The buying of freedom: Migrant workers and the “Azad” Visa in the Persian Gulf1

Abstract

The six monarchies of the Persian Gulf are considered to be the world's third largest hub of international migration, having over the decades drawn millions of labour migrants to occupy a range of jobs across all tiers of the labour market. Despite decades of an unabated inward flow of foreign workers, none of the regional governments consider themselves to be destinations for permanent settlement or immigration. To meet their domestic labour needs and simultaneously avoid becoming immigrant‐based societies, the Gulf States have developed elaborate mechanisms of migration control. The overarching goal of the much vilified “kafala” system has above all else been to ensure the temporariness of migrants' duration of stay. By tying migrants' visa status directly to their employer‐sponsors and to short duration work contracts, the Gulf states have managed to cycle workers in and out of the country without making an efforts towards integration or adding to their citizen population. However, the precarities, dependencies and immobilities this visa regime imposes on labour migrants has generated a phenomenon of migrants actively seeking means by which to evade it. This paper explores Pakistani migrants' efforts to gain “legal” entry into the Gulf labour markets through pursuing the “Azad” or “free” visa. These visas are in essence sold (at a fairly high cost) to potential migrants via the profit‐oriented transnational labour recruitment system that brings migrants from Asia to the Gulf.