Bahrain, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia are Gulf Cooperative Council (GCC) countries that have extraordinarily high proportions of migrant labor. With migrants comprising 54% of the workforce in Bahrain, 90% in Qatar, and 70% in Saudi Arabia, the labor of migrant workers represents a significant portion of the economies of these States. Benefits of importing foreign labor are clear: foreign workers provide both a basic workforce and specialists to compensate for the limited number of nationals with required skills and attitudes, stimulate the domestic consumption of goods supplied by local merchants, and boost local property markets. Many of these foreign workers traveled to the Gulf from South and Southeast Asia after the discovery of oil and natural gas resources began lifting the region’s economy. Bahrain was the first Gulf State to discover oil in June 1932. It was also the first to reap the benefits that came with increased revenue, and experienced marked improvement in the quality of education and health care. Qatar also experienced an oil boom due to the discovery of crude oil and liquid natural gas reserves, which currently account for approximately 80% of the country’s exports. Significantly beyond the oil wealth in Bahrain and Qatar, Saudi Arabia can produce 10 million barrels of crude oil per day.
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