Why is there so much open discrimination in jobs and salaries between different nationalities in Qatar ?

I'd go with MaryCatherine recommendation - that is very true. Many sign on the dotted line and then come here and grumble. If you were happy when you signed up not sure why you should be bothered now.

Steve - there are certain positions where even i'd prefer a western educated or atleast a western mindset (this is difficult to obtain) but i've never come across a company where they've fired someone for being "asian" - your company would have evaluated performance or restructured (cost saving). You've put in Secretary as your position - do remember that is the first position subject to qatarisation.  

While hiring in companies, certain positions are only reserved for Westerners as mentioned in the job descriptions, why is that so? I have been through this a lot and recently got fired from a big company not for bad performance but for being an asian. There were many others also who were fired and if we count the number of asians to others, it is shocking to see that the asians were the most and that is not because they are more in number in the company. But when I applied for positions, I found that even the recruitment consultants give priotity to westerners over asians for managerial roles. Atleast some are decent in this saying only western educated. 

It is because some nationalities will accept lower salaries (generally speaking) and others will not (again, generally speaking).  So employers will "lowball" certain nationalities versus others even if their qualifications/experience is the same. 

Why would you pay more for a certain model of car (delivering the same performance) if you can buy it cheaper elsewhere?  Not a great comparison, but would you?

I am so nervous to post this, but from my own personal experience, I have to agree with all the comments posted so far.  My own husband is Arab but holds a Western passport.  When he applied for jobs using his birth papers, he was out of work all over the Middle East for months and when he did get an offer, it was so low no family could live on.  When he applied the other way, he had offers overnight and it is true, four times the amount.  As far as the education goes, I too find that odd because I was even "recruited" for a teaching job, and I have taught before but that's not my area and I don't care for it.  I wasn't even looking for a job and when I told them what my degree was in they literally said it does not matter. 

I'm afraid it is all a bit racist here. If you can change your passport to a western one, your salary should quadruple over night.

Good Companies do not discriminate. If you add value to the company then they'll pay any amount to retain you. If you grumble continuously only about the nationality issue without performing then don't expect a revision to your salary.

This is really an open secret in Qatar. Your influence with the top management or some people with the prospective employer counts over your skills and qualification. We can understand preference for Qataris and that is truly justice on their part but what about the other nationalities? Salaries for westerns are always higher than asians. Termination from companies are not mostly based on low performance but purely on the unethical business practices. Coming from UAE, I see these issues very high in Qatar. No use of compalaining, get accustomed to these practices. During an interview with a famous company, the HR personnel told me it is only the total experience that counts and no value for higher education which was the most amusing thing that I have ever heard.

In Qatar, such descrimination is very less compared to Saudi and other GCC counties. Most of the good companies in Doha offer same salaries irrespective of nationalities.