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Workshop on Kerala Migration Report (17 October 2024)

Dr Ginu Zacharia Oomman, Visiting Professor and Founding Member of IIMAD, has been appointed as the Chairman of the State Food Commission.

Chair is a member of the Scientific Committee for the preparation of the 2025 International Forum for Migration Statistics (IFMS)

Special Issue: Climate and Development (hybrid open access journal): Publishes research on the interfaces between climate, development, policy and practice to make analysis of climate and development issues more accessible.

SPRINGER LINK Calls for Papers on the Topic, ‘Migration in a Changing Climate in India

Webinar on Perceptions and Realities of Academics Abroad with special focus on PhD in USA on October 12th, 2024 at 7:00 PM IST

publications

International Migration

Asianization of Migrant Workers in the Gulf Countries

Published on April 29, 2021

Details

Asia’s historical contacts with the Gulf region date back to ancient times. Many historians have documented the existence of Indian settlements and merchant guilds in Aden and other prominent Gulf ports prior to the discovery of oil in the region (Secombe and Lawless 1986). In the beginning of the nineteenth century, the industrialization process, pearl trading, Haj and the requirement of skilled workers in the ports had prompted the flow of Indian migrants to the Persian Gulf region. These included ordinary artisans, masons, technicians, clerks and administrative personnel during the colonial times, largely to support the British colonial apparatus in the region (Kumar 2016). The colonial rulers used ‘Indian subjects’ as treasured resources to sustain and operate critical ventures like communication, education, health, bureaucracy, postal services and so on. Later, in the 1930s major Western oil companies like Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) and Aramco Gulf Operations Company Limited and Petroleum Development Qatar (PDQ) employed a substantial number of labourers from the subcontinent and a recruiting office was established in Surat (Kumar 2016). Thus, by late 1950s, Indian and Pakistani migrant workers constituted the largest workforce in many Gulf countries particularly in Kuwait and Bahrain.