Y. Sudhir Kumar Shetty's blog

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states comprising of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait & Oman, have gained a unique status from the perspective of migration and the international mobility of labor. What makes the Region distinctive is the fact that migrant population forms a majority of inhabitants.

While the finding of oil resulted in substantial wealth creation for these countries, Governments understood that oil wealth must be used to build a strong post-oil economy. This led to Gulf countries launching ambitious large-scale modern infrastructure projects. A major requirement for implementing this plan was the availability of work force. This was addressed by importing both skilled and unskilled workers from the developing countries, particularly Asia.