Dakkak, Nadeen (2020) “An immense cargo of wanderers seeking their own destruction” : migration to the Arab Gulf states in Arabic fiction. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This thesis aims to examine how the experience of migration to the Arab Gulf States is represented in Arabic fiction. Migration to the Gulf increased dramatically from the early 1970s onwards when the oil boom spurred rapid development and urbanization, a process that relied on expertise and labor mostly from neighbouring Arab countries and from South and Southeast Asia. However, small local populations, the fragility of newly-constructed national identities and ruling class interests caused the adoption of strict laws for regulating the large presence of migrants. Today, migrants and their descendants remain excluded from citizenship, permanent residency and many other rights. Social inequality and discriminatory policies have become the subject of many academic and human rights critiques, but they have also contributed to the image of the Gulf as alienating and inhospitable, an image which overlooks the multiplicity of migrant subjectivities and experiences in the region. This thesis demonstrates the role of fiction in configuring a more nuanced approach to the study of migrants in the Gulf. Considering the scarcity of research on Arab migrants, my contention is the need to understand the regional implications of oil and migration by examining cultural responses to this phenomenon by Arab writers. First, I demonstrate the role of different internal and external factors in affecting subjective experiences and shaping the contemporary reality of migrant lives in the Gulf. Second, I show how lived experience and affective everyday spatial and social relations are not determined by these factors and do not necessarily conform to the policies that draw the boundaries of inclusion and exclusion. I particularly emphasize diasporic forms of belonging because they contest the perception of migrants as temporary outsiders and destabilize the nationalist narratives that are embodied by official conceptualizations of citizenship and belonging.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	J Political Science > JV Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration P Language and Literature > PJ Semitic
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Arabic fiction, Arab countries -- Emigration and immigration
Official Date:	September 2020
Dates:	Date Event September 2020 UNSPECIFIED
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Varma, Rashmi ; Jenainati, Cathia
Sponsors:	University of Warwick
Format of File:	pdf
Extent:	273 leaves
Language:	eng

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