Offshore Citizens: Permanent Temporary Status in the Gulf

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.

• Explains the migration and citizenship policies of the Arab Gulf region that hosts the highest concentrations of migrants in the world
• Demonstrates the importance of citizenship policies in oil-rich states, showing how legal status and delays are used in the politics of resource distribution
• Provides readers with a way of studying stateless minorities, labor migrants, and refugees in conjunction