Ethnography, anthropology and migration to the Arabian peninsula : themes from an ethnographic research trajectory

Abstract

This paper provides an overview and evaluation of ethnographyﾒs contribution to our understandings of labor migration to the Gulf States of the Arabian Peninsula. It posits ethnographic research as a complementary research method that helps discern complexities and relations that can be quantitatively explored, but also suggests that ethnographic research has distilled a set of themes and issues that are best ascertained and pursued with qualitative methods. Based largely on the authorﾒs own research agenda and experience, this paper focuses on four primary ethnographic themes that thread through more than a decade of work: theorizing and framing the kafala, labour migration as an industry, migration and structural violence, and the household basis of labour migration.