What do you think are the reasons for massive influx of foreign workers into the GCC regions?

Question

What are the political, economical and social impact connected with migration?

Answer 1

These countries have a lot of oil money and very few people of their own. When the price of oil went up in 1974 these, till then poorish, developing countries needed to import people to build infrastructure and create a modern economy and cities comfortable to live in. To this day they need migrant workers to provide all the basic services from staffing the reception desks to emptying the dustbins. The GCC is the extreme case but you can see similar trends on a less imbalanced scale in Los Angeles (where almost everyone I meet in shops or on the streets at 6 in the morning speaks Spanish) and in relatively prosperous European cities like Frankfurt, London and Paris.

Econimcally -- the GCC countries' people without them would have money but nothing to enjoy with it except by going abroad.

Social -- a kind of de-facto apartheid has arisen in which Indo-Pak people and Arabs mix very little except where necessary to do business or as employers/masters and employees/servants.

Political -- the GCC countries have citizenship rules designed to keep Arab control over their governance. As a result, traditional politcal sheikhdoms continue to operate with little pressure for democratic change.