Foreign Worker Dependence in the Gulf,and the International Oil Companies: 1910-50 1

Abstract

This article demonstrates that foreign worker dependence in the Gulf dates from the establishment of the oil industry in the early twentieth century. The composition of labor inflows were mainly determined by political and strategic, rather than commercial, concerns. Contrasting patterns of labor force composition evolved between those areas under British control, which imported labor from the Indian sub-continent, and the independent Saudi Arabia where labor was drawn from more diverse sources including the Italian settlers in Eritrea. Evidence of commercial-political tension over the employment of foreign workers, particularly Americans, is highlighted. Wages and conditions of employment are described.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Abraham

S.Y.

, & Abraham

(eds.) 1983 Arabs in the New World: Studies on Arab-American Communities. Detroit: Wayne State University.

Chisholm

A.H.T.

1975 The First Kuwait Oil Concession Agreement. A Record of the Negotiations 1911–1934. London: Frank Cass.

Corley

T.A.B.

1983 A History of the Burmah Oil Company, 1886–1924. London: Heinemann.

Ferrier

R.W.

1982 “The History of the British Petroleum Company”. (Volume 1, The Developing Years, 1901–1932). London: Cambridge University Press.

Hakimian

1982 The Migration of Persian Laborers to Southern Russia, 1880–1914: The Background to the Formation of the Iranian Working Class. Brighton: Institute of Development Studies (discussion papers series).

Kinch

E.A.

1957 “Social Effects of the Oil Industry in Iraq”, International Labor Review, 75(2): 193–206.

OPEC 1977 Selected Documents of the International Petroleum Industry. Socialist People's Libyan Jamahiriya and Qatar — Pre–1966. Vienna: Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

OPEC 1976 Selected Documents of the International Petroleum Industry. Saudi Arabia — Pre-1966. Vienna: Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Said

1977 “The Preliminary Oil Concessions in Trucial Oman, 1922–39”, International Interactions, 3(2): 113–34.

10.

Seccombe

I.J.

1986 “A Disgrace to American Enterprise”: Italian Labour and the Arabian American Oil Company in Saudi Arabia, 1944–54. Immigrants and Minorities. (Forthcoming).

11.

Seccombe

I.J.

1985 “International Labour Migration in the Middle East: A Review of Literature and Research, 1974–84”, International Migration Review, 19(2): 335–52.

12.

Seccombe

I.J.

1984 “International Migration for Employment and Domestic Labour Market Development: The Jordanian Experience”. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Durham.

13.

Seccombe

I.J.

1983 “Labour Migration to the Arabian Gulf: Evolution and Characteristics, 1920–50”, Bulletin of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies, 10(1): 3–20.

14.

Seccombe

I.J.

, & Lawless

R.I.

1985 “The Gulf Labour Market and the Early Oil Industry: Traditional Structures and New Forms of Organization”. Paper presented to a conference on: The Gulf Region During the First Half of the Twentieth Century, University of Durham, April 1985.

15.

Tomlinson

H.D.

1965 A History of Shaw Wallace and Co. and Shaw Wallace and Co. Ltd. Calcutta: Shaw Wallace.

16.

Wilson

A.T.

1942 South-West Persia: Letters and Diary of a Young Political Officer, 1907–1914. London: Oxford University Press.

17.

Zahlan

R.S.

1983 “Anglo-American Rivalry in Bahrain, 1918–47”. Paper presented to a conference: Bahrain Through the Ages, Bahrain, December 1983.