in the house, around the house: an ethnography of hadar hadrami migration to kuwait. abdullah ...

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IN THE HOUSE, AROUND THE HOUSE: AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF HADAR
HADRAMI MIGRATION TO KUWAIT.
ABDULLAH MOHAMMAD ALAJMI
LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE
PhD THESIS
2007
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UMI Number: U230724
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ABSTRACT
The study of Hadrami migration has largely been focused on the experiences of
prominent Hadrami figures. This scholarship has generally not documented the lives
of more modest migrants. By contrast, this thesis studies the migration of Hadar
Hadramis to Kuwait, thus broadening our perspective on the varieties in patterns,
practices, and histories in Hadrami migration. In the case of Kuwait, we can observe a
paradox in the migration, which continues in spite of acute changes in the
sociohistorical and economic dynamics that led to Hadar Hadramis’ original
movement to Kuwait. Hadar Hadramis re-immigrate persistently to Kuwait despite the
following factors. First, Hadar Hadramis are aware that their close association with
Kuwaiti affluent houses ties them to Kuwaitis through unequal social and moral
exchanges. Second, Hadar Hadramis remain economically unsuccessful and
politically unprivileged in comparison with other Hadrami migrants elsewhere and
Arab immigrants in Kuwait. Lastly, the Kuwaiti state has experienced political
disasters that have had cruel effects on Hadar Hadramis in particular. While Hadar
Hadramis were initially absorbed in the domestic sphere of Kuwaiti houses, today the
majority no longer actually work as family servants. Nevertheless, the thesis argues
that the domestic character of the work of migrants is central to understanding the
Hadar Hadrami migratory context in Kuwait. It is suggested that the Hadar Hadrami
experience in Kuwait developed its own propelling force—a ‘culture of migration’—
which endures in a complex of social value, economic preference, personal and family
connections to Kuwaitis, and travel practices. A prominent feature of this culture of
migration is dependency as a value and as a practice, which tends to encourage total
dependence on Kuwait as a source of income, to emphasise the importance of goods
and consumption rather than wealth accumulation and investment, and to personalise
every aspect of the migration process.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank my thesis supervisors, Dr. Martha Mundy and Professor
Christopher Fuller for their advice and support throughout the duration of this project.
I would especially like to thank Dr. Mundy for the invaluable inspiration that she has
always given me. Besides what I learned from her anthropological experience in the
Arab and Islamic worlds, I shall always be indebted for her deep interest in my topic
and her intellectual help and the many hours she spent with me discussing my ideas.
Professor Fuller gave me all the time and assistance needed to complete this thesis. I
have particularly benefited from his critical suggestions and comments on every
chapter of my thesis. Chris’s joyful attitude made it easy for me to overcome the
stress of writing and the problems I had during the process.
I am particularly indebted to all the Hadrami persons I write about. The use of
pseudonyms in the thesis, however, prevents me from mentioning their full names.
These Hadramis helped me the most, and I lack the words to do justice to such a debt,
but they shall always remain the people who have my thanks and deep gratefulness.
I am grateful to Dr. Abdullah Ba Haj, Director of the Yemeni Central
Statistical Organisation in al-Mukalla, historian ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Mallahi, folklorist
Abdullah Ba Haddad, Muhammad al-Burr, Ahmad al-Mu‘shir, ‘Umar Hamdun,
Akram Ba Shukayl, Muhammad Ba Nusayr, and ‘Alawi Mudhir. They all helped me
during my stay in Hadramawt and provided me with different research materials.
Special thanks to all the members of Mangush family for finding me accommodation
in Hadramawt. Special thanks to Rubayyi‘ Ba Suwagi for sharing with me his
knowledge and wisdom about Hadrami life and history.
In Kuwait, I am indebted to three Kuwaiti employees at the Ministry of Social
Affairs and Labour and who wished their names not to be disclosed in this thesis. I
thank them all. The information they provided me was unlimited especially on the
legal and daily issues regarding the interaction of Kuwaiti sponsors and foreigners.
Different parts of the thesis have benefited from the comments of my friends
and colleagues, Michelle ‘Obeid, Giovanni Bochi, and Hakim al-Rustom. The
argument gained further from their insightful and learned responses.
Most of all, I owe a great debt to my wife Amani Albedah. She has coped with
long periods of my educational travels abroad, enduring it all with tolerance,
enthusiasm, patience, and love. This work is dedicated to her.
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Table of Contents
LIST OF TABLES............................................................................................................................................................6
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................................7
The Community and Area of Study................................................................................................................10
Background: Hadrami immigrants, before and after 1990:.................................................................12
The Kuwaiti Context.............................................................................................................. 16
Hadramis Abroad.....................................................................................................................................................19
Patterns of Hadrami Migration.................................................................................................................22
Socioeconomic identity and the culture of migration............................................................................26
Data sources and Methodology.....................................................................................................................28
CHAPTER 2: KUWAIT AND HADRAMAWT: HISTORY, POLITICAL ECONOMY, AND
THE REALITY OF MIGRATION.........................................................................................................................41
Introduction..............................................................................................................................................................41
Merchants, locals, and immigrants: creating categories and control...................................43
A SUDDEN CHANGE IN THE KUWAITI HOUSE.........................................................................................................53
A House-to-House Migration...........................................................................................................................59
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................................................68
CHAPTER 3: AL-QARAH VILLAGE AND MIGRATION: THE SEARCH FOR INCOME
AND THE RUNNING AWAY FROM DEBT....................................................................................................71
Introduction..............................................................................................................................................................71
Al-Qarah History and migration..............................;..................................................................................72
Al-Qarah village today.....................................................................................................................................81
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................................................86
CHAPTER 4: AL-QARAH IMMIGRANTS IN KUWAIT: AN EXCHANGE OF PEOPLE FOR
THINGS...............................................................................................................................................................................87
Introduction...............................................................................................................................................................87
SlBYAN OR SUBYAN: LINGUISTIC AMBIGUITY AND REALITY............................................................................88
In the ‘izbah: persistence of a migratory domain............................................... 96
Socialisation and donation...............................................................................................................................98
Letters, debts, and demands...........................................................................................................................100
A house and a marriage............................................................................................................................105
Savings? What is savings?........................................................................................................................108
Visits and memories of dependency........................................................................................................Ill
Conclusion................................................................................................................................................................113
CHAPTER 5: HADRAMIS AND KUWAITI SOCIO-LEGAL SPONSORSHIP.............................115
Introduction.............................................................................................................................................................115
The kafalah (sponsorship) and the power of the kafil (sponsor) ................................................117
The value ofpersonal and past links.......................................................................................................123
‘A KAFIL DIES; A MU‘AZZIB NEVER’: LEGAL AND SOCIAL SPONSORSHIP.....................................................126
Dependency as economic security and personal success...................................................................139
Conclusion................................................................................................................................................................145
CHAPTER 6: STORIES OF MIGRATION: DIFFERENT LIVES AND ‘A CATASTROPHE’
................................................................................................................................................................................................147
Introduction............................................................................................................................................................147
Numbers and Narratives :................................................. 149
Stories of Hadrami migration........................................................................................................................153
Muhammad Bin Salim................................................................................................................................153
‘Amrah al-Mas 'ud.....................................................................................................................................157
Hadi ‘Umar.............................................................................................................................................. 161
‘AwadSa'id.................................................................................................................................................166
Conclusion................................................................................................................................................................170
CHAPTER 7: KUWAIT AS A LIMITED SPACE: ENVY AS A FORM OF HADAR HADRAMI
INTERRELATIONSHIP...................... 173
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Introduction............................................................................................................................................................173
Ethnography of Hadar Hadrami envy.......................................................................................................175
Envy: a problem of analysis...........................................................................................................................186
Envy, jealousy, and resentment................................................................................................................186
Envy and the scale of social comparison...............................................................................................188
Envy and the Image of the Limited Good..................................................................................................190
Conclusion................................................................................................................................................................194
CHAPTER 8: CONCLUSION ................. 195
APPENDIX: ‘UMAR ‘ASHUR..................................................... 204
GLOSSARY.........................................................................................................................................................230
BIBLIOGRAPHY..............................................................................................................................................233
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List of Tables
Table 3.1 Departures to different destinations: in the 1950s-1960s........................77
Table 3.2 Departures to different destinations: in the 1970s-1980s........................78
Table 3.3 Departures to different destinations: in the 1990s-to date.......................79
Table 4.1 Jobs currently carried out by al-Qarah immigrants...................................95
Table 4.2 Immigrants’ monthly income savings.......................................................109
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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
This is a study of a Hadar Hadrami migratory experience in Kuwait. Hadrami
migration to Kuwait contradicts the widely observed patterns of substantial economic
achievement, political influence, and levels of social assimilation with which
Hadramis overall are identified in the Arab Gulf States, Southeast Asia, and East
Africa. Hadar Hadrami movement to Kuwait was contemporaneous with the mass
Hadrami migration to other Gulf States in the 1950s during the oil boom era.
Additionally, Hadrami immigrants in Kuwait shared common cultural and
sociohistorical links with many of their affluent counterparts in Saudi Arabia and the
United Arab Emirates. Despite these parallels, however, the Hadar Hadrami
experience in Kuwait significantly diverged from other Hadrami migrations
elsewhere. It differed in terms of the derivations of its socioeconomic links with
Kuwait, in its expressions in the daily practices of immigrants and their association
with Kuwaitis, and in terms of its cultural and economic consequences for the
immigrant community as a whole. Therefore, the Hadar Hadrami experience poses
several paradoxes.
Hadar Hadrami migration to Kuwait started with some individuals’ link with
an economic resource, but migratory links between two places must always prompt a
milieu of unique contextual interaction between two social universes. Therefore, .a
dichotomous perspective on migration as an economic or political connection between
a receiving and a sending society or states is just a curtailed description of all the
social and moral arrays that the first Hadrami immigrants in Kuwait incited, or were
part of. A dichotomous explanation normally bases its premises on the push-pull
factors of migration and does not take into account cultural economies and
sociohistorical trajectories as essentials in peoples’ movement. Under the push-pull
model of analysis, Hadar Hadrami migration to Kuwait would have been encouraged
by some ecological shortage of subsistence in Hadramawt and lack of labour in
Kuwait. Hence, the Hadrami movement towards recourses in Kuwait would have
ended with the economic reasons that initiated it. However, this study urges a move
away from such an approach, since there have always been economic factors working
against Hadar Hadramis’ presence in Kuwait, yet their migration has persisted as an
economic and survival choice and, as this study will argue, as a durable cultural
practice. In this regard, one may ask the following question: why do Hadar Hadramis
move to Kuwait seeking work and residence even when such movement is not
socially or economically rewarding?
There are indications that Hadrami migration to Kuwait did not begin, as is
usually characteristic of labour migration, in response to an imbalance in labour
power between two regions. On the whole, Hadrami migration to Kuwait was neither
the subject of a deal between ‘receiving’ and ‘sending’ bordering political entities nor
the outcome of a pressing economic need for skilled workers by Kuwaiti merchants or
rulers. In this respect, there were striking differences between Hadar Hadramis and
other immigrants in Kuwait. Asian and Arab immigrants were clearly attracted by
work in the oil industry, urban construction, and state building processes in Kuwait in
the middle of the last century. On the other hand, most Hadar Hadrami immigrants
were adolescents or children, semi-literate, unskilled, and hesitant to carry out
demanding jobs in the industrial or construction sectors. Accordingly, analysis in this
thesis will examine the ways in which Hadar Hadramis were ‘enmeshed’ with certain
local socioeconomic and cultural matrixes in Kuwaiti society, as well as why. In brief,
the socioeconomic role that Hadar Hadramis once fulfilled, and now identify with,
was, to a large extent, a Kuwaiti imposition designed for this immigrant group. The
Hadrami role, a house siby (a house male-servant), may not be an actual vocation for
the majority of Hadar Hadramis, but it is contextually performed in daily relationships
with Kuwaiti houses and sponsors.1 I will argue throughout this thesis that although
the siby experience preserves a solid Hadar Hadrami migratory presence in Kuwait, it
nonetheless renders members of this group devoid of opportunities and hence serves
no significant economic objectives in Kuwait’s migration economy. Significantly, the
siby experience made Hadar Hadramis almost totally dependent on Kuwait as the only
source of income and connected them in unequal and hierarchical relationships with
Kuwaitis.
The question, however, is that if Hadar Hadramis perform no crucial economic
activities, then why do many Kuwaitis sponsor and support them, and what are the
consequences of the relationship between Hadar Hadramis and Kuwaitis? To account
for such phenomena, this thesis examines the sociohistorical foundations and social
expressions of the Hadar Hadrami domestic experience and how they relate to
expectations and behaviour in the present migratory context.
1 The legal sponsor and the mu ‘azzib (social sponsor) are discussed in Chapter 5.
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