White-Collar” Indians

e-Migrinter 8 | 2012 Regards sur les migrations sud-asiatiques Qatar’s “White-collar” Indians Radhika Kanchana Édition électronique URL : https://journals.openedition.org/e-migrinter/597 DOI : 10.4000/e-migrinter.597 ISSN : 1961-9685 Éditeur UMR 7301 - Migrinter Édition imprimée Date de publication : 4 April 2012 Pagination : 45-58 ISSN : 1961-9685 Référence électronique Radhika Kanchana, « Qatar’s “White-collar” Indians », e-Migrinter [En ligne], 8 | 2012, mis en ligne le , consulté le 20 mai 2021. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/e-migrinter/597 ; DOI : https://doi.org/ 10.4000/e-migrinter.597 Tous droits réservés n°8 2012 45 Qatar’s "White-collar" Indians Radhika Kanchana he paper is a descriptive Differences in character, composition narrative of the Indian and size of the expatriate group might reflect T the structural and current conditions in the expatriates in Qatar, respective host countries. Oman, Bahrain covering two aspects. One and the UAE today show a more dimension highlights the profile of entrepreneurial and mature Indian expatriate the Qatari Indian community presence than in the other three Gulf primarily in the white-collar nations of Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, occupations and the second partly because the former were historically dimension explores some of the involved in sea trade with the coast of India. For this text, Qatar as host country to the differences of the group, in Indian community is explored. It has one of comparison with its counterpart in the highest per capita incomes in the world the United Arab Emirates (UAE). and an economy primarily dependent on its The basis for the work is a two- impressive reserves in oil & natural gas 1 month fieldwork done as part of reserves (Per capita- $81,963, GDP- $111 doctoral research in late 2009 (15 billion; In contrast, the UAE’s share is per capita- $49,995, GDP- $253 billion)2. It was days in Qatar and the rest in the a perception that the Indian community in UAE). The region of Gulf Qatar is insignificant - that was proven Cooperation Council (GCC) wrong after the fieldwork. The holding of collectively has a significant the 2nd Non-Resident Indian Global population of Indians in its total Summit in Doha in March 2010 could be size of foreign migrants. All the cited as a testimony to the group’s expanding visibility here (the Summit also countries share the practice of launched NRI Institute, Qatar Chapter). importing labour, extensively from the 1970s since the discovery of oil The paper is an effort to throw some and the rapid development in the light on the dominant group of Indian region. However, it is relevant to expatriates in Qatar, given that limited understand that the individual literature exists, and to share a part of the ongoing research project. In the context of member countries (namely Saudi existing dearth of formal migrants’ rights Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, and charges of labour exploitation in the Kuwait, and United Arab region, much media and research attention Emirates) do not have the same on the expatriates in the West Asia-Gulf typology with regard to the Indian- states is almost exclusively devoted to the migrant group. blue-collar segment. As a result, there is a missing discourse on the other sections of the expatriate population and a general prevalence of the mistaken image of a Gulf 1It is claimed to hold the world’s third largest reserves of natural gas. CIA World Fact Book. 2International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook Database, April 2010. 46 n°8 2012 migrant, to be a blue-collar worker. The reasons4. The GCC Islamic countries do not paper expands the story to beyond the permit naturalization options and follow a image. The “white-collar” classification is Jus sanguinis principle for citizenship. The chosen for focus, within the larger Indian Indian expatriates in the Gulf, apt to be expatriate cluster mainly because during the termed “contract workers”, experience fieldwork, this sector was personally certain disadvantages compared to their perceived to be more prominent in Qatar counterpart NRIs from the other regions: compared to the “business” category that they seem to lose certain rights both in their was found to be important in the case of host and their home countries because of UAE in an earlier fieldwork. Some their supposed transient stay abroad. The comparison is used with the Indian population of Indian expatriates in the GCC community in the UAE, so that it could be countries is neither insignificant nor always useful to observe the nuances in the “temporary”. The Indians are estimated at characteristics of the expatriates in the two close to 5 million in the entire Gulf region. host countries, and to recognize some of the Despite their residence sometimes stretching underlying factors responsible. For example: over multiple generations, they necessarily as to why in Qatar, it demonstrates a wider hold Indian passports. The remittances to professional-representational class and in the India are also significant (nearly $15 billion)5 UAE, it shows a more mature community and it is one of the factors to finally win strength and a larger entrepreneurial class. them attention from both the host-GCC Finally, it is a curious fact that whereas the nations and home nation-India, albeit on the Asian expatriates and particularly, the opposite interests (it is capital flight to the Indians are widely visible participants in the former, versus capital gain to the latter). local economy and society of the host countries in the Gulf, yet they are “invisible” The majority of the Indian expatriates in the official and public discourses. There is are engaged in the blue-collar sector, owing a significant size of the expatriate population to the local market demand needing mass that has lived in Qatar for many years, but labour for the scale of construction and the halo of temporariness existing around development projects initiated after the oil the “foreign migrant”, shrouds them from boom in the region. The profile is currently being acknowledged in the public domain, as expanding, partly in response to the also being participating “residents”. changing economies in the region and partly reflecting the maturation of the expatriate Background note community. The economic criterion of job opportunity and the currency differential is a The Indians living in the Gulf primary reason for the migration of Indians Cooperation Council (GCC) countries differ to the oil-rich Gulf nations. Geographical somewhat from the generic grouping of proximity is another affirmative factor Non-resident Indian (NRI3) that is usually favouring migration in this direction, with applied to the population of overseas current migration having foundations in the Indians. In common usage, the NRI label is loosely applied to also include individuals of Indian origin who have naturalized or 4Individuals who have become citizens of another become citizens in the countries where they country could apply for official status that grants have migrated either for work or other them certain rights- either Person of Indian Origin (PIO) or Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) (introduced since a few years). 5Quoted from an article on a recent Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Survey that indicates that in 2009, 3By official definition, it refers to Indians living remittances from the Gulf region, form nearly 30% outside India for more than 183 days (6 months) in of the total remittances to India nearly matching the the year. same from the North American region. n°8 2012 47 historical trade and socio-cultural links unofficially. The 2010 Census puts the total between India and the Gulf region. population of Qatar at 1,696,5637. Hence, at nearly 25% of Qatar population, the Indians Qatar perhaps witnessed several are a significant group and arguably the trends with regard to the composition, largest among the expatriate population in number and settlement pattern of its the country, followed next, by Pakistanis and expatriates, in parallel to the trends in its Bangladeshis. Although Qatar’s expatriate national development. After the population comprises nationalities from independence in 1971 from being a former diverse regions, the South Asians dominate British protectorate, Qatar’s leadership it at the moment (see Bruslé in the same change in 1995 to the current Sheikh Hamad issue). The expatriate-native proportion is bin Khalifa al Thani, saw its capital shifted approximately 60:40, indicative of the from Al Bida to Doha and the introduction prevailing imbalance. It is especially skewed of liberal and “pro-development” policies. in the labour force: “Qataris encompass only The economy and new industrial 7.6% as opposed to the 92.3% foreign labor development expanded to clusters in Doha, force”, as per a Labor Force Survey Al Khor, Mesaieed and Dukhan, where conducted by the Statics Authority in today the expatriate residential locales also October 20078. tend to concentrate. Past trends in the increase or decrease of the expatriate Indians in the construction and the population/composition in Qatar, reflect low/unskilled/unorganized sector form also specific periods of successful policy between 60 to 70% of the group and the rest action. Expatriates recall the deliberate hike are divided between the professional and the in rents (cited as steep as 600% during business categories that we here, term as the 2005), when there was a resultant flight of a “white-collar” occupations. However, the bulk of the expatriates who could not afford profile has expanded or shown change from to keep up. A noticeable change in the the earlier decades, where the “blue-collar” nationality-composition of the expatriate segment was significantly more dominant. workforce, within the fairly recent period of For reasons discussed in the subsequent 3-4 years, is also cited.

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