Migrant dreams : Egyptian workers in the Gulf states / Samuli Schielke.

"The first version of this book was published in Arabic translation in 2017 with the title Hatta yantahi alnaft (Until the End of Oil) at Sefsafa Publishing House in Cairo, Egypt. As compared to the Arabic translation, which was based on an unpublished manuscript, this edition has been substantially revised and expanded by two chapters."--Page vii

Includes bibliographical references.

"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 one's hopes and ambitions? How does the experience of migration to the Gulf, with its attendant economic and legal precarities, shape migrants' particular dreams of a better life? What do those dreams--be they realistic and productive, or fantastic and unlikely--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."--Publisher's description

Online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on May 21, 2020).

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