Naturalization policies, rather: non-naturalization policies, in the GCC member states are predicated on the alleged uniqueness of their migration phenomenon. GCC member states base this alleged uniqueness on the “high level of immigration” and its “guest-worker patterns.” By challenging this assumed uniqueness, the panel provides the ideal backdrop for an assessment of the (non-)naturalization policies, which my paper intends to analyze. Policies of civic inclusion and exclusion, I argue, are the real unique element of GCC member states migration and its management strategies. The paper employs comparative and critical legal analysis to consider both the legislative policies on citizenship in the GCC member states, and their current (non-)naturalization practices. Legislative policies, on the one hand, will be analyzed on the basis of the fundamental conceptualizations of citizenship in the region, and their strategic amendments openly acknowledging exclusionary goals. (Non-)naturalization practices, on the other hand, will provide a wind-tunnel for the implementation of legislative policies and offer insights into the use of legal discourse in the service of restrictive management strategies. The analysis will be based on existing legislation and legal literature for the first section, and naturalization decrees for the second. My contribution to the panel sits at the intersection of law and migrations. The broader horizon of the paper is on the one hand conceptualizations and practices of citizenship in the region, and on the other hand governance structures in the GCC member states. While naturalizations are portrayed as almost automatic applications of citizenship legislation when requirements are met, the arbitrary use of naturalizations by political authorities tells a different story. Plunging into the heart of the polity, naturalization strategies are often politically divisive (Lebanon being just the epitome of such divisiveness), but the definition of (looser or stricter) legal requirements in the legislation boosts the conflict during the defining stage, but defuses it in the times of ordinary politics. In the Gulf, naturalization requirements and procedures are set high to allow for the exclusion of unwanted foreign nationals, but also occasionally bent for the inclusion of expectedly loyal supporters (as in the case of “political naturalizations” in Bahrain).