Migrant Dreams: Egyptian Workers in the Gulf States

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Migrant Dreams: Egyptian Workers in the Gulf States

An intimate portrait of Egyptian migrants' lives and hopes, and their return home.

A vivid ethnography of Egyptian migrants to the Arab Gulf states, Migrant Dreams is about the imagination which migration thrives on, and the hopes and ambitions generated by the repeated experience of leaving and returning home.

What kind of dreams for a good or better life drives labor migrants? What does being a migrant worker do to oneâ€™s hopes and ambitions? How does the experience of migration to the Gulf, with its attendant economic and legal precarities, shape migrantsâ€™ particular dreams of a better life? What do those dreamsâ€•be they realistic and productive, or fantastic and unlikelyâ€•do to the social worlds of the people who pursue them, and to their families and communities back home upon their return?

Based on ten years of ethnographic fieldwork and conversations with Egyptian men from mostly low-income rural backgrounds who migrated as workers to the Gulf, returned home, and migrated again over a period of about a decade, this fine-grained study explores and engages with these questions and more, as the men reflect on their strivings and the dreams they hope to fulfill. Throughout the book, Samuli Schielke highlights the story of one man, Tawfiq, who is particularly gifted at analyzing his own situation and struggles, resulting in a richly nuanced account that will appeal not only to Middle East scholars, but to anyone interested in the lived lives of labor migrants and what their experiences ultimately mean to them.

A vivid ethnography of Egyptian migrants to the Arab Gulf states, Migrant Dreams is about the imagination which migration thrives on, and the hopes and ambitions generated by the repeated experience of leaving and returning home.

What kind of dreams for a good or better life drives labor migrants? What does being a migrant worker do to oneâ€™s hopes and ambitions? How does the experience of migration to the Gulf, with its attendant economic and legal precarities, shape migrantsâ€™ particular dreams of a better life? What do those dreamsâ€•be they realistic and productive, or fantastic and unlikelyâ€•do to the social worlds of the people who pursue them, and to their families and communities back home upon their return?

Based on ten years of ethnographic fieldwork and conversations with Egyptian men from mostly low-income rural backgrounds who migrated as workers to the Gulf, returned home, and migrated again over a period of about a decade, this fine-grained study explores and engages with these questions and more, as the men reflect on their strivings and the dreams they hope to fulfill. Throughout the book, Samuli Schielke highlights the story of one man, Tawfiq, who is particularly gifted at analyzing his own situation and struggles, resulting in a richly nuanced account that will appeal not only to Middle East scholars, but to anyone interested in the lived lives of labor migrants and what their experiences ultimately mean to them.
Country USA
Brand The American University in Cairo Press
Manufacturer The American University in Cairo Press
Binding Paperback
ReleaseDate 2020-04-07
UnitCount 1
EANs 9789774169564

Country	USA
Brand	The American University in Cairo Press
Manufacturer	The American University in Cairo Press
Binding	Paperback
ReleaseDate	2020-04-07
UnitCount	1
EANs	9789774169564

Migrant Dreams: Egyptian Workers in the Gulf States

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