Labor mobility is particularly significant in the case of the GCC, which is host to around 15 million expatriate workers, generating US $80 billion in annual remittances and making the region the third largest source of remittances worldwide. Annually, the Gulf states provide around 1.5 million job opportunities, employing expatriate workers who in turn support an estimated 150 million dependents in their various home countries. However, little research has been conducted to identify and measure the impacts of this phenomenon on migrants' host countries or countries of origin.

In view of the importance of this issue to the Arab Gulf region and the world as a whole, and in keeping with the aim of the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR) to inform the development of policies and strategies addressing contemporary challenges in this context, the Center hosted a conference under the title: Labor Mobility: Enabler for Sustainable Development in Abu Dhabi on May 14–15, 2013.

Held under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs, and jointly organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Labor, the ECSSR and the National Qualification Authority, the conference sought to motivate a higher level of participation by the GCC states in the global dialogue on migration and development, and to encourage greater engagement and cooperation among research institutions to generate more collaborative scholarship on this important issue.