Michael C. Ewers

Labor migration to world cities: with a research agenda for the Arab Gulf

We place labor flows, involving both highly skilled professionals and unskilled workers, within the framework of research on world cities. These flows are central to understanding the growth of world cities, particularly those whose growth is not primarily a result of advanced producer services. The context of Arab Gulf cities allows us to understand urban growth in the region as an outcome of wealth accumulation that stimulates large flows of skilled westerners and of unskilled workers from poor regions in Asia. We conclude with an agenda for research on migration to world cities and the division of labor in those cities.

Economic‐Development Stakeholder Perspectives on Boomtown Dynamics in the Eagle Ford Shale, Texas

Abstract Unconventional oil and gas production in the United States reversed a decades‐old trend of rising oil imports, provided an argument for lifting the U.S. crude oil export ban and motivated the development of domestic natural gas export facilities. But the most visible impact of unconventional‐hydrocarbon extraction is the creation of boomtowns in rural regions. Despite widespread media coverage, scholarly analysis of boomtowns is restricted to regional econometric studies with little attention to how economic stakeholders understand and respond to booming economies. Here we analyze interviews with key economic stakeholders in the Eagle Ford Shale in Texas. Respondents consider their communitys economic success relative to the price of oil and indicate concerns about the deterioration of roads, high housing demand, and skyrocketing wages. We also re‐examine John Gilmores foundational work on boomtowns in the 1970s in the context of contemporary unconventional extraction.

International knowledge mobility and urban development in rapidly globalizing areas: building global hubs for talent in Dubai and Abu Dhabi

ABSTRACT This paper examines the processes through which the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) cities of Abu Dhabi and Dubai attract and integrate knowledge workers into their labor markets. It focuses on how the UAE has acquired the human capital to create post-oil economies, deploying its oil windfalls into massive urban development strategies in order to create global hubs for talent. More significantly, it analyzes how the UAE’s strategies and frameworks for attracting global knowledge flows ultimately determine the degree to which expatriate knowledge embeds locally. Presentation of results from a large-scale human capital survey of firms in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, as well as key-informant interviews with senior human resource administrators at these firms, demonstrate these processes.

The rise of Kuala Lumpur as an Islamic financial frontier

ABSTRACT The rise of Kuala Lumpur as an Islamic financial frontier. Regional Studies. This paper examines Kuala Lumpur’s emergence as a prominent global Islamic financial centre. Its distance from the West and the Middle East offers a frontier positioning that facilitates new social practices from the integration of financial knowledge of Western world cities and Shariah authority claimed by Gulf cities. Based on primary data, the paper shows that transnational, transcultural alliances forged through skills of mediation and compromise among the city’s Islamic talents and Shariah scholars favourably connect separate economic and cultural spheres of knowledge.

Creating and sustaining Islamic financial centers: Bahrain in the wake of financial and political crises

ABSTRACT Although primarily concentrated in countries with Muslim majorities, Islamic finance has become a global industry representing both a decentering of the global financial architecture and the emergence of an urban network that resides beyond the confines of traditional world city literature. While geographers have identified the “Mecca’s” of the Islamic finance industry – one of which is Bahrain – there remains a need to identify the factors necessary to create and sustain centers of Islamic finance. This paper examines these factors through a firm-level survey of foreign and local Islamic financial institutions in Bahrain, in conjunction with key informant interviews with representatives of these firms. We find that while Bahrain’s entrenched institutional advantages have preserved its role as a center in the Islamic financial landscape, ongoing political instability and the increasing attractiveness of new and emerging centers are threatening this role. As the country navigates the current social and political unrest, questions are raised as to what it takes to be an Islamic financial center.

Citizens’ attitudes towards migrant workers in Qatar

Public attitudes play a critical role in shaping policies towards immigration and the status of migrant workers. Facing growing pressure from international human rights organizations, media and other groups, the Gulf Cooperation Council states have begun efforts to reform the current kafala system, which prevails throughout the region. Yet despite these efforts, relatively little is known about what citizens actually think of this policy, let alone their more general attitudes towards foreign workers. In the following paper, we explore this question and focus on the case of Qatar. Recently, the Qatari government promised to reform their sponsorship system in 2015. Whether this reform succeeds will depend on public attitudes towards this new policy and how citizens perceive the role of foreign workers in the country. Drawing on data from a nationally representative survey in Qatar, we use a split sample technique to better disentangle citizens’ varying attitudes towards blue-collar and white-collar workers. The survey results suggest that Qatari citizens are ambivalent about foreign workers’ contributions and overall impact on their country. While they value foreign workers’ positive contribution to the development of their country in general, they have concerns about this population’s impact on economic and health resources. Ultimately, most citizens would prefer to maintain the sponsorship system, or kafala, as it is right now.

Expatriate labour markets in rapidly globalising cities: reproducing the migrant division of labour in Abu Dhabi and Dubai

ABSTRACT This paper studies the processes through which skilled international workers are differentially attracted to and incorporated in the rapidly globalising cities of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, thereby reproducing the migrant division of labour in these cities. This is accomplished by presenting results from a large-scale employment survey of foreign and local firms in these cities, as well as key informant interviews conducted with representatives of these firms. Most significantly, it is in global city labour markets that firm employment practices intersect with state regulatory frameworks and local employment structures, and thus, where skilled international migration flows are localised.

Megaproject: A 4-Decade Perspective of the Gulf Development Model

Over the past four decades the Arab Gulf States of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have used megaprojects to promote economic development. Examples include the construction of the physical infrastructure required for oil production, but more significantly, megaprojects to stimulate non-oil sources of growth. This paper examines two of the largest and most significant diversification megaprojects undertaken in the region: the Jubail and Yanbu industrial cities in Saudi Arabia and Jebel Ali port in the United Arab Emirates. We use these megaprojects as case studies to learn whether or how a pre-industrial, natural resource-based economy can deploy oil windfalls into massive infrastructural projects to create competitive and sustainable economic development.