Transposing Citizenship: Acts of Belonging and Locality Among the Non‐Citizen Population of the Arabian Peninsula

This article examines how non‐citizens born and raised in Kuwait develop a sense of belonging despite restrictive nationality laws and the Kafala sponsorship system that deny them legal pathways to citizenship. Drawing on qualitative ethnographic research, I introduce the concept of ‘acts of belonging’ to capture how these individuals assert social membership through observable practices such as participation in neighbourhood networks, informal civil society organizing and public self‐presentation, creating a sense of locality rather than nationality. This study, utilizing semistructured interviews and a participatory storytelling workshop conducted in 2019, with follow‐up in 2020–2021, examines how non‐citizens traverse hierarchical exclusions and enact citizenship through agential practices. These practices contest their portrayal as apolitical and transient individuals, highlighting their active engagement in shaping their emerging, place‐based identity. This analysis contributes to citizenship and belonging studies by reconceptualizing belonging as an active, embodied practice rather than a static legal status, demonstrating how excluded populations forge meaningful membership in contexts where formal citizenship is exclusive and patrilineal. The findings have theoretical implications for understanding emergent forms of citizenship beyond Western frameworks, highlighting the precarity of belonging in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states. The study underscores the need for frameworks that recognize diverse modalities of belonging that transcend legal nationality.