Building Migrant Cities in the Gulf

Urban Transformation in the Middle East

Florian Wiedmann, Ashraf M. Salama

• Publisher: I.B. Tauris
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781788316262
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Emigration & Immigration
• Index: Social Sciences

Human history has seen many settlements transformed or built entirely by expatriate work forces and foreigners arriving from various places. Recent migration patterns in the Gulf have led to emerging 'airport societies' on unprecedented scales. Most guest workers, both labourers and mid to high-income groups, perceive their stay as a temporary opportunity to earn suitable income or gain experience. This timely book analyses the essential characteristics of this unique urban phenomenon substantiated by concrete examples and empirical research. Both authors have lived and worked in the Gulf including Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates during various periods between 2006 and 2014. They explore Gulf cities from macro and interconnected perspectives rather than focusing solely on singular aspects within the built environment. As academic architects specialised in urbanism and the complex dynamics between people and places the authors build new bridges for understanding demographic and social changes impacting urban transformations in the Gulf.

1

Introduction: Migration and urban transformation

This opening chapter introduces a contextual background on migration and urban transformation including a historic overview of how Gulf cities have evolved from desert vernacular settlements to modern conurbations since the middle of the twentieth century and to the most recent phenomenon of emerging hub cities within global networks. The introduction sets the stage for the main objective of this book and develops an overarching argument of why migration has always been a main catalyst of urban transformation and why contemporary Gulf cities have been witnessing a special case of migration-driven urbanism. Thus, it is crucially urgent to understand the various layers and interdependencies of migration and urban dynamics, which are expressed by new housing developments and the resulting neighbourhood patterns as well as diverse spatial practices and consumption patterns. Migration is seen as one of the most important factors transforming urban identities of cities worldwide and, in particular, Gulf cities. Therefore, it is essential to depict how migration has been affecting urban developments and to highlight the various dimensions and variables, which must be explored to understand contemporary urbanism in the Gulf.

Migration is either rooted in incentives to leave challenging living conditions behind or to gain opportunities needed to achieve higher living standards. According to the United Nations Statistics Division and the annual World Migration Report, the Gulf States have become the countries with the biggest share of migrants worldwide.¹ Apart from international migration, as it can be studied in the Gulf, internal migration has also become a crucial factor in many developing countries, where populations living in rural areas have been moving to cities leading to densely urban areas. Most international migration to developed countries has thus its starting point in rapidly growing cities in the Global South. According to the World Bank’s Migration and Remittances Factbook 2016, migrants have been sending a big share of their salaries back to their families, worth more than US$441 billion, which is three times of official aid.² A large share of this amount originates from all six Gulf Cooperation Council countries, where US$98 billion in outward remittance flows were calculated in 2014.³ Today more than 247 million people, which is equivalent to 3.4 per cent of the world’s population, live outside their countries of birth. The volume of South-South migration has increased to 38 per cent and is thus dramatically exceeding the South-North migration with around 34 per cent, which is the result of recently emerging cities in the Global South and the growing economies they are experiencing.⁴

Based on the ‘Recommendations on Statistics of International Migration’ by the United Nations Statistics Division, there is a clear distinction between short-term and long-term migrants.⁵ While short-term migrants stay between three and a maximum of twelve months in a foreign country, long-term migrants stay more than a year. This definition is rooted in the assumption that most migrants establish a source of income and a legal permission to stay during this period. Regarding short-term working contracts of two to three years in emerging cities, this definition is rather problematic, since most guest workers would never gain any long-term perspective to settle. Another important aspect of international migration is the size of the diaspora including first, second and third generations.⁶ According to the World Bank Group, there is no basic data on the descendants of migrants available for countries other than those in Europe, Australia and the United States.⁷ These native-born generations with migrant parents often have a special role in being rooted in their countries of residence but with still remaining cultural ties and affiliations to the home countries of their parents.

Due to significant differences in development, demography and the quality of governance, the United Nations are expecting the scale and scope of migration to grow.⁸ The main argument is the dependence of the global economy on enhanced urban migration. Scientific evidence demonstrates that various sectors of the economy in both developing and industrialized countries would collapse without a continuous migration of foreign labour.⁹ The rapid exchange of information has led to a new global awareness and especially young generations have a rising incentive to become an increasingly mobile workforce to achieve better living conditions than in their home countries. To improve the working and living conditions of this growing and rather vulnerable group of migrants, various commitments were signed, such as the Monterray Consensus.¹⁰ Furthermore, the welfare benefits of the Doha round of trade negotiations underlined the importance of enabling the populations in developing countries to have access to livelihoods and a growing prosperity in their countries.¹¹ Another important aspect is the implementation of new incentives with respect to increasing the impact of remittances sent back by migrants to their families left behind as well as how new skills learnt abroad could be reinvested more efficiently after the return to home countries.

According to the United Nations, the full integration of long-term migrants is important to establish social cohesion and to enhance the contributions made by migrants towards instituting sustainable urbanism. One important aspect is the transparent communication of rights, obligations and perspectives to enhance association and attachment and thus the integration of migrants into the host society. In this context, active citizenship and opportunities to own and manage businesses should be promoted. The dynamic integration of migrants must be supported by local and national authorities as well as employers and members of civil society. To improve the coordination of migration and to prevent exploitation one of the rising challenges has been the governance of international migration via coherence, sufficient capacities and cooperation. Consequently, transparent migration policies need to be implemented according to agreed objectives, which respect and integrate international law. At the United Nations, the Global Commission on International Migrations (GCIM) has been installed to ensure a more effective institutional response to the opportunities and challenges of international migration.¹²

In 2017, the World Bank Group identified nine main themes of migration, which were included in a vision for the global compact on migration.¹³ The theme with the greatest priority is the creation of jobs in developing countries to prevent migration forced by local economic conditions. Another important theme is the integration of migrants in host communities followed by a high awareness regarding the emerging job competition for native workers in host countries. Policies and control need to be in place to prevent trafficking and abusive working conditions of migrants. In this context, a key theme is the improvement of migrant rights. Additional themes include the particular circumstances of many migrants, as they often have to leave their families behind, who usually depend on their income abroad, and the loss of workforce in origin or home countries. Last but not least, the rising congestion and fiscal costs of social services have to be taken into account.¹⁴ The recent globalization dynamics have created an extensive international division of labour and a complex situation in most developing countries facing migration consequences.

A study by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) in 2010 revealed that 43.6 per cent of all migrants must be considered low skilled due to limited educational backgrounds followed by migrants with intermediate skill level (35 per cent) and highly skilled migrants (21.5 per cent). Thus, low-skilled workforce dominates migration in absolute terms in both the OECD and non-OECD countries. One important fact is the magnitude of the global migration rate of highly skilled persons from developing countries, particularly from Africa since it is the highest at 10.6 per cent in comparison to the world average of 5.4 per cent.¹⁵ The socio-demographic characteristics can widely differ by country of origin. While migrants from Africa are mainly low skilled, Asian migrants are rather diverse. The loss of highly skilled workforce has had a negative impact on local economic development in the Global South. The migration of low-skilled workforce however has become an important economic factor for developing countries due to remittances and the training of new skills abroad.¹⁶ Thus, international migration has developed into a distinct phenomenon where many economic and political forces have been redefining demographic and social structures worldwide.

Migration and housing

Since most economic growth is located in cities, the most significant share of migration can be observed in the urbanized areas worldwide. The ongoing regional and global movement of people to find work or better living conditions has led to a substantial population change, in which the net migration is usually significantly larger than the natural population growth of cities. The overall resulting population growth feeds into projections of household growth and housing needs. In England, for instance, the household numbers are projected to increase by 27 per cent in 2033, which can be translated into the development of 232,000 new housing units every year.¹⁷ Net migration is expected to account just under two-fifth of the rising demand. In most countries, a smaller percentage of the foreign-born population own their homes, and new migrants are more than twice as likely to be renters. In recent years there has been a tendency that recent migrants in the UK are more likely to be living in social housing, while long-term migrants live in housing developments similar to that of the settled population.¹⁸

In many parts of the world housing has become highly affected by migration due to continuously changing demands and the tenure effects of short- and long-term stays. The negative impact of insufficient housing is problematic since both general well-being and health can be highly affected. Migrants are particularly vulnerable since housing is a rather crucial factor for how they are integrating within their new host societies. In many places worldwide migrants have been witnessing severe social segregation and a limited access to established living standards. Most frequently, migrants reside in overcrowded areas, built with poor standards, and even homelessness is wi despread. A common phenomenon is the clustering of migrants in rather problematic urban environments, such as deteriorating neighbourhoods in proximity to industrial areas. According to many international studies, migrants face significantly less housing opportunities and choices than native populations.¹⁹ The typical pattern of migrants residing in deprived areas can lead to problematic urban and social conditions.

Housing is a crucial factor in how life is generally experienced including the various individual opportunities.²⁰ Accordingly, housing conditions can be studied from a three-dimensional perspective including the functional realities, such as demographic, economic and spatial transformations, coupled with an assessment of how the newly developed housing environments are used by migrants and finally how they are perceived and experienced. The emerging diversity in most urban environments inhabited by migrants often leads to complex housing markets, in which the needs and interests of many different groups must be addressed.²¹ Historically migration has always been a key feature in demographic and economic dynamics worldwide defining urban development patterns. Trading networks have been an essential driver in shaping new markets and t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Title
• Contents
• List of illustrations
• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• 1 Introduction: Migration and urban transformation
• 2 Visions of migration-based urbanism
• 3 Enabling housing supply through new forms of governance
• 4 Mega projects: A catalyst for migrant urbanism
• 5 New housing typologies and urban consolidation
• 6 Lifestyle trends and multicultural perceptions
• 7 The everyday urban environment of migrant communities
• 8 Building sustainable migrant cities
• Bibliography
• Index
• Copyright