Abstract

How was the Saudi monarchy able to stave off the Arab Spring? One answer to this question lies in migration politics, which are integral to the regime’s ad hoc survival strategies. An analysis of migration politics, moreover, brings to light longstanding dynamics of state transformation in what remains one of the largest immigration countries in the world. Drawing on discourse analysis, institutional history, and ethnographic fieldwork conducted in state bureaucracies, I explore the critical, albeit under-researched, role of migration politics in political change from the 1991 Gulf crisis to the 2011 uprisings. First, I show that, in times of crisis, Saudi monarchs made migration a central political issue: while maintaining mass immigration into the country, they used immigrants as scapegoats to deflect popular grievances and further individual power-seeking agendas. Secondly, I demonstrate that migration became a policy domain with its own rules, bureaucratic practices, power relations and rationalities – a process designed to impose a state monopoly over migration control. Thirdly, I introduce the notion of ‘migration rent’ and use it to describe the changing social and power relations between migrants, citizens and the state. Finally, I suggest that migration politics are key to understanding both short- and long-term political change.

Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2021.1948325 .

摘要

沙特君主制是如何阻止阿拉伯之春的？这个问题的一个答案在于移民政治，这是该政权临时生存战略不可或缺的一部分。此外，对移民政治的分析揭示了这个仍然是世界上最大的移民国家之一的国家转型的长期动态。借助在国家官僚机构中进行的话语分析、制度历史和民族志田野调查，我探讨了移民政治在从 1991 年海湾危机到 2011 年起义的政治变革中的关键作用，尽管研究不足。首先，我表明，在危机时期，沙特君主将移民作为核心政治问题：在维持大规模移民进入该国的同时，他们利用移民作为替罪羊来转移民众的不满情绪和进一步的个人寻求权力的议程。其次，我证明移民成为一个政策领域，有自己的规则、官僚做法、权力关系和理性——一个旨在对移民控制施加国家垄断的过程。第三，我引入了“移民租金”的概念，并用它来描述移民、公民和国家之间不断变化的社会和权力关系。最后，我认为移民政治是理解短期和长期政治变革的关键。我引入了“移民租金”的概念，并用它来描述移民、公民和国家之间不断变化的社会和权力关系。最后，我认为移民政治是理解短期和长期政治变革的关键。我引入了“移民租金”的概念，并用它来描述移民、公民和国家之间不断变化的社会和权力关系。最后，我认为移民政治是理解短期和长期政治变革的关键。

本文的补充数据可在 https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2021.1948325 在线获取。