During the Gulf crisis in the summer of 1990, the extent of the migrant worker phenomenon in the Middle East was highlighted by the plight of tens of thousands of refugees from Kuwait and Iraq - men, women and even children, mainly from North Africa and South and South-East Asia. The harrowing images and reports spreading across the world and the hastily constructed refugee camps demonstrated the vulnerability of the economic and social position of this floating labour force. This is a comprehensive study of the demographic, social and economic aspects of labour migration from Sri Lanka to the Middle East using both demographic and anthropological research methods. The authors have mainly based their work on labour migration from Sri Lanka as labour migration from that country shows a number of particularly interesting characteristics. The extent of Sri Lankan labour migration is much greater than that seen in other South and South-East Asian countries. l.3% of the Sri Lankan population work in the Middle East, of which 70% are women, working mainly in the domestic sector.