Zahra Babar Publishes Research on Population and Power in Qatar

Zahra Babar, Journal of Arabian Studies 5, no. 2 (December 2015)While accepting the primacy of economic forces in shaping the regional reliance on foreign labor, in this paper, Zahra Babar, Associate Director for Research at CIRS, suggests that the GCC’s peculiar demography is also reflective of particular political choices made by the states. She examines two particular policymaking tools used widely across the region, namely—the kafāla (worker-sponsorship) system and public sector employment of citizens, and assess them within the Qatari context. In Qatar, it appears that these policy tools have been state choices not only to preserve citizens’ economic satisfaction, but also political and social stability.