Expatriate Life in the Arab Gulf: Literary Representations of Debility and Disqualification
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Cross border migration of labor and rapid globalization figure prominently within backstories of characters in much of the fiction set in the Arab Gulf. The state of affairs in young oil-rich nations with a labor force unmoored from respective homelands produce postmodern narratives that signal wider, systemic failures and speak to the current moment’s post-democratic ethos. Shifts in global power necessitates the examination of displaced labor in terms of civil rights and protections. Expatriate workers in GCC countries experience material and abstract complexities generated by paradoxical realities of belonging and displacement. Literature set in the region reveals the intersection between debility and disqualification and provides points of entry into a provisional life shaped by historic systems of power.
DOI: 10.13016/m2ja4b-hlvf
Author: Mukhtar, Sameera
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7165728908