Migrant Construction and Domestic Workers in the Arab Gulf States: Modern - Day Slaves?

This thesis examines the conditions of migrant construction and domestic workers in the Arab Gulf. I explore literatures on migrant labour, precariousness, and slavery. I also look at international and domestic legal instruments as well as data produced by several human rights organizations. This thesis shows how the mechanisms involved in the migration of migrant construction and domestic workers exacerbate vulnerability and precariousness. I examine the ways in which social locations including gender and race play a role in discrimination against migrant construction and domestic workers in the Arab Gulf, thus assisting conditions of slavery to arise. My aim is not to generalize the situation of migrant construction and domestic workers in the Arab Gulf as amounting to slavery. Rather, I argue that migrant construction and domestic workers in the Arab Gulf enduring conditions tantamount to possession fall under the category of slavery in view of the 1926 Slavery Convention as interpreted by international guidelines and scholars.