Why Move to the Gulf?

Abstract

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries consist of six countries located in the Arabian Peninsula between the north-east border of the African continent and the Persian Gulf. The countries are Kingdom of Bahrain, State of Kuwait, Sultanate of Oman, State of Qatar, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and State of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The GCC is both a political and an economic organization with the objective of devising similar regulations in various sectors of the economy such as monetary, trade, customs, tourism, and military. One of the main areas of comparable policy among the GCC countries is labor market regulation of foreign workers. Expatriates and the labor force in the GCC countries are the key topics of this book. The following chapter briefly lays out the history of the GCC countries emphasizing more recent times with periods of strong economic growth and a massive demand for foreign labor. The objective of the chapter is to understand the reasons behind moving to the Gulf.