Just Greening the Gulf: Sustaining Justice for Migrant Workers

Simple item page
dc.contributor.advisorScott, Dayna N.
dc.contributor.authorAtique, Asma
dc.date.accessioned2021-11-15T15:16:59Z
dc.date.available2021-11-15T15:16:59Z
dc.date.copyright2021-06
dc.date.issued2021-11-15
dc.date.updated2021-11-15T15:16:59Z
dc.degree.disciplineLaw
dc.degree.levelDoctoral
dc.degree.namePhD - Doctor of Philosophy
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation investigates the relationship between doctrines and rhetoric of sustainable development (SD) and their compatibility with robust notions of migrant justice. I use migrant-workers-built Masdar City, Abu Dhabis "eco-smart city," as an entry point to examine this relationship. Drawing on Amartya Sen, I rely on a critical capabilities-based environmental justice lens that focuses on the full range of opportunities migrants have at home, in their destination country, and anywhere in between. While this lens offers a means-ends distinction and a pluralistic notion of justice, it must be further specified and supplemented by explicit accounts of structural constraints. The focus, therefore, is on movement and supportive capabilities and this account is further supplemented by Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) and Critical Development Studies that build on post-colonial and post-structural critiques of SD. This multi-lingual project relies on interviews of Pakistani returning migrant workers and government officials; civil society members based in the Gulf region; and Masdar City's student-residents as well as ethnographic reflection notes taken in the UAE and Pakistan. These data supplement a range of international and domestic laws on labour migration; legal and policy instruments on sustainable development; case law; international organization reports; UAE and Pakistani government documents; and publicly available information published by Masdar. The multi-scalar analysis that follows reveals how the international migration regime creates multiple statuses, affording insufficient protection to migrants in an irregular situation. This is further compounded by how the Emirati labour migration regime allocates certain workers to sectors based on race, gender, class, etc. Even the ways it is subverted incentivize and reinforce irregularity and precarity for the most vulnerable. Ultimately, I argue that while irregularity and precarity are mentioned in the Sustainable Development Goals that seek to "leave no one behind," sustainable developments eco-modernist logic and unidimensional view of economic-centred growth waters down its social content. In eco-cities such as Masdar, the status quo is sustained while marginalized and racialized migrant workers building eco-cities are erased in post-oil futures. This projects focus on an oil-rich monarchy contributes to the growing literature on environmental justice in the global South and focus on capabilities adds to theoretical debates on the justice in environmental justice.
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10315/38648
dc.languageen
dc.rightsAuthor owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.
dc.subjectInternational law
dc.subject.keywordsEnvironmental justice
dc.subject.keywordsEco-cities
dc.subject.keywordsMigration
dc.subject.keywordsMigrant workers
dc.subject.keywordsLabour
dc.subject.keywordsSouth-South migration
dc.subject.keywordsThird World Approaches to International Law
dc.subject.keywordsSustainable development
dc.subject.keywordsLaw and development
dc.subject.keywordsSustainable development goals
dc.subject.keywordsEnvironmental law
dc.subject.keywordsHuman rights
dc.subject.keywordsGulf
dc.subject.keywordsUnited Arab Emirates
dc.subject.keywordsPakistan
dc.subject.keywordsCritical Development Studies
dc.subject.keywordsCapabilities approach
dc.subject.keywordsAmartya Sen
dc.subject.keywordsDevelopment
dc.subject.keywordsExtraction
dc.subject.keywordsJust transition
dc.subject.keywordsGreen economy
dc.subject.keywordsDecent work
dc.subject.keywordsGreen jobs
dc.subject.keywordsCOVID-19
dc.subject.keywordsRefugee law
dc.subject.keywordsHuman rights law
dc.subject.keywordsInternational law
dc.subject.keywordsKafala
dc.subject.keywordsMasdar City
dc.subject.keywordsEco-desire
dc.subject.keywordsEthnographic reflection
dc.subject.keywordsSocio-legal studies
dc.subject.keywordsLaw and society
dc.subject.keywordsLaw in action
dc.subject.keywordsKarachi
dc.subject.keywordsAbu Dhabi
dc.subject.keywordsTemporary labour migration
dc.subject.keywordsFreedom of movement
dc.subject.keywordsMovement and supportive capabilities
dc.subject.keywordsRenewable energy
dc.subject.keywordsPost-oil
dc.subject.keywordsFutures
dc.subject.keywordsUtopias
dc.subject.keywordsJustice
dc.subject.keywordsJustice theory
dc.titleJust Greening the Gulf: Sustaining Justice for Migrant Workers
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Atique_Asma_2021_PhD.pdf
Size:
5.41 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.87 KB
Format:
Plain Text
Description:
Download
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
YorkU_ETDlicense.txt
Size:
3.39 KB
Format:
Plain Text
Description:
Download

Collections

Law

All items in the YorkSpace institutional repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved except where explicitly noted.