominated by conflict interactions, both among Arab states and with the non-Arab regional powers Israel and Iran. Yet despite much violence and wars the old order in the ... More

The Middle East has long been dominated by conflict interactions, both among Arab states and with the non-Arab regional powers Israel and Iran. Yet despite much violence and wars the old order in the Middle East—established at the end of World War I—was remarkably stable until 2011, when it disintegrated as a result of the “Arab spring.” The principal cause for this has been the weakness of the Arab states. Outside powers have been invited into the region to compensate for those weaknesses, but they have also exploited them. The disastrous US intervention in Iraq 2003 for a while dampened the willingness of outside powers to intervene, but since the intervention in Libya 2011 there has been a return to interventionism. None of these has been able, however, to overcome the principal dilemma of the region: the weakness of the Arab states.Less

The Business of Sports in the Gulf Cooperation Council Member States

Simon Chadwick

in Sport, Politics and Society in the Middle East

This chapter presents an overview of sports business in the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states. GCC member states stage mega-sports events and invest in global sports through the acquisition ... More

This chapter presents an overview of sports business in the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states. GCC member states stage mega-sports events and invest in global sports through the acquisition of football clubs, for example. Shirt sponsorship and stadium naming rights deals of the region’s national airlines aim to create favorable perceptions of the companies and their nations as well as to diversify economies beyond oil and gas. This chapter also provides a statistical profile of sport in each GCC member state and shows that Bahrain, Kuwait, and Oman are lagging far behind Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar in terms of sport industry size. Fluctuating oil prices, political tensions between GCC states, and weak attendance at games are serious threats to the future growth of the sport industry. Our conclusion is that the private sector needs to develop extensively in order to replace the state as the industry’s central focus.Less

Domesticating Foreign Intellectual Property Laws in the Digital Age: Of Pirates and Qarsana in the GCC States

Suzi Mirgani

in Digital Middle East: State and Society in the Information Age

This chapter examines some of the challenges faced by GCC nations as they attempt to modernize their economies in the digital era and in the face of substantial technological transformations. In ... More

This chapter examines some of the challenges faced by GCC nations as they attempt to modernize their economies in the digital era and in the face of substantial technological transformations. In order to fit within repositioned international markets geared towards knowledge economies, GCC states need to abide by the many rules and regulations in the area of intellectual property protection that have been developed and dictated by the World Trade Organization and the agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). Interestingly, even as Gulf governments introduce externally imposed legal systems, they attempt to “domesticate” foreign intellectual property laws to gain a competitive advantage by investing in the production of locally-produced content and promoting niche areas of intellectual property, including the protection of traditional knowledge rights. This is an area generally neglected by industrialized nations that tend to promote the concept of “innovation” rather than promoting and protecting collective knowledge. GCC states are attempting to use intellectual property laws to their own advantage with an emphasis on digital archiving and protection of traditional knowledge, heritage, and folklore. By promoting and protecting locally-produced content, GCC states can aspire to the globalized international economic framework as envisioned by the WTO.Less

Systems of Governance and Politics of Opposition in the Super-Rentiers

Courtney Freer

in Rentier Islamism: The Influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gulf Monarchies

This chapter provides a critical background on the country cases by examining their brief political histories as independent states. It also gives critical information about the legal frameworks of ... More

This chapter provides a critical background on the country cases by examining their brief political histories as independent states. It also gives critical information about the legal frameworks of such states to highlight where and how Islamist groups can act in these states. By providing such descriptions, this chapter demonstrates the extent to which these states, in regime or popular politics, either adhere or fail to adhere to the government type and political environment normally associated with the rentier state. The chapter also reveals critical commonalities among the super-rentier states—they are governed by powerful ruling families; institutionalized political life is hampered; and civil society and political life remain largely informal—while also indicating their differences, which arose in light of their differing sociocultural and economic backgrounds.Less

The Securitization of Oil and its Ramifications in the Gulf Cooperation Council States

Jill Crystal

in Environmental Politics in the Middle East

This chapter examines the political construction of a new understanding of how natural resources and security are linked in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states. The chapter begins with the role ... More

This chapter examines the political construction of a new understanding of how natural resources and security are linked in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states. The chapter begins with the role of oil in state and class formation and then examines its broader securitization in the Gulf, a trend of particular salience in the last 10-15 years. The study documents the driving forces and motivations behind this process, both regionally and locally, then concludes with some reflections on the links between natural resources, development trajectories, and political outcomes.Less