Offshore Citizens
Permanent Temporary Status in the Gulf

This study of citizenship and migration policies in the Gulf shows how temporary residency can become a permanent citizenship status.

Noora Lori (Author)

9781108498173, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 22 August 2019

302 pages, 5 b/w illus. 2 maps 9 tables
23.5 x 15.6 x 2 cm, 0.55 kg

'Offshore Citizens uses the anomaly of citizenship-for-sale for permanent residents of the United Arab Emirates as a prism for viewing the complexities of statelessness, both in the Gulf and elsewhere. In this ambitious project, Lori delves into archives for political and legal histories of migrants in the region, connects multiple forms of their ambiguous status to broader themes in the citizenship literature, and personalizes the human costs through extensive interviews. In addition to providing a rich analysis about an under-studied region, this unique and provocative case deserves comparative attention from scholars across the Global South.' ENMISA award committee

When it comes to extending citizenship to certain groups, why might ruling elites say neither 'yes' nor 'no', but 'wait'? The dominant theories of citizenship tend to recognize clear distinctions between citizens and aliens; either one has citizenship or one does not. This book shows that not all populations are fully included or expelled by a state; they can be suspended in limbo - residing in a territory for protracted periods without accruing citizenship rights. This in-depth case study of the United Arab Emirates uses new archival sources and extensive interviews to show how temporary residency can be transformed into a permanent legal status, through visa renewals and the postponement of naturalization cases. In the UAE, temporary residency was also codified into a formal citizenship status through the outsourcing of passports from the Union of Comoros, allowing elites to effectively reclassify minorities into foreign residents.

1. Limbo statuses and precarious citizenship
2. Making the nation: citizens, 'guests' and ambiguous legal statuses
3. Demographic growth, migrant policing, and naturalization as a 'national security' threat
4. Permanently deportable: the formal and informal institutions of the Kaf?la system
5. 'Ta??l Bachir' (come tomorrow): the politics of waiting for identity papers
6. Identity regularization and passport outsourcing: turning minorities into foreigners
7. Conclusion
8. Methodological appendix
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Social law [LNT], International relations [JPS], Politics & government [JP], Social theory [JHBA]