Stunning skyline, Fast Cars,
luxurious lifestyles. In recent years, Qatar’s economy remains the fastest
growing out of all the GCC in 2013, as reported by Kanady in 2012 in the
Peninsula newspaper.
Unfortunately,
Qatar’s rapid rise in economical and architectural growth cannot be credited to
the Qatari citizens alone. That is, Qatar has no other choice but to rely on a
large number of migrant workers in order to fulfill its aspirations. This is
because Qatar does not have enough human resources to complete their plans in
the first place.
Some may argue,
that the solution of bringing multi cultural migrant workers from all over the world
could possibly deteriorate the Qatari Culture. And this creates a growth
paradox. In other words, the solution contradicts with the problem, this is because
there is a possible problem within the only solution. Here is a simplified way
of looking at it:
[Problem:
not enough Qatari Human resources – Solution: Bring Migrant workers…Problem:
Migrant workers come with different values and culture…Problem: new cultures
could disrupt the Qatari Culture]
Speaking
from a Qatari point of view, the fact that migrant workers out-number Qataris
is not a threatening issue. Moreover, I believe that the country is immune to
such influences because most Qatari families tend to be traditional extremists
in a way. Which means that although there is a modernization movement happening
in the country, Qataris will always fall back to their traditions and hold on
to their heritage fiercely. A Simple example is that the majority still wear
Thoub and Abayah in Qatar, they have not removed it as in Kuwait or Oman.
I
also think that Qatar should not hinder its projects for fear that the Qatari culture
will fade because of migrant workers, especially with FIFA 2022 coming up. This
urbanization movement has happened before in the renovation of Paris in the
1850’s by the French Civic planner George-Eugene Hausmann; hence they called it
the Haussmannization or the urbanization of regulation (McQuire, 2008). In
Mcquire’s book The Media City, he has mentioned in the second chapter that
although Paris has called for the aid of Morrocan and Algerian migrant workers,
their culture is still in tact (2008). Therefore, Qatar should not limit its
resources, because it has a right as much as any other country to grow and
prosper.
As
for the influx of expats to Qatar, this can be looked as a challenge on housing
and transportation. True that Qatar is a small country, but with enough
fully-taken-care-of immigrant workers (proper humane housing and finance), it
will result in happier, healthier and stronger workers, which then result in
faster construction of roads and buildings right in time for FIFA 2022 and
other multi-corporate plans of the future. This solution could be a high
expectation but it IS attainable.
Resources:
1. [Book] The Media City: Media, Architecture and Urban Space by Scott
McQuire (2008).
This book talks about how media is
no longer separate from the city and it illustrates the relationship between
public and private space and social life in contemporary societies. I have used
information from the second chapter of the book which talks about urbanization
of France in the 1850’s using immigrant workers from north Africa and
paralleled it to the current situation in Qatar.
2. [Newspaper Article/Peninsula]
Qatar to remain fastest growing GCC economy by Satish Kanady (2012). I read
this article to look at the ratings of Qatar’s economy in comparison the rest
of the GCC and used it in my introduction. http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/business/215253-qatar-to-remain-fastest-growing-gcc-economy.html
3. Georges-Eugene Haussmann. He was
mentioned in the book and this is some information about him to confirm that he
was the French civic planner most responsible for rebuilding paris http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges-Eug%C3%A8ne_Haussmann
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