The Gulf’s long-standing model of temporary migrant employment is coming under increasing pressure as more South Asian workers and their families build decades-long lives in the region and reach retirement age, exposing gaps in income security, healthcare and residency.
A new paper, Old-age security in the South Asia–Gulf migration corridor: Policy challenges and opportunities, authored by University of Edinburgh social policy lecturer İdil Akıncı, examines the retirement challenges facing long-term migrant residents, with a particular focus on Indian nationals in the UAE.
The paper argues that migration policies built around the assumption that non-national workers will eventually return home are increasingly out of step with demographic realities in the Gulf. Many migrant families have now spent decades in countries such as the UAE, while children and grandchildren have been born and raised there.
As a result, retirement is no longer necessarily a straightforward transition from Gulf employment to return migration.
The Gulf Cooperation Council hosts around 10% of the world’s international migrant workers, making it the world’s third-largest migration destination after North America and Europe. Non-nationals account for around half of the GCC’s population, rising to as much as 90% in countries including the UAE and Qatar.
The paper describes this system as one of “permanent temporariness”, where migrants can remain in the Gulf for decades but generally continue to live under renewable residence arrangements without access to permanent residency, citizenship or public pension systems.
Retirement security remains heavily dependent on savings
For many migrant workers, the end of employment can also mean the loss of employment-linked residency and employer-provided healthcare.
In the UAE, end-of-service indemnity (EOSI) remains a key source of retirement-related financial support for non-national workers. However, the paper argues that the lump-sum model does not provide the stable income stream associated with a conventional pension.
EOSI payments are calculated based on an employee’s basic wage and length of service, but the paper notes that even after long periods of employment, the resulting payout can replace only a limited share of pre-retirement earnings.
A UAE survey cited in the paper found that around 65% of workers depend on workplace savings or gratuity, highlighting what researchers and policymakers have increasingly described as a retirement “gratuity gap”.
The UAE has introduced alternative end-of-service savings arrangements intended to address some of these limitations. The Alternative End-of-Service Benefits scheme, introduced in 2023, allows participating employers to make defined contributions into regulated investment funds, with benefits that can be portable between jobs.
However, participation remains voluntary and dependent on employer enrolment. The paper argues that market-based savings mechanisms alone may not provide sufficient or consistent protection, particularly for lower-income workers.
Healthcare becomes a major retirement challenge
Healthcare is another significant pressure point for ageing migrant workers. During employment, workers may benefit from employer-provided health insurance. Retirement can disrupt that coverage, while insurance costs generally rise with age and can become particularly difficult to manage for people with chronic or pre-existing medical conditions.
The paper points to cases where annual health insurance premiums can rise sharply following significant medical conditions or procedures. For lower- and middle-income retirees, these costs can make continued residence in the UAE financially difficult even when a person has secured a legal route to remain in the country.
Some older residents therefore return to India or other countries of origin for more affordable medical treatment, while others draw down savings or rely on financial support from their adult children.
The challenge is not only the affordability of healthcare. The paper also highlights limited access to affordable elder care and social support, as well as the risk of isolation among older migrants whose social and family networks have developed in the UAE.
Residency remains tied to financial capacity
For migrant workers who want to remain in the UAE after retirement, residency is another major consideration.
The UAE has introduced several pathways that can allow non-nationals to remain beyond employment, including long-term residency options and retiree visas. However, many of these routes require applicants to meet financial, property or income thresholds.
The paper argues that these requirements can leave lower- and middle-income retirees in a particularly vulnerable position.
Some older migrants rely on sponsorship by adult children, effectively making the younger generation responsible for their parents’ residency, healthcare and living costs. Others relocate to more affordable emirates while remaining close to their families.
This can turn adult children into an informal social protection system, linking the ability of older parents to remain in the UAE to the younger generation’s employment and financial stability.
The issue becomes more complicated for people who have spent most of their lives in the UAE and have limited social networks in their countries of origin.
For second- and third-generation residents who were born and raised in the Gulf, the idea of “returning home” can be particularly complex because the Gulf may be their primary place of residence, education, employment and social life.
India-UAE pension portability remains a gap
The paper also highlights limitations on retirement protection across the India-UAE migration corridor. India’s National Pension System is available to Indian citizens living overseas, including non-resident Indians, but participation is voluntary and there is limited evidence of uptake among Gulf-based workers.
Meanwhile, India’s Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation is largely tied to employment in India and does not provide continuous retirement accumulation while workers are employed in the GCC.
A major issue is the absence of a bilateral Social Security Agreement between India and GCC countries. As a result, Indian workers cannot generally aggregate periods of employment in the Gulf with periods worked in India to establish pension eligibility or easily transfer retirement benefits between systems.
The paper argues that this creates a “dual gap”, with migrants potentially lacking pension protection in both their destination and origin countries.
The problem is particularly significant given the scale of Indian migration to the Gulf. The paper notes that more than nine million Indian nationals live across the GCC, with nearly half residing in the UAE.
Policy needs to move beyond the return model
Based on more than 40 interviews with adult children of first-generation migrants and their retired or retirement-age parents, the paper argues that policymakers need to rethink old-age security for long-term migrant residents.
One recommendation is to progressively transition from the existing EOSI model towards a mandatory, contributory retirement protection system.
The paper proposes automatic enrolment, particularly for lower-income workers, alongside stronger regulatory oversight and mechanisms that allow retirement savings to be converted into regular income rather than being exhausted as a lump sum.
Portability is another priority, particularly for workers who eventually return home. The paper calls for bilateral and multilateral arrangements with major labour-sending countries to facilitate cross-border transfers and retirement income payments.
It also recommends expanding affordable healthcare and elder care for ageing non-national residents, including stronger minimum standards for insurance coverage, chronic disease treatment and specialist care.
Residency policies could also be expanded to provide more predictable options for long-term residents who may not meet existing financial or property thresholds. The paper suggests exploring lower-threshold retiree pathways for people with lengthy residence histories, alongside more affordable housing options for older residents.
Finally, the paper calls for better data on ageing non-national populations, including information broken down by nationality, age, income, gender and place of birth. Better data, it argues, would help governments understand how many migrant workers remain in the Gulf after retirement, who returns home and how retirement affects intergenerational households.
The broader message is that the GCC’s migration systems are evolving faster than the social protection frameworks supporting them.
As migrant families spend longer periods in the Gulf and more people reach old age without a realistic intention or ability to return, retirement can no longer be treated solely as the endpoint of a temporary employment relationship.
For the UAE and the wider GCC, the challenge is increasingly how to provide predictable income, healthcare and residential security for ageing populations whose lives have been built across borders.