ABSTRACT This paper examines the Netflix series ‘Crashing Eid’ to investigate how the Kafala system structures migration, how Gulf nationals perceive South Asian migrants, and whether race influences citizen-foreigner relations. The series portrays an unconventional romance between Saudi woman Razan and British-Pakistani journalist Samir, revealing family and societal resistance to cross-national marriage. Despite being British-born, Samir carries the racialized burden of Pakistani identity in Saudi Arabia. Our analysis integrates fieldwork and interviews with migrants from Bihar to GCC nations, demonstrating how the series’ narrative corresponds to lived migrant experiences of labour exploitation, passport confiscation, spatial segregation, and racial hierarchies.

This study analyzes how migrant workers under the Kafala or “sponsorship” system are represented in Lebanese news media during times of crisis. To investigate media representations of migrants in Lebanon, this study employs quantitative and qualitative analysis of 197 randomly sampled news headlines and 18 purposively sampled news articles published from 2020–2021. The quantitative findings reveal that during times of crisis in Lebanon, the headlines about migrant workers became more negative while the qualitative analysis found the articles almost never quoted migrants while reproducing racialized and gendered media biases through the media frames, discourses, and visuals presented.

Abstract The kafala system that governs labor migration in much of the Middle East is universally defined as a “sponsorship” system due to its legal requirement that all migrants have private sponsors. Yet nowhere in the translation-as-definition of kafala as “sponsorship” is there any indication of what kafala has done to the societies where it is practiced. This article turns to Lebanon to offer a conceptual framework that rethinks the kafala system not as sponsorship but as “national servitude,” meaning a system that divides society between nationalities who are meant to serve and nationalities who are meant to be served. Drawing on research conducted with African and Asian migrant workers in Beirut, the article frames kafala as a social consequence of the rise of Gulf capital and the attempted defeat of Third World internationalism in the Arab world. The kafala system, in other words, has not only embedded new forms of exploitation into everyday life, but might also be thought of as the violent insertion of servitude into the anticolonial vision of Arab, Asian, and African solidarity.

ABSTRACT This study explored the mental distress experienced by migrant domestic workers (MDWs) in Lebanon under the Kafala (sponsorship) system, adopting a dual lens that considers both workers' lived realities and the host society's social‐psychological processes. Drawing on intersectionality and social psychology, the analysis examines how intersecting forms of discrimination, rooted in race, gender, class and legal status, combine with crisis contexts, such as Lebanon's economic collapse and the Beirut port explosion, to deepen psychological harm. The study interrogated the cultural narratives, moral hierarchies and ingroup/outgroup dynamics that normalise or obscure these conditions, situating the Lebanese Kafala regime within broader regional labour migration systems. Findings reveal a cyclical dynamic in which legal precarity, racialised labour hierarchies and societal attitudes reinforce both structural abuse and social invisibility. While MDWs mobilise coping strategies including solidarity networks, digital mobilisation, religious practices and community‐based initiatives, these remain constrained by systemic exclusion from national services and persistent stigma. The study argued that meaningful reform requires dismantling both the legal architecture of Kafala and the social‐psychological mechanisms that sustain it, coupling structural change with culturally responsive psychosocial interventions and regional labour governance reforms.

This paper examines the socio-economic and cultural challenges faced by Hindu migrant taxi drivers in Saudi Arabia, focusing on the interplay between economic vulnerability, cultural isolation, and resilience. Based on longitudinal ethnographic research, it highlights how the kafala system, high recruitment fees, long hours, and restricted religious practice deepen precarity, while community networks and adaptive strategies enable drivers to persist despite systemic neglect and pandemic-related hardships.

This study examines the pre-migration, migration, and post-migration experiences of Kashmiri labours in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations, providing an in-depth analysis of the socio-economic and structural factors that underpin this migration phenomenon and its multifaceted implications. The scarcity of economic opportunities in Kashmir exacerbated by persistent conflict, underdeveloped private and industrial sectors, and widespread unemployment compels many Kashmiris to seek work abroad. The research leverages a synthesis of primary data gathered through comprehensive telephonic interviews and secondary literature to evaluate the motivators of migration and the ensuing adversities encountered by these migrants. The results underscore economic incentives as the predominant push factors, with unemployment, poverty, and socio-political instability playing significant roles in the decision to pursue employment overseas. Recruitment methodologies, while enabling migration, frequently exploit laborers through exorbitant fees and misleading information, engendering financial insecurities and perpetuating cycles of indebtedness. Furthermore, the analysis emphasizes the dual function of remittances, which act as an essential economic support for Kashmiri households, facilitating funding for housing, education, and local businesses, while simultaneously rendering families vulnerable to economic uncertainties arising from fluctuations in migration regulations and the economies of host nations. Moreover, the research scrutinizes the structural adversities encountered by Kashmiri migrants in host nations, particularly concerning the Kafala system and substandard working conditions, which constrain labourers’ rights and mobility. The erratic application of labor reforms in certain GCC countries further intensifies these vulnerabilities. By contextualizing Kashmiri migration within the expansive scope of South Asian labor migration, this investigation elucidates the intricate interplay of economic, social, and political elements that influence migrant experiences. It emphasized a comprehensive policy reform, that includes regulation of recruitment procedures, augmented labor protections, and international accords aimed at safeguarding the rights and dignity of migrant workers.

This article ethnographically explores labor migration from Lower Dir, Pakistan, to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, particularly Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), thereby showing how local underdevelopment interacts with international capitalism to create systematic exploitation. Based on in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and participant observation, the article reveals how recruitment brokers, debt-driven migration, and the kafala sponsorships deepen vulnerability. Migrant workers endure chronic cultural isolation, passport confiscation, wage theft, and dangerous workplaces; extended family separation causes great psychological stress. The article demonstrates how migrant labor is commodified, rendered disposable, and denied rights and recognition by situating these lived experiences within Marxist political economy and critical migration discourses. Tracing the kafala system to British colonial labor restrictions shows its ongoing function in maintaining racialized hierarchies and economic dependency. Labor migration from Lower Dir emerges not as free mobility but as a precisely controlled circulation of cheap labor that supports Gulf accumulation while reinforcing peripheral poverty. The results call for the dismantling of abusive sponsorship systems, the enforcement of labor rights, and the recognition of migrants as rights-bearing contributors rather than disposable inputs. World labor governance should prioritize dignity, justice, and human security over profit.

Over the last 20 years, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states have faced significant challenges, including rising unemployment, gender disparities in the labour force, lower levels of private-sector employment among nationals, and excessive reliance on migrant workers, which has compelled the GCC states to implement various policy initiatives aimed at nationalising the labour workforce. This paper aims to comprehend the rationale behind the GCC’s workforce nationalisation strategy, its significance, and how it impacts migrant workers from South Asia. The theoretical underpinnings of the present labour market situation and the nationalisation policies implemented by the GCC states are highlighted at the outset of the paper. It then focuses on migration patterns from South Asian countries to the GCC states. The paper also analyses the impact of labour nationalisation on remittances, job displacement, the kafala system, exclusion of basic rights, and cultural xenophobia towards South Asian migrant workers. Finally, the article concludes by outlining the key findings, discussing their practical implications and offering targeted policy recommendations.

The global movement of labor has intensified in the 21st century, positioning migrant workers at the heart of economic development. However, their human rights remain persistently vulnerable due to systemic exclusion, exploitation, and weak legal protections. This paper critically examines the international legal instruments, national frameworks, and policy responses designed to safeguard the rights of migrant workers. It explores the intersectionality of labor, migration, and human dignity through comparative legal analysis and socio-economic insights. From the failure of enforcement mechanisms to the challenges of the Kafala system, the paper highlights key areas where reform is needed. Drawing on country-specific case studies, it proposes forward-thinking solutions including stronger bilateral agreements, inclusive registration systems, and multilingual grievance redress platforms. The research underscores that protecting migrant workers is not only a legal imperative but a reflection of global moral responsibility and economic pragmatism.Global labor migration has surged over the past decades, with an estimated 281 million international migrants in 2020, of whom nearly half are migrant workers. Despite their pivotal role in sustaining both origin and destination economies, migrant workers frequently endure rights violations—ranging from discriminatory recruitment practices to exploitative working and living conditions.Migrant workers are vital to global economies, yet they face persistent human rights violations, including labor exploitation, discrimination, and limited access to justice. This article examines the systemic challenges confronting migrant workers, with a focus on recent cases from 2024–2025, and evaluates the effectiveness of international legal frameworks in addressing these issues. Drawing on reports from the International Labor Organization (ILO), United Nations (UN), and other sources, it highlights labor abuses, xenophobic policies, and enforcement gaps. The article proposes actionable recommendations to strengthen protections, emphasizing the need for robust enforcement, corporate accountability, and global cooperation.

Gulf countries—Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia—have been key destinations for South Asian migrants since the 1970s’ oil boom. However, the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the extreme vulnerabilities of migrant workers, particularly low-skilled laborers, due to their precarious status under the kafala system. The system ties workers to their employers, restricting mobility and access to rights. The pandemic exacerbated these challenges, with widespread wage losses, limited healthcare access, and rising deaths among migrant workers. These issues underscore the unsustainability of current migration regimes and highlight the urgency for resilient, equitable policies. This article examines the trends in Gulf migration from South Asia and evaluates short-term policy measures implemented to address vulnerabilities during crises like COVID-19. It argues that a regional alliance among South Asian labor-sending countries is essential to address systemic challenges, promote sustainable migration practices, and protect migrant workers’ welfare. By focusing on policy reforms that prioritize social security, mobility rights, and equitable treatment, the article emphasizes the need for collaborative approaches between origin and destination countries. The study concludes that such alliances can enhance the resilience of migration regimes and ensure the long-term sustainability of South Asian workers’ contributions to Gulf economies.

This article examines the mechanisms of capitalist production and the marginalization of Indian Muslims in India and Indian workers in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates . While India’s relationship with the Gulf countries, mainly Saudi Arabia and the UAE, has witnessed positive transformations, these changes have accompanied a silent trend. On the one hand, India has kept silent on the staggering number of deaths of its unskilled and semi-skilled workers. On the other hand, Saudi and Emirati states have kept silent on India’s growing atrocities and marginalization of Muslims in India, epitomized by the abrogation of the semi-autonomous status of Kashmir. This article focuses on the role that states and their mechanisms, particularly mechanisms of organizing populations/biopolitical mechanisms, play in this process of silence. In looking at the kafala (sponsorship) system, the Emigration Act of 1983, and the abrogation of Kashmir’s semi-autonomous status as mechanisms of asserting biopower and organizing populations, this article analyzes contemporary development of capitalism in India, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE in the light of these mechanisms, using theoretical lenses of Agamben and Negri and Hardt.

ABSTRACT This article applies Jean Baudrillard’s principles of hyperreality and fatal strategy to the Qatari kafala labor system. First, it defines the Baudrillardian terms of hyperreality, fatal strategy, and hypertely. Then, it provides an overview of the kafala labor system, analyzing its history and present scope. Through comparative analysis with Baudrillard’s work, this analysis finds that the kafala labor system objectifies workers and places ethnic Qataris within the category of the subject, thereby constituting a system of objects. By exploring how the kafala labor system of objects has proliferated beyond the realm of human control, demonstrated by the inefficacy of reform efforts, this analysis identifies the Qatari state’s system of immigration and labor as a hypertelic fatal strategy. The identification of fatal strategy within the kafala system broadens the principle’s scope and offers a practical and pertinent application of the concept of hypertely.

As Jordan continues to experience an increasing influx of foreign workers in the country due to political issues arising in neighbouring countries and Jordan’s strategic position, it was deemed necessary to provide a review of the current framework governing foreign workers and to demonstrate any issues in the current legislation. In this article, the authorused the descriptive analysis approach to provide a summary of the labor migration status in Jordan,The International framework that Jordan adheres to, the national laws and regulations in place to regulate foreign workforce, in addition to providing a critical analysis of the Kafala system in Jordan and reflecting on the issues it raises. The author concluded that Jordan’s current laws prohibit foreign workers from forming trade unions, or take leadership positions in any trade unions, contradicting the international guarantees provided by human rights conventions, additionally the author has shed a light on the consequences of implementing the Kafala (sponsorship) system.

This article explores the urban worlds of African and Asian migrant domestic workers living in Beirut, Lebanon. Over the last two decades, many women who first arrived in the country as domestic workers have fled domestic confinement and entered Lebanon’s informal labor market, where after 2011 they were also joined by hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees fleeing war across the country’s eastern border. Together with their male counterparts as well as diverse Lebanese citizens, migrant domestic workers have created a thriving underground layer to the city that includes religious and commercial establishments, mechanisms of informal service provision, and spaces of leisure, desire, and politics. Through an ethnographic analysis of intimate relations within these spaces, I designate this the “undercommons” of Beirut, drawing the term from Moten and Harney’s theorization of fugitivity and Black life. Forged in flight of the oppressive kafala system that regulates temporary migrant labor in much of the Middle East, the layered interdependences of this world constitute an undercommons of globalization itself.

This article examines the kafala system, which governs labor relations between employers and migrant workers in the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf. It provides an in-depth analysis of migrant working conditions, the rights of foreign laborers, employer attitudes towards ‘guest workers,' and the various national reforms aimed at modifying the system. Additionally, the article offers a historical overview of the sponsorship system and its evolution over time. Further, it presents expert perspectives on the future trajectory of the kafala system, alongside the official positions of key international institutions, including the International Labor Organization (ILO), the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), and prominent human rights organizations. The study concludes with a comparative analysis of the kafala system in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and the patent system in Russia. Despite sustained advocacy from international organizations for the abolition of the kafala system, significant obstacles persist. Existing reforms remain insufficient, as migrant workers - particularly domestic laborers - continue to face harsh working conditions and widespread abuse. The article ultimately argues that further structural reforms are imperative, alongside the establishment of a robust oversight mechanism to ensure compliance with new labor laws protecting foreign workers. Moreover, it underscores the necessity of enhanced institutional support for migrants, including greater assistance from embassies and employment agencies.

This article explores how recent policies of inclusion and exclusion in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) might be impacting South Asian diasporic communities and decision-making around immigration. We focus on the ‘Golden Visa’, which allows middle-class and elite immigrants in the UAE access to semi-permanence and a way around the entrenched kafala system of temporary migrant sponsorship. We consider how the Gulf migration regime is influenced by policymaking in South Asia just as much if not more than labour structures in the Gulf region. Gulf migration, we argue, contrary to normative narratives, might constitute an increase in rights for certain people, particularly given their experiences of diminished rights vis-à-vis their home countries. We consider how rights–rightlessness increasingly does not map neatly onto a citizen–non-citizen dichotomy and conclude that both immigrant and citizen rights are being renegotiated within new cartographies of belonging and exclusion in the UAE.

Migrant Domestic Workers (MDWs) in Lebanon face severe mental health challenges due to exploitative labor conditions, social isolation, and inadequate access to mental health services. The restrictive Kafala system exacerbates these issues by limiting workers' mobility, exposing them to abuse, and excluding them from labor protections. Despite high rates of psychological distress—including anxiety, depression, and trauma—MDWs encounter significant barriers to mental health support, such as language constraints, lack of culturally competent services, and distrust in formal healthcare institutions.

This article examines the dual bargains of the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) government that are vital to its political stability. Using interviews with middle-class Emiratis as well as publicly available primary and secondary sources, I shed light on how these Emiratis perceive the changes that these bargains have undergone. Oil wealth fueled the emergence of a new, educated middle class that came to occupy public sector jobs, buffeted by the Kafala system. Due to recent policy shifts, citizens now report anxieties owing to a decline in material government benefits, a push out of secure public sector employment into precarious private sector jobs and the termination of “ Arbab entrepreneurship.” At the same time, the government is seen to cater more to noncitizens, resulting in a diminishing citizen or noncitizen differential, going so far as to elicit fear of a reversal of roles. As a result, the discourse on labor reforms and economic growth does not connote positive change for Emiratis.

The Kafala system (a Labour Sponsorship System), a legal framework for regulating foreign migrant workers through local recruitment agents/agencies, existed in several Arab Nations, including the GCC, Jordan, and Lebanon. A key component of the Kafala system was the hegemony of the middle-person/recruitment agent (Kafeel), whom the government authorised on the grounds of a steady workforce supply. Recently, the system has been severely under attack due to the unjust hegemony of the Kafeel and a violation of workers' human rights. Essentially, the structural snags are responsible for it, as the Ministry of Interior handled the migrants' labour affairs compared to the Labour Ministry, thus excluding migrant workers from various humanitarian domestic workers' laws, further providing space for exploitation to the Kafeel by monopolising the terms and conditions of the worker's recruitment. The Arab Uprising (2011) strengthened the voices of the ordinary people for the protection of individual rights; consequently, the political regimes were found serious about initiating policy steps to reform exploitative pillars of the Kafala system under people’s pressure. Accordingly, Qatar’s monarchy first took the initiative in 2016. Thereafter, Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain, Oman, and Saudi Arabia followed similar steps to an extent. It was assumed that the millions of migrant workers in the Gulf who support the economic growth of the ‘host’ and the ‘origin’ would benefit from these reforms. Recently, several incidences have been observed in Qatar that Kafeel still plays a dominating role in the workers' recruitment process, and the structure of exploitation continues as previously. This research paper aims to critically evaluate the reforms in the Kafala system in Qatar and the reasons for their continuation. The research hypothesis is ‘to tactically silence the people's voices and international criticism the monarchy has implemented titular reforms in the Kafala.’ Methodologically, the research relies on descriptive and analytical methods. However, this research paper will make a literary contribution to literature related to human rights and Gulf studies.

Navigating identity and agency through English Education: Narrative inquiry of an Indonesian migrant worker in Kuwait's Kafala system