2 Emigration to the Gulf

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1. INTRODUCTION

 

Migration is a universal phenomenon. The origin of migration can be traced to the origin of humankind. Indian presence in the Gulf region is civilizational, which has developed into a strong relationship primarily based on a complementary abundance of entrepreneurial skill and wealth. With the emergence of India as a large economic power in recent years and simultaneously the Gulf region witnessing spectacular economic growth, economic trends are reinforcing mutual interdependence (Pradhan 2009:15).

 

Gulf-India trading connections which began over 3,000 years ago have since then thriveninto a global network with India as its hub. Arab traders in search of exotic food, cloth and luxury items ventured out by boat and camel caravans, thereby developing barter trade. Ptolemy Philadelphus, (285-246 B.C.) the king of Egypt who had sent an envoy to the Mauryan court showed off his Indian connections by displaying Indian women, Indian hunting dogs, cows, Indian spices and many other objects in the royal possession (Chanda 2008: 17).

 

2. HOW CONTEMPORARY GULF MIGRATION STARTED

 

Emigration from India to the GCC (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates) states is not a new phenomenon, and it has increased remarkably since 1970s due to the ‘oil boom’ in the region.The discovery of oil and manpower shortage in the Gulf attracted labour migration to the region. Given the population pressure and bleak economic prospects at home, Indian labourers flocked to the Gulf in search of employment and better wages. The presence of Indian labourers dates back to 1935 when BAPCO (Persian Oil Company) imported labor from India. (Pradhan 2009: 19)The oil prices increase in 1973 gave rise to massive investment programme in oil producing countries in Gulf and resulted in an increase in demand for labour in the region (Shekhar 1977: 1).These oil producing countries permitted the immigration of workers from other countries, because lack of indigenous labour. Gulf region required manpower of all kinds for its development projects. It includes: doctors, engineers, architectures, craftsmen, drivers, technical personal and also the people who can take care of shops, household and livestock.This process resulted in a massive emigration of workers from India and Pakistan to the Gulf. According to Winckler (1997:480-498), the Gulf governments used oil money for different purposes like governance apparatus, development of infrastructure including energy stations as well as administrative and agriculture sectors, improvement of social servicesincluding health care and education. The huge flow of oil revenues during the oil boom decadeconverted the desert economy into one of the fastest growing region of the World.

 

Indian labour in the Bahrain Petroleum Company constituted about 94 per cent of the total clerical and technical employees and nearby 91 per cent of the total number of artisans employed by the company in 1949, Indian expatriates also made up 86 per cent of ministerial and technical staff in the Kuwait Oil Company. Indians were employed in many states in different capacity in companies. Gulf Cooperation Council is an inter-governmental political and economic union of all Arab states of the Persian Gulf, except Iraq. Its members are Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE. Union was formed on 25th May 1981 in Abu Dhabi the capital city of UAE.

 

3. INDIAN POPULATION IN THE GULF

 

The Indian diaspora has a presence in a large number of countries, with an estimated total of 25 million (Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, 2015) . Of these, the largest proportionof about6 millionlives in the Gulf.Indian population in GCC are as follows: Bahrain 0.3 million, Kuwait 0.6 million, Oman 0.6 million, Qatar 0.2 million, Saudi Arabia 1.4 million, UAE 1.5 million. Most of them they live in capital city of states. In most of the states Indian expatriates outnumber immigrants from other countries.(Pradhan 2009:21-25).According to 2002 estimates, the Indian population in the GCC countries constitutes about 11 per cent of the total population in those countries, the majority lives in Saudi Arabia (46%) and UAE (27%).

 

3.1Composition of Emigrants

 

Most of Indian migrants in the Gulf are males and from younger age group. Most emigrants to the Gulf belong to villages rather than urban areas. The composition of emigrants can be looked at in terms of region, religion, urban-rural and type of work – unskilled, semi-skilled, skilled and professional.Emigration from India to the Gulf countries takes place mainly from Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Gujarat, Goa, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu (Nair,1983). The Indian states with the highest rate of migrants to the Gulf are Kerala, TamilNadu, and Uttar Pradesh.In particular, emigration from Kerala has received considerable scholarly and policy attention (Azeez et. al. 2009: 1).Around 40-50 per cent of Indian migrants to the Gulf countries originate in Kerala,majority of Indians in the Gulf are Sunni Muslim (56 per cent) followed by Christians (26 per cent) and Hindus (16 per cent)(Parekhet.al. 2003: 104).

 

3.2Categories of Indian workers in the Gulf

 

Migrants to the Gulf can be divided into four types: 1. Migration for business. 2. Migration of professionals in education, medicine and engineering. 3. Migration for technical works in GCC.

4.   Migration for unskilled/semi-skilled like construction, domestic work as maids, transportation etc. (Storbeck 2011:29).The most obvious reason for migration is the wage differential between salaries paid for the work at home and salary given for the same work in the Gulf.

 

A large proportion of the Indian migrants in the Gulf are unskilled and semi-skilled workers. The category of skilledworkers or professionals comprises about 30 per cent of the total Indian immigrants in the Gulf countries.It includes doctors, engineers, nurses and management consultants, teachers, architects, chartered accountants, media and health professionals (Kanchana 2012:48). Indian community runs schools, restaurants, clubs and other organisations.Second and third categories comprise almost 70 per cent of the total Indian immigrants; it includes semi-skilled and unskilled workers (ibid. 47). Semi-skilled workersare in transportation, industrial manufacturing, mining and oil and gas, power and utilities, retail sectors, servicesector, housemaid etc. (ibid. 48). Un-skilled workers work aslabourers providing help for construction and other kinds of works. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and United Arab Emirates (UAE) are the two most popular destination for Indians. Theyaccount for more than 60 per cent of the total Indian workers/professionals/labourers.

 

It was easier for Indians to go to the GCC countries for work or business before 1970, post 1970 restrictions have been put for non- Arabs. This restriction was due to the increase in number of entries of non-Arabs in the region. Owning of business was allowed for non-Arabs only if they took locals as business partners. States’ religion is Islam and Sharia is the basic law and Arabic is the only official language of the region. GCC countries are sparsely populated. According to 2003 estimates, Saudi Arabia’s population is 22.5 million while other regions ranged from 0.5 million to 2.6 million.

 

3.3 Migration from different regions in India:

 

According to rough estimates, most of the Indian expatriates in Saudi Arabia are from Kerala (40 -50 percent), Tamil Nadu (20 percent), and Andhra Pradesh (20 percent) while the remainders are from other states (Pradhan 2009: p.21).According to the data by MOIA the number of emigrants to Gulf from southern states has dropped significantly in last few years. South Indian states sent 88,389 workers to the Gulf in2008 while there was real estate boom. In later years there was a sharp decline to almost 75% (21,129) in the year 2012 (Arabianbusiness.com). Drop scenario has two aspects : one that South Indian statesprovide better job prospects now and second there is not much difference when it comes to salary they now earn back home (ibid page.) . In this scenario North has overtaken, south on the number of emigrants to the Gulf. In 2002, Uttar Pradesh sent the largest numbers of emigrants (1, 90,000) followed by Kerala (98,000), Andhra Pradesh (92,000) and Bihar (84,000)(South Asia Middle East Report 2012).

 

 

4. RECRUITMENT PROCESS AND AGENCIES

 

Recruitment to the Gulf is an expensive and complicated process and sometimes, migrants are duped by the recruitment agencies. Placement costs a lot of finance to one who migrates. For a unskilled worker it costs US$43 while for semi-skilled it is US$ 65 and for skilled workers it is US$ 108 and for professionals US $215 (Jain 2006:20). According to the rules visa and transportation charges should be borne by the employer but often it is flouted since migrants are not aware about it. So all that expense have to beborne by the workers instead. And if they go by the rule, thena worker has to get around US$ 1200 even before he/she leaves country (HRW2006:27). According to a study by HRW most of Indian workers had paid around US$ 2000-3000 to secure a job in the Gulf(ibid:23) . For unskilled labour getting necessary documents like passport, visa and emigration clearance has always been difficult.It is usually easier for professional and businessmen. Recruitment business has been a big market for recruiters in India. To pay huge amounts before even they leave country has always been difficult for the emigrants, they used to pay those amounts by borrowing from family, friends, taking a loan from moneylenders at high interest rates, and sell gold ornaments or land in the hope of a better life in the unknown or unseen country, El Dorado (place of opportunity)as Storbeck(2011:31) calls it.After reaching the Gulf, they have to be dependent on Kafil (sponsor). Only Kafil are responsible for their food, stay and healthcare facility. After reaching migrants have to go through the medical checkup, and this dependency creates space for exploitation of migrants. But there is no doubt that conditions back home motivated Indian workers to immigrate to the Gulf.

 

Most important source of their inspiration to migrate to an alien unseen unknown country is the success of the neighbor who returned from Gulf.

5. INDIAN GOVERNMENT’S PROTECTIVE MEASURES

 

Collection of information regarding recruitment and migration started mainly in 1983 when the government of India took initiative for keeping records of Indian emigrants living in other countries. It comes under the MOIA (Ministry for Overseas Indian Affairs). This was an attempt to safeguard the interests of Indian nationals working abroad. Emigration Act, 1983 requires all workers seeking contractual employment abroad to seek emigration clearance from any of the eight offices of the Protectors of Emigrants (POEs). The Protector General of Emigrants (PGE) headquarters is situated in New Delhi. It has eight regional centres functioning under the overall control of PGE. It has offices in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Cochin, Jaipur and Thiruvananthapuram. MOIA has decentralized the process of grant of emigration clearance for the convenience of the applicants.It has divided emigrant workers into those who require Emigration Check (ECR) and those under the Emigration Check Not Required (ECNR). Former category includes the semi-skilled and unskilled workers while the latter category comprises the skilled workers, professional and businessman.

 

Most members seek employment through friends, family members, agents or through the state manpower export corporations. Indian Emigration Act 1983, allows only registered recruitment agents to operate in the placement business. Registered agents have to follow certain guidelines before getting registration certificate (RC), such as better financial condition, adequacy of premises and experience in the field of manpower export. As Storbeck writes “there were 3,487 registered agents operating in the field since 1984 to 2001-2002 this number later has declined to 1250 as registered agents in the field(Op.cit.2011:30).These recruitment agencies have a presence in major cities all over India.

 

 

6. CONDITIONS OF WORK

 

Semi-skilled or un-skilled workers constitute around 70 per cent of Indian expatriates in the GCC countries. The demands for low skilled workers are always high. Workers like housemaid, cook, porter, gardeners etc. often live in sub-parconditions. They face human right abuses such as less pay than originally promised, making them work more than the stipulated time, putting them in poor working conditions and leading them into situations of debt bondage and forced labour(Exploited Dreams2014). Workers are also subject to other forms of abuse: beatings, verbal abuse, confiscations of passports and residency documents apart from being declared as absconding denial of exit permission to return home. Workers facing these abuses go through severe physical and psychological stress. (ibid 2014).Indian labour force doesn’t come under the local laws. It is like modern day slavery.

 

Influential Indian business community in the Gulf does not face such conditions. Indian business community is primarily engaged in trading. Registered community associations (in the Gulf) providea platform for interaction between visiting Indian dignitaries and influential locals. The Indian Business/professional Group-Abu Dhabi, Overseas Indian Economic Forum-Dubai, Indian Business Council-Dubai and Indian Sports Clubs are active in organizing such interaction and facilitating visits of Indiandelegates.

 

There are more Indian migrants in the Gulf than in any other region in the world and little less than half of them are women (Wall Street Journal, 2015) they earn more in Gulf than they could in India. But reality of work in the Gulfis far from the expectation. There are reports that women face the kind of abuse that Indian indentured faced during British colonial phase. Abuses are physical, sexual and emotional including confinement or non-payment of wages aswell other abuses. (ibid.)

 

Exploitation of nurses came to light when nurses had been placed in hospitals run by the Saudi Ministry of Health in Rumah, Tumair, Sajer and Al Nafy under the sponsorship of Nukhba House Medical Services Company, a Riyadh- based firm. The grounds for holding them back,was the auto renewal of contract of hospital with government. Nurse’s contract has expired the time firm’s contract with government was extended. Nurses were held in hospital despite their unwillingness to work further. Labour laws are in a very poor condition in the Gulf.

 

7. NEW IMMIGRATION POLICIES IN HOST COUNTRIES

 

Due to long presence of foreigners on Arab soil and also huge monetary burden to the host, the trend of declining immigration started between 1997-1999.The host countries especially Saudi Arabia and Kuwait adopted control and restrictive immigration policy for controlling non-Arab emigrants through localisation. Indians constitute two thirds of the labour force in the Gulf. Saudi Arabia started to follow a policy of inclusion of locals in labour force in all the sectors (Lal et.al. 2005:231). In the year 1993,Saudi government came up with the policy that anytime emigration population should not exceed more than 20 per cent of the kingdom’s population.Saudi administration has forced business enterprises to employ more Saudis than outsiders(ibid. 232). As part of Arabisation, the government of Kuwait has put restriction on the emigration of dependent of workers who are earning less than US$ 1500 per month for public sector and US$ 2200 per month for private sectors. Many Indian workers were sent back in 2013-2014 saying they were working without proper documents. This was just anexcuse, while the real agenda is localization.

 

 

The major difference between emigration to the Gulf and the West is that even if you spend two decades in a state like UAE you will neither get green card or citizenship status in GCC. Once you finish your work and your contract is over, you have to go back to India. (Rohan 2005). In very exceptional cases, Oman has granted citizenship to few Indians.

 

 

8. SOCIAL AND CULTURAL LIFE

 

Many Gulf countries have very strict laws based on Sharia. Religious freedom is very limited or nil for migrants.Indian migrants face various issues. Hindu migrants in Saudi Arabia find it difficult to practice Hinduism since there is no Hindu temple. In rare cases, Hindu temples have been constructed in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, the UAE and Yemen. Although there is a significant Hindu population in Saudi Arabia, legally, Hindus are not permitted to worship in public. In fact, propagation of religion by non-Muslims is banned and conversion from Islam to another religion is punishable by death. Conditions in Qatarare not very different. For Muslim immigrants, there is freedom to participate in the local public religious activities, visit mosques and so on. Though there is huge business in GCC with outside world but their official language is Arabic. It is difficult to interact with locals. It is like a home to work and work to home situation.

 

Indians have established a large number of schools throughout the region which follow the Indian curriculum of the CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education). Indian expatriate community in the region runs 59 schools, three in Bahrain, nine in Kuwait, ten in Oman, three in Qatar, three in Saudi Arabia and 31 in UAE (Lal et.al. 2005: 223).

 

Since it is a large diaspora, a number of facilities and conveniences have emerged to cater to its needs, like restaurants, shops, theatres which offer Indian products and services.

 

9. Impact back home

 

9.1 Remittances

 

Gulf migration provides four lakhs jobs for Indians every year. The major impact on the labour market in India is the reduction of unemployment through the migration of workforce (Paul and Subash 2005). A survey based study revealed that 38 per cent of the migrants were originally unemployed (Nair1986). Remittances are generally defined as that portion of migrants’ earnings sent from the migration destination to the place of origin. Remittances can be sent in cash or kind. But, usually the term remittances is limited to indicate the cash transfers by immigrants to their families. Remittances reflect the local labour working in the global economy and have been shown to explain partly the connection between growth and integration with the world economy (Adison 2004:3).

 

The remittances from migrants working abroad are important for both families of migrants and the balance of payment reserves of their home country. Remittances from the Gulf to India are quite large. India gets the highest amount of remittance in the world roughly around $70 billionfrom all over the world. Three times the FDI India receive(World Bank data 2012). While it receives about $ 32.7 billionfrom gulf. The major share of remittances from Gulf countries is received by Kerala. The South Asian Migration Study, 2004 conducted by Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, estimates the annual remittances to Kerala during 2004 to Rs.18,465 crores (Zachariah and Irudaya 2004:4). The impact of Gulf migration on development is more visible in Kerala state since 50 percent of the Indian contract workers in Gulf countries are from Kerala (Nair 1998). The contribution of Gulf migration to development of the Kerala region can be seen in various areas like housing, transportation, town planning, educational and religious institutions, amenities and other infrastructural facilities. The main impact of migration is on housing sector.

 

As the value of the rupee dropped from Rs39.25 to Rs43.15 per dollar (2008), and consequently against all GCC currencies which are pegged to the dollar, there has been a dramatic surge in the volume of transactions from the Gulf. From an estimated average monthly money transfer of Rs.120 billion from the GCC countries, the volume of transactions from the region shot up by 40 per cent to Rs.165 billion (2008). Remittances from the UAE account for 30 per cent, second to Saudi Arabia which accounts for almost 40 per cent of remittances to India from the region (Pradhan 2009:23).

 

These migrants are playing very significant role in the development of their regions back home. Oil generated revenues have been used to create social services (hospitals, education institutions, banks, etc. in home towns in India. Study by B.A. Prakash on migration to the Gulf and impact of remittance to Kerala (1978) shows that the impact is in the field of financial stability and increase in the investment patterns. The majority of receivers of remittance invested in land, bought consumer durables andinvested in housing. The lastwas in two categories: building new houses, repairing the old one (Prakash: 1978:1109-1110) .Indians living inSaudi Arabia, UAE and other countries also transfer money through hawalla mechanisms.Kerala’s economy very much depends on remittances from the Gulf.

 

Migrants have sent remittances back home in all kinds of circumstances. It not only helps the family back home but also helps the government to have positive balance of payment to import goods for country. It plays very crucial role for reducing abject poverty in certain areas.

 

In case of Indian emigrants in the Gulf most are unskilled and semi–skilled. They have no choice or any alternative jobs in the place of origin. They are marginalised in different ways: poverty, no steady jobs, poor education, low savings, debt etc. Once they get the job in theGulf, various positive changes come to their lives. These changes can be seen in different spheres like housing, children’s education, saving, purchasing power, repaying debts, transportation, financing community programmes, decision making, etc. The emigration to Gulf countries has radically changed the socio-economic conditions of certain regions in Kerala like Malappuram, Palakkad, Kasargod, Kozhikode and Thrissur. The changes are reflected in the consumption pattern, investment pattern, life style, housing, purchase power, religion and education. (Azeez et.al. 2009: 2)

 

9.2 Impact on family and socio-cultural life

 

Gulf migration has largely been single-sex migration and not family migration, due to the terms and conditions of jobs and government policies. Mostly it is only male migration, except for specific categories, like nurses and maids. In either case, family life has been disrupted and studies have demonstrated this. When a male migrates leaving behind his wife and children, prolonged lack of contact with fathers has a negative impact on children. Women left behind have to depend on relatives for social and emotional support and with the promise of remittance, there are quarrels within the extended family for their share. Loneliness and struggle to manage the family leads to depression and other mental problems (Gulati 1983). When women migrate leaving behind males, the impact on children is even greater, and the difficulties of the men left behind to accept the wife as the main earner has been noted.

 

At the level of popular culture, what labor migrants bring back with them often has profound influence on a number of local developments, such as hybrid forms of music, dance, art, popular culture, cuisine, and architectural forms. Influences of the labor migrants can be seen in the use of Arabic words and names in the local culture i.e. naming of office buildings (Muscat Tower) and food (Sharjah Shake) as well as the construction of large homes by successful labour migrants who returned from the Middle East to Kerala.

9.3 .Return migration

 

Certain migrants come back after expiry of their contract with the sponsor in the Gulf. Some get another term for a few years through renewal of contracts. These migrants keep going again and again to the Gulf. Most migrants aim to earn quick money and settle down back at home. So they do not seek renewal of the contracts on their own. During the Gulf war in late 1990 most of the Indian emigrants were evacuated from Iraq and neighboring states. War phase was the worst phase for government in India as well as for the migrants. Both were losing a source of income.

 

Emigration has created certain problems at back home in Kerala also. The emigration of semi-skilled and un-skilled workers has increased demand for certain categories of workers within Kerala. The Kerala ’s labour market experienced considerable shortage for semi-skilled labourers such as carpenters, welders, plumbers, drivers, electrician, motor mechanics and other craftsmen (Nair 1986). There are three reasons for this change (Azeez et. al. 2009:59).First, the majority of migrants went to the Gulf as electrician, carpenters, masons etc. Second, migrants use their remittances mainly for constructing new houses, repairing houses, improving land, buying gold etc. created more demand for workers at home. Third, reluctance of young people in India to engage in manual work due to increase in education, increase in standard of living through the earnings of parents working in gulf countries. The shortage of construction and other workforce in Kerala resulted in-migration of workers from neighboring states. It has also been noted that with some families returning after having achieved prosperity and others, the non-migrants still having their earlier standard of living, the social fabric has become more disharmonious.

 

 

10.DO GULF EMIGRANTS FORM A DIASPORA?

 

Whether emigrants to the Gulf form a diaspora is a difficult question to answer. But what Prof. Myron Weiner calls ‘incipient diaspora’ is a very appropriate term for Gulf migrants. Weiner says that a relatively sizeable group of foreign workers in industrial or oil-producing economies who are ethically distinct from the host population and are allowed to remain in host country only to work, but are not granted citizenship form an incipient diaspora since they do , after a period, return to thehomeland. They live in a state of legal and political ambiguity, economic insecurity and as social outsiders (Jain 2003:102).A large Indian population keeps going and coming back due to the contractual nature of work in the Gulf, it is almost impossible for migrants to get citizenship in gulf. Work nature is contractual and time bound and most migrants desire to return home after the contract finishes. So the migration to the Gulf is circulatory in nature, it has certain diasporic features but perhaps not yet a full-fledged diaspora.

 

Whether the Indian emigrants to the Gulf become a fully formed diaspora dependson the developments in the next few decades both in host and home country policies.

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

The contribution of Indians to the development of the host countries of the Gulf is widely acknowledged. A number of persons of Indian origin have been granted Omani nationality by Sultan Qaboos.Some of the prominent Omani Indians have received the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award from the Indian government, like Kanaksi Khimji (2003), P. Mohamed Ali (2004), P.N.C. Menon (2009), S.K. Virmani (2010), and Kiran Asher (2012). Some Indians hold high positions in GCC states.

Emigration for work is not new phenomenon but at what cost? A large number of migrants to the Gulf are semi-literate or not educated enough to understand the ground reality of an alien nation. Lack of local support creates ‘double burden’ for the labourers. Complete reliance on remittances makes it highly vulnerable to economic and political instability for the receiving country. The vulnerability of Kerala’s and other states’economy which depends heavily on remittance gets highlighted during the time of shock (during war and recession). In 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait; thousands of workers based in Kuwait, fled the country andcame back. During the war, the Kerala economy was badly affected. In 2008, the global economic recession increased the burden of return migrants.Unfinished large scale construction and infrastructural projects and economic crisis in the oil industry have pushed low paid migrant workers to return to India temporarily or permanently.

 

The unskilled migrants themselves are vulnerable due to middlemen.Someemployers do not even pay the workers the wages.Some argue that the Gulf has survived past crises like war and recession. But states’ reliance on a remittance-based economy may not be good in the long run.It is reportedthat100 Indians committed suicide in the year 2011 in the Gulf (TOI, 2014). Reasons could be many. But the point is, something is wrong in this emigration business.

 

The situation could be improved by putting some measures in place: better support at the local level through the Indian embassy;proper checking of details of recruiters and welfare measures for the labour in the host country.Insurance schemes for the emigrants who travel to the Gulf as well as better counselling and medical facilities by the state governments and the Indian government. A 24×7 helpline can be of immense benefit.Change in kafil system can bring relief for the emigrants to the Gulf.

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