The Gulf states will face new labour force challenges

Significance

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic hit the expatriate workforce in the Gulf Cooperative Council (GCC) disproportionally harder than nationals in the same countries. This resulted in migrants leaving the countries in significant numbers. Governments responded to increased xenophobic rhetoric within their countries by relaunching workforce nationalisation policies.

Impacts

• Changing migrant demographics could lower the level of remittance flows to South Asian countries.
• Flows of nationals between the GCC states could increase, replacing educated skilled migrants from other Arab countries.
• Despite labour force nationalisation policies, remittance outflows from the Gulf states will increase in 2022.