The immigration of Ethiopians to Saudi Arabia can be traced to the advent of Islam and the pursuit of business opportunities. Saudi Arabia in particular has been attractive to Ethiopians for various historical reasons: the early Arab Muslims from Hejaz, today’s Makkah and its surrounding areas, were directed by the prophet of Islam Mohammed to go and seek refuge in Abyssinia which is regarded by many scholars as today’s Ethiopia. The Muslim Arabs first arrived in the Aksumite Empire, where Ashama ibn Abjar, a “Christian ruler received and allowed them to settle in Negash, a village in the region of Tagray”. It can be argued therefore that to some Ethiopians, the historical relations with Hejaz played a role in their decisions to go to Saudi Arabia.Besides the socioeconomic overhaul which this paper will discuss in the following paragraphs, there is another reason why there has been a crackdown on Ethiopian undocumented immigrants in Saudi Arabia, namely a backlash on the political position of Ethiopia in the ongoing Gulf crisis. When the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt led a blockade against the state of Qatar, there was a push by these countries on the African countries to join the blockade. Some of the African countries succumbed to the pressure but most did not including Ethiopia. According to Sheik Mohammed bin Abdurrahman, the Foreign Minister of Qatar, “the four countries mobilised all of their officials on the continent at the beginning of the blockade to pressure African states to adopt the same measures as them”.
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