Broadcasting belonging: Local media and expatriate communities in the Gulf

This article discusses the development and meaning of local media initiated by the diaspora in the Gulf regions with reference to expatriate radio and media programmes meant to serve the communities in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Anchored in a context of marked demographic disproportion, in which expatriates are either the largest or a high percentage of the population, these states have experienced the slow emergence of minority-language media to represent the South Asian and south-east Asian migrant populations, among others. The article develops an analytical population–technology–policy framework explaining the reasons and timing of such media projects, as they develop and thrive. It claims that diaspora media can only be possible when three factors converge: that there is a large and stable population of expatriates that provides a demand; that it is facilitated by enabling communication technology especially FM broadcasting and digital platforms; and that it is permitted, licensed and regulated by the political boundaries of minority media. Relying on the theories of diaspora media, community media scholarship and hybridity, the article places the Gulf-based expatriate media in the wider context of discussion about transnational publics, cultural identity and belonging in the context of limited political participation. It is historically based on the empirical analysis of the history of expatriate radio in the UAE since the 1990s, the post-2017 community radio expansion in Qatar and the recent licensing of foreign-language stations in Saudi Arabia as part of reforms under the Vision 2030. Such media, as revealed by the analysis, have limited freedom in their operations due to censorship and self-control measures, but they contribute to cultural continuity, socialization and fulfilment of everyday and digital citizenship. The article concludes that the diaspora media in the gulf acts not so much as platforms of political contestation but as negotiated spaces of belonging, which negotiates identity, inclusion and visibility as tightly controlled media spaces.