Reforming labour market and migration regulation in Gulf states

The six states in the Gulf Cooperation Council (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates) employ close to 20 million foreign labourers, with Qatar alone employing an estimated two million migrant workers. Foreign workers are subject to vastly different conditions and wages compared to citizens of the countries. They are governed by restrictive sponsorship systems, constraining labour mobility. Steffen Hertog‘s research on the political economy of labour market segmentation in Gulf rentier states has influenced labour reforms throughout the region.