Social Inequalities in Qatar

Qatar is one of the richest countries in the world, but when looking carefully at its social class system one would find a lot of social inequalities. When studying the definition of social inequalities I realized that there are different elements that contribute to those discriminations. Things such as wealth, social status, education effects the treatment of a person. However, in Qatar I noticed that race is a huge marker of social inequality. To be specific, social inequality refers to the arrangement of recourses and/or “social goods” in a systematic way that people of different backgrounds have unequal access to them. 

Although I didn’t actively detect racism with in my circle of acquaintances, I realize that racism exists in Qatar. I came to this conclusion based on the different treatments people of different races face on day-to-day basis. For example, in Qatar, one would think that any Indian man walking in the street is a worker. This is based on the preconceived idea that most workers in Qatar are Indian men. 

Social inequalities in Qatar appear in the form of education and jobs. For example: if a Qatari and an Egyptian are applying to the same job and the Egyptian has more qualifications, the Qatari would be hired. Furthermore, Qataris get better treatment in the office space. On another note, Qataris get free education while other races pay for theirs. Another example is that a Qatari would be picked as the top of their class in school although another race deserved it. These kinds of choices are made to show the public that Qataris have what it takes. And although I agree that a lot of Qataris have what it takes, I believe that there are certain inequalities that make it hard for others to have access to what they deserve. In the Human rights watch world report of 2012, the unfair treatment of workers was said to be a “serious problem” and that “forced labour and human trafficking” is a part of it.

I once visited the home of my Pakistani/ Qatari friend. After we had dinner, my friends and I were helping out with cleaning. When I went into the kitchen, I noticed a Pakistani maid cleaning up so I put the dishes and left. However, my friend asked me why didn’t I say hi to her mother so I told her I didn’t see her mother. As it turns out, the woman I thought was the maid is actually her mother. Personally, I don’t think of myself as racist. However, I recently found out that because of my preconceived notions that I’ve learned from observing things in Qatar I became a racist, something that I don’t approve of.

The reproduction of social classes

Abduljaleel, 25 years old

I was sitting at the back of my car and my driver was taking me to college when I told him to go pick up my new spectacles from villagio. And so I gave him the receipt and tried to simplify my language with half Arabic and half English to make him understand what I’m trying to say. But I was surprised when he replied with a fine English with a good accent! I was even more surprised when he told me that he completed two years of his college life and couldn’t afford the rest so he dropped off.

Social classes reproduce itself
Abduljaleel’s Father was a Driver and worked so hard for his son not to be a driver and to educate him. But social classes tend to reproduce itself, and social mobility is almost impossible for working class people. It’s as they call it the American dream that social mobility can be achieved by hard work and personal effort. However, social mobility can’t be easily reached, and the idea of that all men are created equal with equal chances is just a dream! Since his father was a driver his future can be expected the day he was born. We can’t predict that he will be a driver as his dad but sociologist will agree that his social status remains as his dad’s, because social classes reproduce itself.

And so he dropped off his American dream!
After two years of college he wasn’t able to afford the rest so he dropped off and became a driver as his father. Social class is not about how hard someone works but rather it is inherited. And because Abduljaleel was born in a lowbrow culture and almost everyone around him was poor and from the same social class mobilization remained just a dream!



Why Social classes reproduce itself?
It is the way that the bourgeoisies (high-class) have set up the society to benefit themselves is preventing the low class people to mobilize upward. The most obvious example is the low wages of the working class people. With low wages none of the working class people is able to afford education or better life. Because if all proletariat (low-class) were able to educate their children and mobilize upward there will be no one left to do the hard work. So bourgeoisies set up the society in a way that they will remain the high-class people.

Social Class in Qatar

People have a misconception that ALL Qataris are filthy rich and Social Class does not exist in Qatar, well amongst Qataris. The general belief is that the different social classes in Qatar are as follows:

Upper Class = Qataris

Middle Class = Foreigners with jobs that pay middle range salaries

Lower Class = Expats who usually come to do the dirty work e.g. Construction workers.

However, that is not the truth, this is a generalization of Khaleeji (GCC countries) stereotypes or Qataris in particular and it also forms yet another misconception that the social inequality in Qatar favors locals over expats.

This is the real structure for Social Classes in Qatar that I have perceived (A Qatari myself) is as follows:

Upper class = SOME Qataris and Foreigners (usually Americans and Europeans) with high-ranking jobs which requires years of expertise and specialists.

Middle Class = SOME Qataris and other foreigners with middle range incomes

Lower Class = Expats (usually south-east Asians) with low paying jobs.

I know that it is hard for non-Qataris to spot the differences because to them we all look the same. There are many elements that suggest a person’s social class and wealth starting from Family name and origin.

Family name can sometimes be misleading because just because two different people have the same family name, it doesn’t mean that they are both EQUALLY rich. In fact, there is a great contrast between each person’s social status and wealth.

YES, I agree that not every Qatari is exactly “poor”, but they are not all as ignorant and swaggering as we are portrayed in the western media outlets and especially social media.


Just listen to this idiot who's obviously NOT Qatari

 

This is a movie that shows a woman who was kidnapped and then sold a to an “Arab” rich man whose car number plate “happened” to be Qatari.

The movie’s name is Taken and it was released in 2008.

In the Sociology, the concept of “Social Mobility” is defined as “shifting from one social status to another, commonly to a status that is either higher or lower. For example, a child of day laborers who becomes a professor achieves upward social mobility”.

The problem with social mobility in Qatar is that SOME Qataris want to keep up with the rest of the rich population by the accumulation of material goods. This is known in Sociology as “Conspicuous Consumption”.

 Conspicuous consumption is the purchasing of luxury goods such as: cars, antiques, expensive excursions, and beach-houses.

SOME would go to extremes like taking out loans that they know they won’t be able to pay back in order to buy things that they can’t afford. Therefore, the social mobility is fake and temporary.

As Qataris, the first thing we do if we want to determine another Qatari's social class is we simply look at them, their hand bangs, Abayas, cars, houses, where do they travel every summer and how often do they travel. Those are all obvious things, well at least to us. My advice to non-Qataris, whether you're an Arab or not, NEVER make premature judgements especially when they're absolutely false. Because behind all the fancy Abayas, designer handbangs and shoes, and our fast Mercedes, there are normal, nice, down to earth people. Including myself of course ;)

The Sociological Effects of Digital Technology

For this blog, I will attempt to analyze the sociological effects the digital age had and is still having on us. First, however, I will provide a brief history lesson of the subject at hand.

It is not surprising that this issue has turned into a hot debate amongst professionals from various fields. Long before the internet and other digital tools were created, new forms of media "have always caused moral panics: the printing press, newspapers, paperbacks, and television were once denounced as threats to their consumer's brainpower and moral fiber." (Pinker, 2010)

One of the more obvious effects of digital tools, including but not limited to video games, is alienation. In Mix It Up, David Grazian explores the feeling of total flow experienced by those that are totally immersed in mediums like online games. Players who fall into this state slowly become disconnected from the real world and lose the feeling of the passing of time, which Grazian says is illustrative of the increased levels of loneliness and alienation. 

Another effect of digital environments, such as social networks, is the small degree to which someone living in the digital age has control over his or her social identity. Palfrey and Gasser, co-authors of the book Born Digital, provide an example of a 16 year old girl living in the agrarian age. If that girl wanted to change her social identity, how others view her, she could travel to a distant land and start a whole new life with a new social identity. With the rise of the digital era, however, this dramatic change has become near-impossible. If this girl was living nowadays, her social identity would probably be greatly influenced by her online interaction with family members, peers, and online friends, thanks to digital environments like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Keek, along with the other various social networks and hubs of communication that belong to the internet.

If we take a look at who exactly has access to and uses these fancy digital mediums and social networks, we notice immediately yet another effect of digital tools that we see in everyday life--social inequality. This is because the poor and those of the lower working class usually do not have access to things like social networks and online video games. As a result, their social identity is much less complex and less rich than those who are privileged enough to own and use such tools.  

  

My 8 year old brother with his Ipad

                 

My Ipad in his age

                                                                                                                  

These were, in summary, some of the sociological effects the digital age and its accompanying tools are having on us. What other effects can you think of? 

Maids Abuse in Qatar

The phenomenon of maids took over Qatar and the Gulf countries in the past 20 years. Since the majority of the Qatari citizens are from the middle upper social class or the higher upper social class, they all tend to have one maid or more in their property. These maids are assigned to different duties, starting from cleaning and cooking to driving children to schools and friend's house.

Indonesia, India and The Philippines are the country who usually train their maids and send them to the gulf to work. Yet human rights are violated in all Gulf countries, but it does not include the whole population. For example, Al Jazeera English report established that Indonesians maids receive training before heading out to work in someone's house, but lately, they received a lot reports about violations of human rights. Some maids got tortured by the people that they work for. These forms of torture start with hitting and end in burning skin or popping out an eye.

According to these maids, they were tortured because could not do a certain duty because their physical body could not handle it, or because they wanted to get paid for the past couple of months. Three Journalism students, Abir Bouguerra, Angel Polacco and Sara Al-Darwish did a report about maid abuse in Qatar. The story concluded that maids from different nationalities get abused physically, verbally and physiologically. All these abuse forms are added to their low salary. Bouguerra, Polacco and Al-Darwish mentioned laws that were established by the Emir of Qatar that protect labors rights. What grabbed my attention in these laws is that maids are not allowed to work more than eight hours a day, freedom of religious practices and having the Friday off.

In sociology, treatment based on nationally and race is a form of racism and different social classes. Social Mobility is a term that means "if you work hard you go one level up", but for these maids who are located in the working class are unlikely to go up even one level. Yet the middle class such as students and people who attend schools are more likely to move to the highest class only if they work hard. In Qatar, most people get treated based on their position in the society and what they do. Although families in Qatar tend to teach their children to respect the maids and the drivers, these kids tend to disrespect their maids and yell at them for silly reasons.

Maids should be respected as humans, and should be treated the same as we treat anyone else. If they do a mistake one should forgive because at the end of the day we are all humans.