This paper explores the data dilemma in the GCC region, and offers potential recommendations to close data gap on the GCC labor migration. The first section outlines the availability of data on GCC temporary labor migrants. In this section we summarize and document government based sources of data and also private initiatives for collection and dissemination of migrant data in the Gulf. A detailed comparison of similarities and differences of the publicly available data is presented. The second section examines the costs and benefits of data collection, while focusing on what type and quality of data that needs to be collected. The data dilemma comes in the form of the costs and benefits from a policy making point of view. What are the costs/benefits of GCC governments to resort to factual and empirical evidence to build policy recommendations? The same question applies in the case of the counterfactual, to not use data in policy making. In this paper we attempt to categorize these costs and benefits as part financial but also part in terms of efficiency gains and losses in allocation of resources. The policy makers and scholars in the GCC countries have a vested interest to contribute to the academic literature and play an active role in the migration and remittance literature. This literature includes research on Gulf economies but also on the development effect of labor movement to the Gulf on labor exporting countries. Better macro data would allow policy oriented studies that examine the effects of remittance outflows on local Gulf economies; for instance what are the expected effects of imposing a tax on remittance outflows? Further, better micro data (on migrants in the Gulf and their family members back home) would allow researchers to examine the development impact of migration to the Gulf region to the home country. What are the effects of moving to the Gulf on the education, poverty and other socio-economic indicators in labor exporting countries? The paper also examines some lost opportunities in the past while at the same time builds on future prospects. An example of a lost opportunity arises in the 1991 Gulf War which acted as a natural experiment. Another theoretically similar incident is the 2008 financial crisis and its impact on labor movements in the region. Better data quality and availably would be crucial to better understand the effects of events such as these.