Anh Nga Longva

Walls Built On Sand

Migration, Exclusion, And Society In Kuwait

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

When Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, the sight of tens of thousands of non-Kuwaiti Arabs, Indians, East Asians, and Westerners fleeing or trapped under occupation made the outside world suddenly aware of a singular fact of Kuwaiti society?that Kuwaitis are an absolute minority in their own country. Basing her analysis on extensive fieldwork and archival research, the author examines the social dimension of labor migration to Kuwait since independence in 1961, exploring how the presence of over one million foreign workers has influenced the way Kuwaitis organize their lives and perceive themselves. In particular, Longva looks at the relations between two sharply differentiated social categories and the politics of exclusion that have allowed Kuwaitis to protect their rights and privileges as citizens against infringement by the huge influx of expatriates. Longva examines the little-studied system of kafala, or sponsorship, under which all foreign workers enter and reside in the country, showing how it has become the most critical source of power for native Kuwaitis vis-is immigrants. She also addresses aspects of ethnicity and class, describes the life of expatriates, and looks at developments in gender relations and the role of women in building the national identity in the context of migration and modernization.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Routledge
• Seitenzahl: 284
• Erscheinungstermin: 1. Oktober 1999
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 229mm x 152mm x 17mm
• Gewicht: 465g
• ISBN-13: 9780813337852
• ISBN-10: 0813337852
• Artikelnr.: 21875755

Autorenporträt

Anh Nga Longva is associate professor of social antropology at the University of Bergen, Norway.

Inhaltsangabe

List of Tables and Figure
Acknowledgments
Map of Kuwait
Map of Kuwait City and Suburbs
Introduction
Kuwait in the Literature
The Concept of the Plural Society
Migration and the Nation-State
Pluralism and Integration: A Research Program
How to Study Unbounded Worlds? Fieldwork and Problems Encountered
Methodology
Notes
Kuwait Through History: A Tradition of Migration and Open Networks
Pearl Diving
Sea Trade
and Caravans
Politics and Society in Pre-Oil Kuwait
Oil: Prosperity and Its Implications
Widening the Networks: The New Labor Migration
A Multi-Ethnic
Multi-Cultural Society
Notes
The Politics of Exclusion
Putting Exclusion in Place
The Delineation of Ethnic and Social Categories
The First Dichotomy: Kuwaitis-Non-Kuwaitis
The Second Dichotomy: Arabs-Non-Arabs
The Third Dichotomy: Muslims-Non-Muslims
Exclusion and the Conceptualization of Work
The Division of Labor According to the Logic of Exclusion
Notes
The Structure of Dominance: The Sponsorship System
The Kafala
Power: The View from Outside
Above
and Below
The Kafala in the Private Sector ("Visa No. 18")
The Kafala in Business Partnership ("Visa No. 19")
The Kafala in the Domestic Sector ("Visa No. 20")
The Power of the Kafeel
The Kafala: A Control Mechanism by the Civil Society
Power and Powerlessness: The Kafala Seen by Kuwaitis
Notes
Conceptualizing "Us" and "Them" Through Everyday Practice
Group Differentiation and Group Identification
Signaling Identity Through the Dress Code
Reading the Signals
Ethnic Identities and Gender Identities
Ethnic Stereotypes
Opting Out: The Never-Never Land of Western Identity
The Definition and Perceptions of "Us" and "Them
" Ethnicity and Class
Notes
Expatriate Life: Liminality and an "Ad Hoc" Way of Life
A Migrant Career
Human Agency and International Labor Migration
A Population of Like-Minded Individuals
Life is a Place Elsewhere
The Social Content of Liminal Time
Time: The Making and Unmaking of Relationships
Time
Space
and Migration
Time in Cultural Analysis
An "Ad Hoc" Way of Life
Notes
Gender Relations
Ethnicity
and the National Project
"Change" and Kuwaiti Women
Subverting Spatial Confinement: The Hijaab and the Car
Reproducing Social Confinement (I): The Constraints of Ethnic Stratification
Reproducing Social Confinement (II): The Discourse of Motherhood
"Citizenship" versus "Hareem
" Gendered Citizenship
Ethnicity
and Class
Women as Nation-Builders
Change and Continuity: The Shifting Sands of Modernity
Notes
Pluralism and Integration
Integration in Plural Societies
Integration
Coercion
and Material Interests
What Kind of Commonality? Subjective Integration: The Role of Experience
Towards an Anthropology of Deterritorialization
Notes
Postscript
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Book and Author