Book Review: Offshore Citizens leads well into the conclusion, by emphasising that such experiences of limbo are not so much the result of falling between the cracks of the legal–bureaucratic system, but are rather a deliberate strategy of exclusion by the UAE government. 27 Lori’s book is a well-researched and polished work. With a richness of data, she certainly succeeds in achieving the ‘fine-grained account’ she set out to write. 28 Her extensive close reading of archival references (especially British collections) is combined with interviews conducted in the UAE with individuals affected by the policies she is studying. Lori skilfully weaves these in with an apposite selection of secondary literature. The latter includes both works geographically focused on the UAE/wider Gulf region, and wide-ranging theoretical contributions dealing with relevant thematic areas (eg temporality and precarity). Further, she draws on insights and anonymised information acquired through involvement in legal clinic work with cases from the UAE and personal communications. These multiple sources of data ensure that the book’s claims are well triangulated as well as appropriately situated and integrated within the existing clusters of literature she brings together. My main criticism of the work relates to its title. At once it is both too broad and too narrow a framing to accurately reflect the content covered. First, the editorial decision to reference ‘the Gulf’ as a whole in the title of the monograph appears somewhat misplaced given that the vast majority of the work is focused on the example of the UAE. Chapter 4, which claims to take more of a regionwide approach, includes some comparative quantitative data for different Gulf states. Even this section, however, relies primarily on the UAE for its most interesting insights and interview findings. On the other hand, the title also fails to do justice to the scope of the subject matter treated since the term ‘Offshore Citizens’ refers only to one recent — arguably the most fragrant — twist in the tale of exclusion and instrumentalised postponement for citizenship claimants of the UAE. As defined by Lori, offshore citizens are those who, since the late 2000s, have been issued a Comoros passport and subsequently granted a foreign resident visa in the UAE. 29 The book’s lengthy presentation of the preceding history of differential treatment according to location and demographic profile is far more than simply a prelude to provide background context to the Comoros issue. Rather, Lori gives extensive exposure to ambiguities in statuses of belonging within the federation prior to the ultimate practice of outsourcing documentation to a foreign state. Her study adeptly traces examples from the first three decades following independence, as well as the reception of migrants within the Trucial States during the earlier period of British control. To conclude, Lori’s work is of far-reaching relevance beyond its obvious interest to scholars — and indeed historians — of the Gulf. Theorists of citizenship should read the book for the unique form of ‘rentier citizenship’ it outlines. 30 As Lori herself argues: While the UAE case is in many ways unique due to its demographic composition and its outsourcing of citizenship cases, the adoption of limbo statuses to suspend 27 28 29 30 ibid 212–16. ibid 18. ibid 10–11. ibid 18–19. 359