Qatar: Research suggests labour reforms during FIFA 2022 World Cup "fall short" in protecting migrant worker rights
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Although the reforms in Qatar seek to provide more labour rights and protections, they fall short of loosening the absolute control of sponsors (kafeels) over their employees.Nicola Piper and Vani Saraswathi, in "Advancing the labour rights of migrant workers beyond Kafala: the impact of ‘established-outsider relations’ on reforming Qatar’s transnational labour management system"
In April 2024, a research article published by Bristol University Press, titled “Advancing the labour rights of migrant workers beyond Kafala: the impact of ‘established-outsider relations’ on reforming Qatar’s transnational labour management system”, analyses the impact of Qatar’s labour rights reforms. The article analyses whether the reforms can be considered a ‘break’ in Qatar’s pre-FIFA World Cup (2022) migrant labour system.
The future of Qatar’s labour management from a labour standards perspective, however, depends on sustained engagement between international organisations and the state, ideally creating space for workers’ movements at the local level.Piper, N. and Saraswathi, V., "Advancing the labour rights of migrant workers beyond Kafala", in Work in the Global Economy,
The article includes a focus on the influence of transnational actors, including transnational civil society organisations, on expanding labour rights for migrants in the country. The article uses 'established-outsider' relations theory as a lens to show how migrant workers are controlled in the country.
It argues the reforms fall short in reducing the control employers (sponsors) have over migrant workers amid a lack of effective institutions to implement the reforms in practice, and that the laws outside of the ministry that fall under the jurisdiction of the interior ministry “remain largely untouched”. Among other factors, the article discuss this in the context of a lack of local contestation amid minimum local grassroots movements and the separation of citizens and migrants.
We found that while reforms in Qatar seek to loosen the absolute control of sponsors over their workers, the overall foundations of the social contract between citizen and state remain untouched.Piper, N. and Saraswathi, V., "Advancing the labour rights of migrant workers beyond Kafala", in Work in the Global Economy,
The reinstatement of the former (pre-World Cup) regime may depend on conservative forces within Qatari society and their ability to reassert themselves. Our respondents sensed that Qatar would not retract its reforms, but they will most likely slow down. TPiper, N. and Saraswathi, V., "Advancing the labour rights of migrant workers beyond Kafala", in Work in the Global Economy,