Social Capital and Citizens’ Attitudes towards Migrant Workers

Abdoulaye Diop, Yaojun Li, Majed Mohammmed H. A. Al-Ansari and Kien T. Le
Additional contact information
Abdoulaye Diop: Social and Economic Survey Research Institute, Qatar University, Qatar
Yaojun Li: Department of Sociology, University of Manchester, UK, and Cathie Marsh Institute for Social Research, University of Manchester, UK
Majed Mohammmed H. A. Al-Ansari: Social and Economic Survey Research Institute, Qatar University, Qatar
Kien T. Le: Social and Economic Survey Research Institute, Qatar University, Qatar

Social Inclusion, 2017, vol. 5, issue 1, 66-79

Abstract: This study examines Qatari citizens’ attitudes toward migrant workers. While much research has been conducted on citizens’ attitudes toward the abolition, tightening, or loosening of the Kafāla system in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries with regard to migrant workers’ residency rights, and on their contribution to the economic development of these countries, little is known about how citizens’ religiosity and social engagement impact their acceptance of migrant workers. In the present study, we address this question by examining the effects of religious and social capital on Qatari citizens’ preferences for having Arab and Western migrant workers as neighbours, drawing on data from two nationally representative surveys in Qatar. The results indicate that, even after controlling for a wide range of socio-demographic attributes, social capital in terms of trust and bridging social ties has a strong effect on the Qatari nationals’ preferences.

Keywords: Gulf Cooperation Council countries; kafāla system; migrant workers; public attitudes, social capital (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/798 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cog:socinc:v5:y:2017:i:1:p:66-79

DOI: 10.17645/si.v5i1.798

Access Statistics for this article

Social Inclusion is currently edited by Mariana Pires

More articles in Social Inclusion from Cogitatio Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by António Vieira () and IT Department ().