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The number of non-GCC Arab migrants in Qatar has decreased to less than 20% of the population against 70% in the 1970s, a senior official of the Centre for International and Regional Studies (CIRS) at Georgetown University Qatar (GU-Q) has said. |
“The explanation for this downward trend in Arab workers is simple economics,” said Zahra Babar, associate director for Research at CIRS, during the CIRS Monthly Dialogue lecture titled “Working for the Neighbours: Arab Migrants in Qatar,” recently.
“For GCC states rushing to employ workers in the early days of the burgeoning energy industry, employing workers from neighbouring Arab countries made sense, given the shared cultural and linguistic connections,” she recalled.
“Over time, however, expanding numbers of non-working dependents meant Arab worker wages were not economically competitive, resulting in a shift to cheaper labour that could keep pace with the increasingly globalised and developed hydrocarbon industry,” the academic explained.
In her presentation, Babar delved into the topic of Qatar’s recent population boom, with a focus on non-GCC Arabs in the workforce, and the economic factors that contributed to the shifting demographic balance of migrant workers.
“The migrant population in the Gulf in general, and in Qatar in particular, has increased significantly over the past few decades,” Babar said, in reference to statistics showing Qatar’s population tripling to 2mn since the 1990s.
She explained how the issue of nationality guides her research because it is an integral component in understanding the issue of migrant labour, impacting salary structures, benefits and prospects. “Nationality has a strong correlation with how one is integrated into Qatar’s labour market,” she said.
“In Qatar, the state and society are extremely concerned about the demographic imbalance and the increasing presence of foreigners outnumbering them, and so really what they are looking for is to have their labour market needs met without any incremental increase to the population,” she said.
The CIRS Monthly Dialogue Series lectures are open to the public. More information about upcoming events could be had from cirs.georgetown.edu
