Qatar — the second most preferred job destination for Nepali foreign job seekers — has been listed at the top in the citizen-migrant ratio. About 87 per cent residents of Qatar are migrant workers from South Asia, according to the Migration Policy Institute’s latest report ‘Top Destinations for Migrant Workers’.

The report reveals that the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has been the highest migrant worker hiring region since 2010. Migrant workers have been dominating the share of population in most of the countries in the region. United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Jordan have 70 per cent, 69 per cent and 46 per cent share of migrant workers, respectively, among their total population. 

Saudi Arabia has 28 per cent migrant population but the destination is fourth in hosting the highest number of migrants. The United States of America has been hosting the highest number of migrants. The US accounts for about five percent of the world’s total population, but is home to 20 per cent of the world’s 214 million migrants. 

In New Zealand, more than 22 per cent of the population was born abroad. In Israel, a country that has experienced several successive waves of migration since its formation in 1948, more than 40 percent of the total population is comprised of international migrants. 

Similar to other Gulf countries such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia, Qatar admits migrants to meet labour shortages mostly in construction, manufacturing, service, and other low-skilled — and generally low-paid — jobs. 

The overwhelming majority of migrants in Qatar are young men from South and East Asian countries such as India, Pakistan, Nepal, and the Philippines. These migrants are admitted as temporary, contract-based workers with little prospects for permanent settlement and citizenship.

About 600,000 Nepalis are believed to be working in Qatar in contract jobs in construction, manufacturing and service sectors. The destination has been hiring thousands of migrant workers every month to construct large infrastructure projects related to the World Cup Football 2022. 

According to the Department of Foreign Employment, Qatar has hired 79,183 Nepalis in the first 11 months of the current fiscal year.

Published on: 4 July 2013 | The Himalayan Times