In this paper, we explore the drivers influencing South Asian emigration to the UAE. A disproportionate focus on economic disparities between South Asian sender states and Gulf receiver states positions migrants outside the political fold as rightless and rootless guest workers motivated purely by economic gain. Consistent with a false economic-political binary in broader migration research, these explanations essentialize migration to the Gulf as primarily economic. This paper nuances the drivers of migration through an in-depth qualitative methodology, comprising semi-structured interviews with South Asian immigrants in the UAE, followed by a survey for generalizability and a larger sample size. Leveraging South Asian diasporas in the UAE, our sample includes primarily Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan, and Bangladeshi migrants. Drawing on this multi-method approach, we ask why migrants undertake outward migration, what mediating drivers persuade their migration, why migrants undertake inward migration, and their future plans for onward or return migration from the Gulf. By disaggregating migration drivers and the migrant journey, we account for the dynamic nature of migration both temporally and spatially–between past and future migration trajectories as well as between sender and receiver states. Drawing on mixed migration scholarship, we further interrogate how ostensibly voluntary migration undertaken for (seemingly) economic purposes may be driven by degrees of proactivity and reactivity. Current findings show that first-generation emigrants expressed a combination of economic and political motivations, citing improved quality of life and increased safety, relative to sender states, as primary predisposing drivers. Notably, immigrants stressed existing diasporic networks in the UAE as mediating drivers that significantly facilitated their inward migration. Second-generation emigrants expressed significantly less intent of return migration to their South Asian country-of-nationality in future years, compared to older generations, and greater intent of either onward migration or immobility (staying in the UAE, or the Gulf). Commonly cited reasons included a strong sense of belonging to the UAE, consistent with emerging literature that finds that second-generation emigrants claim a sense of belonging to the Gulf comparable to citizens. However, they also noted escalating political disparities in persecution and stability in their South Asian sender states, suggesting that these will play an increasing role in the migration trajectories of second and subsequent generations of emigrants in the Gulf, particularly in decisions of inward and return migration. Thus, this paper situates South Asians in the Gulf in ongoing mixed migration discourses, adding sociological insight to predominantly structural and economic explanations.