A Tale of two Cities

Ever realized that you don’t see a Qatari citizen behind a counter in a supermarket or driving a Karwa taxi?

The total population in Qatar, as of October 31st 2011, is 1,722,516. Qataris are the minority of the population in their own country. Taking that into consideration, in 2009, figures show that over 94% of the working population in Qatar is non-Qatari. However, the general Qatari population that is above the age of 15 doesn’t find it hard to find a job in their own country. Recently, with Qatarization, rules and guidelines for all companies in Qatar entitle all Qataris an opportunity to work in all companies in the industry.

This leaves the rest of the population in Qatar as the working population, which is majorly made up of the labor force, who are the secondary labor force. These are usually the low-paid jobs provided to the labor workers who work on-site and in manufacture work.

Speaking of labor force, let’s take the example of two Sudanese expats. In my Eid Al-Adha break, I got the chance to visit Zekreet, a village out in a more deserted part of Qatar- I got to see a little of the real Qatari culture. Interestingly, my friends and I drove to the film city, which is a film set designed in the middle of nowhere to draw out the image of an ancient, Qatari village.



As we drove up to the film city, our friend told us that this “city” is supposed to be haunted, which naturally scared many of those in the car and discouraged them from entering the “haunted city.” As I started to walk towards the main door of the city, I started to think of what sorts of things I could find in there. As soon as I entered, BOOM there were two men sitting by the main door. Humans? What were they doing there?! Turns out, film city was literally a film set, not a horror movie. And we’re back to reality: These two men, Mohammed and Abdulrahim, were two Sudanese expats who sat by the main door to act as the surveillance of the city.

Mohammed and Abdulrahim have lived in Qatar for about a year now. To answer my question, they were in film city because they were asked by their Qatari sponsor to go out and live there by themselves to act as the security of the whole place. Not having a choice, the men moved out and find ways to entertain themselves as they did their job. The men live out in nowhere in one of the rooms in this empty city, one dressed in a Sudanese thobe and the other dressed in everyday casual clothes, jeans and a shirt. As I continued to speak with them I noticed all the references they made connecting back to Sudan. They always had a story to share with us about Sudan, or a comparison to make. Even though they are both Sudanese, they tried to assimilate to the Qatari society.






So as I mentioned earlier, even though the labor population might be the majority in the country, they are the minority group. Whereas the Qataris are the dominant group with the greatest power, the most privileges and the highest social status. In Qatar, it is fairly easy differentiating between the Qataris and non-Qataris, where the segregation of both groups could be clearly identified.