User:Elliek22/Human Rights in Qatar/Bibliography

Language barriers

In terms of basic human rights, people of Qatar suffer greatly due to obstacles from language barriers. Not everyone in Qatar speaks Arabic and there is a heavy population of migrant workers that speak other languages; basic human rights are affected because of this lack of communication. For instance, access to health care is impacted. A patient that does not speak English or Arabic will have a great deal of trouble trying to receive treatment. Qatar is predominantly made up of foreigners who do not speak the national languages, and they will face extreme adversity in getting treatment (Abdelrahim). Also because of the language barrier patients might receive incorrect treatment or the wrong treatment for their ailment, which can make their situation even worse. And that’s just with health care, imagine the other interactions with important institutions that are counterproductive. Additionally, according to the journal, “Patient Perspectives on Languages Discordance During Healthcare Visits: Findings From the Extremely High-Density Multicultural State of Qatar”, addressing the work force of Qatar, “Qatar, … heavily in the development of its healthcare infrastructure in recent years to keep pace with rapid economic expansion. The expatriate population living and working in the country constitutes 94.14% of the total workforce (Qatar Permanent Population Committee, 2011)” (Abdelrahim). The fact that the majority of workers who control the forward progression of advancements of Qatar do not even speak the national language is crazy. Migrant labor workers are the backbone of the country and those who are in charge of them probably cannot even communicate with them. The language barriers also create cultural and ethnic divides. About 90% of Qatar’s population is made of non-citizens (Theodoropoulou). Communication is essential to complete anything, and this massive language barrier has to hinder a lot of important processes.

Makeup and Citizenship of Qatar

Given the break down of Qatar’s population it is clear that people’s rights are in jeopardy. Out of the population of about 2,700,000, about 2 million are men and the rest are female (PSA). This population obviously with favor the rights of males and not focus as much on women’s rights. Stated earlier, over 90% over the population of Qatar are not actually Qatari. The Qatari government does not help the migrant acclimate and studies have been done on the quality of life of migrant workers. Workers come from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Egypt, and more. Out of this migrant population over half of them have strong depression like symptoms (Sage). With all of these different cultural backgrounds coming together migrant workers most likely feel lost and have troubling find a place in their life. To make matters even worse the divide even stronger between Qataris and migrants, the new laws passed in 2021 states only those who have be Qatari nationality since birth and naturalized citizens with a Qatari grandparent can vote. Additionally on those whose nationality is originally Qatari can run in elections (Dihmis). So all of the migrant workers that make up the majority of Qatar are not even considered citizens of the country they work so hard for.

Sources

Abdelrahim, Huda, et al. “Patient Perspectives on Language Discordance during Healthcare Visits: Findings from the Extremely High-Density Multicultural State of Qatar.” Journal of Health Communication, vol. 22, no. 4, 2017, pp. 355–363., https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2017.1296507.

Depression in Migrant Workers and ... - Sage Publications Inc. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0020764019850589.

Dihmis, Written by Lara. “Protests in Qatar Spark Free Speech Concerns.” OCCRP, https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/14999-protests-in-qatar-spark-free-speech-concerns.

“Qatar Monthly Statistics.” Planning and Statistics Authority Home Page, https://www.psa.gov.qa/en/Pages/default.aspx.

Theodoropoulou, Irene. “Blue-Collar Workplace Communicative Practices: A Case Study in Construction Sites in Qatar.” Language Policy, vol. 19, no. 3, 2019, pp. 363–387., https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-019-09518-z.