Globalization under Construction Govemmentality, Law, and Identity '" Richard Warren Perry and Bill Maurer, Editors University of Minnesota Press Minneapolis • London :2:1/().3 M IN NE' so TA CHAPTER 5 South Asian Workers in the Gulf: Jockeying for Places karen Leonard Even children's books in South Asia now assume familiarity with the experience of expatriates working in the Persian Gulf. Thus The Case of the Shady Sheikh and Other Stories (Singh 1993) features an Indian labor contractor and a Gulf sheikh who cheats poor men, taking money from them and promising passports, visas, and work permits for jobs in the Middle East. The criminals are foiled by a band of children who become detectives and expose their shady dealings. 1 That a childreri's · book should deal with such themes is quite appropriate, for some of the most highly publicized South Asian workers in the Gulf states are chil- dren, young boys from Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan who are used as jockeys in camel racing. Brought by agents from South Asia, the small boys are light in weight; tied or Velcroed to the backs of the camels, their screams increase the animals' speed. When they grow older they are replaced by younger boys. 2 Few of the older South Asian business- men and professionals working in the Gulf would liken themselves to these exploited boys, tied to their jobs and racing at the pleasure of their Arab masters, .but there are certain similarities, and they are increasing. For South Asian expatriates in the Gulf, the internationalism of postwar capitalism has produced opportunities to use their skills for higher pay and in better working conditions than at home. Businessmen, professionals, service workers, and laborers have left their home tries to become part of a flexible international labor force in which "the 129