Global Governance and Labour Migration in the GCC

Abstract

This chapter will focus upon labour migration to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, since the massive incomes to these countries, particularly from the oil price increase in the 1970s, resulted in one of the great migration stories of the twentieth century. Still significant, today labour migration to the GCC accounts for over 10 per cent of all migrants globally. The GCC states are also the site of a great deal of interactions with global organizations, international institutions, NGOs and individual activists around human rights and labour rights that have led to the beginnings of reforms and changes in practices. It will be argued that global governance of migration is an unachievable ambition, but one that does not deter various actors from pursuing.