Labor migration to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries has enormous effects on the region, on the countries migrants come from, on the migrants themselves, and on their families. Migration is one of the major ways in which the GCC interacts with the rest of the world; but research on the effects of this phenomenon is extremely scarce. What little research does exist on GCC migration is primarily descriptive and anecdotal, allowing little inference about the systematic effects of migration. It is also highly critical and principally originates outside the region; almost none of this research is carried out by institutions based in the Gulf. Gulf-based think tanks are missing a major opportunity to engage in policy research on labor migration from a regional perspective.

In this paper I summarize the importance of the migration phenomenon, I measure the extreme scarcity of research capable of elucidating the systematic effects of Gulf migration on the GCC and the rest of the world, and offer an example of a new research approach. I close by suggesting parts of a new research agenda that Gulf-based policy research institutions should claim, support, and advance. Gulf institutions can seize this opportunity and broaden the spotlight of research to illuminate more useful questions.