Towards a race and coloniality research agenda: exploring the exclusionary racialisation of Arabs in the Gulf states

The racialisation of Arabs by the British Empire as inheritors of a “pure”, cohesive, and homogenous culture has led to the exclusion of South Asians. In this article, I explore how the literature on migration in the Gulf has omitted discussions of race and colonialism which has reproduced the separation between “true” Gulf society and migrants. I argue that in order to remedy these gaps within the literature the theoretical frameworks of postcolonialism, decoloniality, and critical race theory (CRT) need to be applied. Postcolonialism could offer insights into how the Gulf’s identity has been constructed by the British while decoloniality would aid in understanding the imposition of the social categories of migrant and citizen by the Empire and the way these categories have been reproduced. Lastly, CRT offers a framework for understanding the emergence and reproduction of racialised identities within the Gulf. These theoretical frameworks can serve as a foundation for a research agenda which incorporates race and coloniality into the Gulf.