Migration and asylum are fundamental features in the consciousness of all Muslims, deriving from the Hijra as the historical migratory movement of the Prophet (PBUH) and his followers fleeing persecution during the very birth of Islam. The Qur’an contains quite specific recommendations regarding how Muslims should behave regarding migratory movements – to and from Muslim and non-Muslim communities. There are also clear ethical principles that address how strangers, or foreigners should be treated; also tenets decreeing that guests must be treated hospitably, with the utmost respect and kindness, regardless of whom they are – whether family, neighbors, strangers, Muslim or non-Muslim. The Qur’an also explicitly requires the decent treatment of slaves with provisions for their freedom that contrasts significantly from that of the transatlantic system of chattel slavery to the Americas. The initial focus of CILE’s research on migration ethics will address what has come to be known as the “modern forms of slavery”, particularly in relation to the arrangements and conditions of both male and female foreign migrant labor in the Gulf States – and who are often referred to as “guest workers”. The approach uses both theoretical and empirical analyses to confront Islamic ethics of migration with contemporary legislation and treatment of migrant workers which have recently come under critical scrutiny utilizing human and labor rights principles of international conventions.