Population RelocationWhat kind of population movement is taking place in Southwest Asia?

Main Ideas• Economic growth brings

foreign workers to the region.

• Political factors have shifted

the region’s population.

Places & Termsguest workers

stateless nation

Palestinians

West Bank

Gaza Strip

PLACE Great wealth makes

this United Arab Emirates

golf club possible. In the

middle of the desert, it

features green fairways, a

pool, and a freshwater lake.

Guest workers fill jobs at

sites like this.

A HUMAN PERSPECTIVE In the 1980s, Kurds living in Turkey wereattacked by the Turkish military. The parents of 10-year-old GarbiYildirim feared for their son’s safety. Reluctantly they sent him fromTurkey to live with relatives in Germany. When Garbi reached his 18thbirthday, he was notified by the German government that he wouldhave to return to Turkey. Upon his return, he knew that he would haveto serve in the Turkish military. This meant he would have to useweapons against his own people—the Kurds. He refused to return toTurkey and was placed in a deportation prison to await the recommen-dation of a German court on the case. Garbi’s case is an example of theproblems some ethnic groups face in Southwest Asia.

New Industry Requires More WorkersLife in Southwest Asia in 1900 seemed only slightly different from lifethere in 1100. Some people lived in villages or cities while othersmoved livestock from one source of water to another.

Then, in the early years of the 2oth century, everything changed.Geologists discovered huge deposits of petroleum and natural gas underthe sands and seas of Southwest Asia. Western oil companies quicklyleased land in the region and supplied the technology and the workersto pump the fuel from the ground.

Many countries in Southwest Asia grew enor-mously wealthy from oil profits. The oil boom setoff decades of rapid urbanization. Extensive roadconstruction made cities and towns more accessi-ble. Many thousands of people migrated to thecities in search of jobs and a chance to share in theregion’s newfound riches. So many jobs wereavailable that some were left unfilled.

FOREIGN WORKERS To fill the job openings,companies recruited people, mostly from Southand East Asia. These “guest workers” are largelyunskilled laborers. They fill jobs that the region’snative peoples find culturally or economicallyunacceptable. In parts of the Arabian Peninsula,the immigrant workers actually outnumber thenative workers. For example, in 1999, nearly 90percent of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) workforce was made up of immigrants.

Population Relocation 525

526 CHAPTER 23

PROBLEMS OF GUEST WORKERS The presence of somany guest workers has led to problems. Cultural differ-ences often exist between the guest workers and theiremployers. Misunderstandings over certain customs canresult in severe penalties. For example, a Filipino manwas given six months in jail and expelled from the UAEfor brushing past a woman on a bus. Arabs viewed hisbehavior as insulting to the woman.

Sometimes the workers must live in special districtsapart from the Arab population. Some workers havebeen abandoned. Others receive no wages for months ata time. Many immigrants find themselves unemployedand without money to get back home.

The large number of guest workers is a concern to thegovernments of Southwest Asia. Some government offi-cials worry that depending on these workers will preventtheir nation’s own workers from developing their skills.Others worry about the intolerance and even violencethat these workers face. And, finally, some fear the immi-grants could weaken their country’s sense of nationalidentity. Solving the cultural and economic issues overguest workers will be a challenge to the governments ofthe region.

Political Refugees Face ChallengesRapidly changing economic conditions have caused pop-ulation shifts in Southwest Asia. Political conflict in theregion has also caused relocation.

STATELESS NATION One of the longest conflicts hasbeen over the ethnic group known as the Kurds. AfterWorld War I, the Allies recommended creating a nation-al state for the group. Instead, the land intended for theKurds became part of Turkey, Iraq, and Syria. The Kurdsbecame a stateless nation—a nation of people without aland to legally occupy. Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria triedto absorb the Kurds into their populations but were notsuccessful. The Kurds resisted control in each of thecountries. Governments forcibly moved thousands ofKurds in an attempt to control them.

In Iraq, this forced migration ruined Kurdish homes,settlements, and farms. As you read in Chapter 22, theIraqi government used deadly chemical weapons on set-tlements of Kurds to kill them or force them to leave thearea. In the year 2000, as many as 70,000 Kurds had beendisplaced from areas they called home. Many of theKurds have been forced to live in crowded relocationcamps.

Country

citizens

Asian

African

Other

Middle East

Other

Iraq

33%47%

17%3%

20%27%

15%27%

11%

4%

20%8%

58%

10%

11%

66%

8%

15%

30%27%

24%12%

7%

2%

91%

7%

5%

73%

20%

2%

SOURCE: CIA Atlas of the Middle East,1993

Foreign Workers

Kuwait

Oman

Qatar

Bahrain

Saudi Arabia

United ArabEmirates

SKILLBUILDER:Interpreting Graphs

ANALYZING DATA In which country

is the percentage of country nationals

the lowest?

MAKING GENERALIZATIONSHow could the impact of foreign

workers in the region be described?

Seeing PatternsHow did

changes in the

economy of the

region change the

make-up of the

population?

Population Relocation 527

PALESTINIAN REFUGEES Another groupof people who have been displaced in theregion are the Palestinians. They are theArabs and their descendants who lived orstill live in the area formerly calledPalestine and now called Israel. Palestinianslive in relocation camps in Israel, in otherparts of the region, and throughout theworld. This group of people, like the Kurds,consider themselves a stateless nation.

As you read in Chapter 22, war immedi-ately followed the creation of Israel in1948. Arabs in Palestine were promised ahomeland. (See map on page 512.) How-ever, Israel occupied some of those landsduring the 1948-49 war. Between 520,000and 1,000,000 persons fled Israel. Fifty-two refugee camps for ArabPalestinians were established in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, the West Bank,and the Gaza Strip. The West Bank is a strip of land on the west side ofthe Jordan River. Jordan originally controlled the land, but it lost con-trol of the land in a war with Israel in 1967. The Gaza Strip is a territo-ry along the Mediterranean Sea just northeast of the Sinai Peninsula.Israel occupied it in the same 1967 war.

The refugees have not been able to return to the areas of Israel thatthey claim are theirs. The number of Palestinians living in the refugeecamps or in other parts of Southwest Asia has now swelled to an esti-mated 3.6 million persons. By 2005 there will be an estimated 8.2 millionworldwide. Thousands have lived and died in refugee camps withoutever being able to return to lands they claim as their homeland. Theirpresence and their demand to return to Palestine are at the heart ofmany conflicts in the region.

Places & TermsIdentify and explain

where in the region

these would be found.

• guest workers

• stateless nation

• Palestinians

• West Bank

• Gaza Strip

Taking Notes MOVEMENT Review the notes

you took for this section.

• What are the causes of popula-

tion movement in the region?

• What are “stateless nations”?

Main Ideas a. Why is there a need for

guest workers in this

region?

b. What makes the Kurds a

stateless nation?

c. In which areas are

Palestinian refugee camps

found?

Geographic ThinkingIdentifying and SolvingProblems What problems are

created by the presence of

guest workers in the region,

and how might the problems

be solved? Think about:

• cultural differences

• national identity

See SkillbuilderHandbook, page R10.

MAKING COMPARISONS Do some additional research to find out more about the land claims

of the Kurds and the Palestinians. Then create a Venn diagram showing the ways in which the

Kurds’ and the Palestinians’ land claims are similar to and different from each other.

SW

AS

IA

MakingComparisons

In what ways

are the reasons for

the Kurds’ or

Palestinians’ land

claims different?

Causes Effects

Issue 1:PopulationRelocation

PLACE Palestinian

and Israeli teens

discuss concerns they

share about their

future in the region.

How could landclaims in Israelaffect thesestudents’ future?