Labour Migrants in the Gulf: Rights and Religion

This article deals with the topic of migration to the Gulf Arab countries, the third most attractive destination of labour migration in the world, after North America and Europe. The “sponsorship system” (kafāla) is analysed, as it developed in Muslim majority countries that continue to attract high numbers of Christian immigrants as well. The evolving debate on immigrants’ rights and religion in Saudi Arabia emerges, in the light of the role of the Catholic Church in the Gulf, in particular in the education field. Gulf Arab societies’ dualism and the need to reform the kafāla are other relevant issues discussed in this work.