The Outsider Goes to the Gulf: Public Attitudes to Immigrants in Qatar

• In Event: New Directions in Immigration Research

Abstract

What explains attitudes towards immigrants in the unique context of Gulf states in the Middle East? High oil rents, rentier economies, and quick development over the past century have resulted in states in which low-wage migrant laborers frequently outnumber national citizens. States in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) practice the kafala system in governing migrants, which gives citizen employers significant control over the status, rights, and welfare of migrants within the state, and there exists little labor competition between migrants and nationals. Despite these unusual circumstances, there are few systematic studies examining the attitudes Gulf nationals hold towards the large populations of migrants in their countries. This study extends the robust international relations and political economy literature on attitudes towards immigration and aims to fill the gap on the Gulf through a nationally-representative survey of a key GCC state, Qatar, which has come under international criticism over migrant abuses in the kafala system. This survey also integrates AI-based imagery with discrete choice conjoint methods to examine participant attitudes towards migrants with a high degree of control to study the effects of racial difference on public attitudes toward migrants.

Authors

• Nicholas Sambanis, Yale University

• Catalina Udani, University of Central Florida