Why are there no protests against the world cup in the principal countries (India, Pakistan, Bangaldesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Philippines) that send migrant workers to Qatar?
Short answer: even when Gulf dreams fall short of reality, emigration is a hard-won right to move...
Short answer: even when Gulf dreams fall short of reality, emigration is a hard-won right to move...
...from one's village/town and country of birth. It is much more than an economic decision that offers at least 2x or 3x income. It is about the remaking of postcolonial selves (masculinity, religiosity, etc) and the crafting of new vernacular cosmopolitanisms.
Gulf emigrants are highly prized members of their home societies and households. By Global North standards, these workers might earn a pittance, but 500 usd per month puts households firmly in the ranks of the new middle classes in these Asian countries.
Nor can brokers, contractors and other labor intermediaries be made scapegoats. They facilitate mobility and ensure social protections and labor laws apply. The everyday concerns around payments and labor abuse, especially for domestic workers, goes unreported. It is unsexy.
Migrants often hide the everyday indignities and hardships they endure overseas. Splashy images of malls, hotels, airports, etc are transmitted as much as monetary remittances back home. Whole regional economies are sustained in this manner. Kerala's major cities lie in the Gulf.
It is shocking how the media spotlight on poor Asian migrants completely ignores the extensive research on the subject as well as the perspectives of workers and their families. Nor is it ever reported that 90% of the host society consists of noncitizens, unthinkable in the West.
Europe, despite forming a federation, remains trapped in nationalist blinkers. The kind of transnationalism you witness in the Gulf or Singapore is simply unimaginable in the EU. A handful of privileged immigrants end up in varying degrees of assimilation into host cultures.
To reimagine human mobility between the Middle East and North Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa requires a fundamental rethinking of the very notion of migration beyond colonial lenses of sedentarized populations as ancient village communities.
This is a deeply interconnected, albeit hierarchical, space across the Indian Ocean. It's values are anything but Protestant, white, and liberal. Deal with that.
@threadreaderapp unroll please
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
