New Extensive Study on Qatar Migrant Workers
A new extensive scientific study on the lives of migrant workers in Qatar was published on Monday in the Journal of Arabian Studies
The work, “A Portrait of Low-Income Migrants in Contemporary Qatar,” is the result of a two-year research project that included surveying 1,189 low-income migrants and conducting follow-up interviews.
The analysis, funded by the Qatar National Research Fund, studies a sample of foreign workers with an income of less than QR2,000 (US$549) per month.
Unlike many other studies, the conclusions come based on quantified data that the authors obtained and hope will give authorities more concrete information to work with, and in turn, fuel reform.
It describes "the basic characteristics of the low-income migrant population in Qatar, the process by which migrants obtain employment, the frequency with which this population of migrants encounters the problems and challenges described by previous ethnographic work, and the role played by nationality, ethnicity, and religion in patterning that experience."
The report tackles issues workers face such as salary withholding, insufficient documentation and poor living conditions.
For example, the research findings include:
1. Of the workers surveyed, 56% lacked a government-mandated “health card”, which is needed for accessing health care in the state’s expansive public health system.
2. 90% of the respondents reported that their employer possessed their passport.
3. 21% of low-income workers in Qatar reported that they received their salary on time only sometimes, rarely, or never.
Qatar, over the years, has gained a notorious reputation for its mistreatment of the large population of migrant workers in the country.
According to Human Rights Watch, Qatar has the highest ratio of migrants to citizens in the world. In 2012, the population of workers made up 94% of the country’s work force, and about 70% of the population. There are more than 1.2 million workers.
Migrant workers suffer from a range of problems including low wages, extremely poor working and living conditions, passport confiscation, and segregation.
The country has made moves in order to lessen the influx of bachelor migrant workers in the city by building an entertainment complex in the Industrial Area, outside of Doha.
However, Qatar is increasingly being pressured and put under the spotlight as the 2022 World Cup approaches, when the population of migrant workers is expected to increase dramatically.
The hope is that, by then, things will be different for migrant workers, who are the backbone of this country.
Source: University of Puget Sound Media Relations
Photos: Andrew Gardner (Lead Author)
Such studies are farcical and good for laughs on a weekday at your office...
#Slavery is here to stay...
Sad to say that i'm working in qatar for two years now for 12hrs everyday without getting any overtime pay :-(
Hoping that labor department will check on this..
Did it say below QR2,000?...lol
The guy at one of Qatar's most premier St Regis Resort was getting QR 1,500...lol
jungle has no rule
I worked more than 10 years in a private company where the employees had to pay their visa renewal fee. Health cards can be taken with own cash. Regular working hours is still 9 hours and in Ramadan it was 8 hours. I remember many employees complained to Labor Dept and on each case the complained employees were deported with payment. Not a single time, the Labor dept come and check the situations.
The laws are already established, it's the implementation that seems to be the problem here. What is imperative is to crack down on all those corrupt officials allowing such illegal activities and oppression to prevail depending on who the oppressors are!
Come on Brit will you ever criticise anything in Qatar? even when it is so obviously wrong!!!
Truth is Qatar already has laws in place to deal with most of these problems, but they are just not enforced.
Im guessing because it will cost people with Wasta money....
Brit, they also CAN treat them fair. If they WANT to.
Simply because they can!
By the time the extensive and exhaustive studies are completed a new group of labourers will have come over and it will be time to start the survey all over again. My only question is why do not people treat other human beings the same or about the same way that they would like to be treated themselves.
Ok...sorry my critical mind would like to know how many workers were actually used in the research....on one hand you state that so many had been used in the research then it goes on to say about the follow up.....Did you follow up all the subjects used in the study?Why the need for follow up?Are you expecting them to deliver different information?
A lot of potential bias in this study.......I would love to see the study in full!!!
I see that 1,189 workers were surveyed and was this number followed up?
- ani_chy - did you read it?
"Unlike many other studies, the conclusions come based on quantified data that the authors obtained and hope will give authorities more concrete information to work with, and in turn, fuel reform."
Extensive studies are made to shed light on problems that need to be solved, it is exactly what's needed.
I totally agree with Angelina...at this point of time, we don't need an extensive study...what we need is solutions. The problem is known to all, and has often been highlighted in the leading newspapers of Qatar. Government is trying their best, but we also need to accept the fact that all these sudden changes would need time and effort from everyone...
why doesn't the author instead carry out an extensive study on how other passionate, kind, helpful, respectable and caring residents help deal with this problem? who are the hidden supermen in our society?
Never mind quantitative research try some qualitative it may be more astounding.....And the analysis is what??This is a half written piece that tells us nothing......
The Government is taking measures to solve the various issues of the workers.
Qatar has already started taking action..
The population of migrant workers should peak and then drop prior to the start of the world cup.