Itinerant labour: conceptualising circular, serial and stepwise migrations to the Arab Gulf and onwards

Abstract

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is among the largest receivers of labour migrants in the world. Labour migrations in the GCC are defined as temporary, but migrants engage in various adjustments that result in long-term residence in the GCC. Included in these adjustments are various circular, serial and stepwise migration strategies. In this article, we conceptualise and explore the patterns of itinerant labour migrations to the Gulf and onwards. A variety of migrant strategies and migration trajectories are identified, together with their underlying drivers. It is argued that these transnational practices have different motivations and are submitted to various coercive forces and opportunity structures. Furthermore, they are propelled by distinctive local rationality, family obligations, individual resources and aspirations, which, in sum, produce specific patterns of itinerant labour migration.