Punjabi migration to the Gulf is the largest emigration from the state by number and the least discussed, because it is temporary, working class, and does not lead to citizenship anywhere.
Men go on two or three year contracts as drivers, construction workers, technicians and security staff, on the kafala sponsorship system, and send money home. Recruitment runs through agents in Punjab towns and the fees charged are a documented source of debt.
Deaths of Indian workers in the Gulf are recorded in the thousands annually across all states, and repatriation of bodies is a routine consular function.
Unlike the Canada and Britain migrations, this one produces no settled community, no gurdwara-based institutional life in the destination for most, and no second generation there.
A Punjabi household with a man in Dubai and a daughter in Canada is common, and the two migrations are treated completely differently in how the family talks about them.
Gulf migration from Punjab is working class, contractual and temporary by design. A worker goes on a two or three year contract and comes back.
It is larger in volume than the migration to the west and much less discussed, because it does not end in settlement and does not produce a diaspora that writes about itself.
Recruitment runs through agents who charge fees against land or gold, and the gap between what is promised and what is found on arrival is the standing complaint.