City of Strangers : Gulf Migration and the Indian Community in Bahrain

Andrew M. Gardner

• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9780801476020
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

Exploring the everyday experiences of workers from India who have migrated to Bahrain, this study contributes significantly to our understanding of politics and society among the Persian Gulf states and of the migrant labor phenomenon that is an increasingly important aspect of globalization. "Andrew M. Gardner expertly combines in-depth ethnography with theoretical sophistication in this important look at the complex linkages between labor, migration, globalization, and the structural violence that accompanies the new world economic order. Gardner follows the labyrinthine paths of migrant workers in the Gulf, drawing on powerful qualitative data to complicate existing assumptions about the lives of skilled and unskilled workers in the Middle East's fastest growing region. Beautifully written and compelling, the book sheds light on a population and area of the world that remains understudied despite its rapid emergence onto the global market."—Pardis Mahdavi, Pomona College

Table of contents

• Acknowledgments
• 1. Introduction: Structural Violence and Transnational Migration in the Gulf States
• 2. Pearls, Oil, and the British Empire: A Short History of Bahrain
• 3. Foreign Labor in Peril: The Indian Transnational Proletariat
• 4. Strategic Transnationalism: The Indian Diasporic Elite
• 5. The Public Sphere: Social Clubs and Voluntary Associations in the Indian Community
• 6. Contested Identities, Contested Positions: English-Language Newspapers and the Public Sphere
• 7. The Invigorated State: Transnationalism, Citizen, and State
• 8. Conclusion: Bahrain at the Vanguard of Change in the Gulf
• Notes
• References
• Index