Published Online:December 2024
Product Name:The IUP Journal of English Studies
Product Type:Article
Product Code:IJES121224
Author Name:Atul Mishra
Availability:YES
Subject/Domain:Arts and Humanities
Download Format:PDF
Pages:126-134
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region stands out as a hotspot for contractual workers in the world, with non-citizens often outnumbering citizens many times over. Gulf migration is inherently temporary, as local citizenship rights are severely restricted for foreigners. In Dubai, like other spaces in the Arab Gulf, the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion are primarily delineated along the lines of citizen-non-citizen, where access to state resources, social capital, mobility, and a sense of belonging are seemingly contingent upon the juridico-legal classification of “Emirati.” This dichotomy establishes a category of ‘migrant precariat’ in the Gulf space or, as classified by Andrew Gardner, ‘a transnational proletariat’. A substantial segment of Indian migrants in the Gulf engage in low-skilled or labor-intensive employment and contend with marginalization and social invisibility, resulting in the production of human waste, existing on the fringes of the Gulf’s affluence. Their visibility everywhere has led to fear of their perceived negative influence, constraining authorities to enact exclusionary policies and resulting in the creation of the ‘Other.’ This paper examines the novel Dubai Dreams: The Rough Road to Riches by Shamlal Puri to interpret how Dubai functions as a heterotopic space for Indian labor migrants, marked by three layers of precarity: of migration, labor, and future. The paper also examines how precarious legal frameworks such as the Kafala system and conditions of labor contribute to the formation of migrant identity. The paper thus contributes to the ongoing discussion on social justice, migration, labor rights and diasporic experiences.
Migration is a vital aspect of human history that notably impacts global communities as people continuously move owing to countless reasons, including changes in their habitat,