1. Limbo statuses and precarious citizenship; 2. Making the nation: citizens, 'guests' and ambiguous legal statuses; 3. Demographic growth, migrant policing, and naturalization as a 'national security' threat; 4. Permanently deportable: the formal and informal institutions of the Kafāla system; 5. 'Taʿāl Bachir' (come tomorrow): the politics of waiting for identity papers; 6. Identity regularization and passport outsourcing: turning minorities into foreigners; 7. Conclusion; 8. Methodological appendix; Bibliography; Index.
This study of citizenship and migration policies in the Gulf shows how temporary residency can become a permanent citizenship status.
Noora Lori is an Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University. She was a scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies and received the 2014 Best Dissertation Award from the Migration and Citizenship section of the American Political Science Association.
'This pathbreaking book asks the critical yet curiously
understudied question of how citizenship in Arab Gulf states is
constructed - a question with great stakes given the benefits of
nationality in the small, oil rich countries of the region. Lori
identifies a new approach to dealing with domestic minorities while
constructing national communities - the outsourcing of national
membership.' Melani Cammett, Clarence Dillon Professor of
International Affairs, Harvard University
'Offshore Citizens might also have been titled 'Kafka Comes to
the Middle East'. We learn that, as in Kafka's parable 'Before the
Law', many in the United Arab Emirates await their turn to enter
the exalted status of citizenship but are denied, even though they
wait dutifully their entire lives. Noora Anwar Lori tells the tale
of the many 'permanent temporary' guest workers whose citizenship
is 'outsourced' to the tiny Union of Comoros, which supplies them
with passports although they have no connection to the country.
These persons live in a permanent limbo in the UAE, even though
they were born in the Emirates and have never known anywhere else.
Surreal and disturbing, but all too real for those permanent
non-Arab guest workers who live it. A fascinating study of the
'spectrum' of citizenship statuses in the region with the world's
largest proportion of non-citizens.' John Torpey, City University
of New York
'Original and thoughtful, Offshore Citizens explores why
states postpone grants of citizenship and outsource national
passports. Challenging established categories of
inclusion/exclusion, member/stranger, and democratic/autocratic
regimes, Noora Lori unsettles established binaries through a
meticulous study of the policies adopted by the Gulf states toward
minority resident populations.' Ayelet Shachar, Max-Planck-Institut
zur Erforschung multireligiöser und multiethnischer
Gesellschaften
'In short, this book is a remarkable piece of scholarship. It
theorizes the question of precarious citizenship among settled
groups and migrants that do not fit the historical narrative of
postcolonial states. It shows how precarious citizenship evolved
historically and how contemporary migration 'management' tools,
such as the issuance of biometrical identification cards, compounds
these individuals' precarious citizenship status. Most importantly
perhaps, the book accounts for the disturbing effects that
bureaucratic practices have on the lives of people in countries
that have the means to integrate these people in their citizenship
regimes but choose not to do so.' James Sater, International
Migration Review
'This volume by Lori (Boston Univ.) is an outstanding display of
erudition along several dimensions … This is a necessary addition
to any collection on international law and for researchers
interested in Gulf politics.' S. R. Silverburg, Choice
'Lori's original empirical data and innovative concept formation
make Offshore Citizens an important and welcome contribution to the
burgeoning literature on citizenship and immigration policies in
the Global South.' Kamal Sadiq, Perspectives on Politics
'Lori's work is of far-reaching relevance beyond its obvious
interest to scholars - and indeed historians - of the Gulf … With
her book, Lori thus convincingly challenges the neat binary of
citizens and aliens, highlighting the ambiguities and ambivalences
that can exist within the grey area - or areas - between the two.'
Thomas McGee, Statelessness and Citizenship Review
'Offshore Citizens uses the anomaly of citizenship-for-sale
for permanent residents of the United Arab Emirates as a prism for
viewing the complexities of statelessness, both in the Gulf and
elsewhere. In this ambitious project, Lori delves into archives for
political and legal histories of migrants in the region, connects
multiple forms of their ambiguous status to broader themes in the
citizenship literature, and personalizes the human costs through
extensive interviews. In addition to providing a rich analysis
about an under-studied region, this unique and provocative case
deserves comparative attention from scholars across the Global
South.' ENMISA award committee
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