Perceived Discrimination in the Arabian Gulf:The Case of Migrant Labor in Kuwait

摘要

The Gulf Cooperation Council countries (GCC) are characterized by complex social structures. The interplay of nationality, ethnicity, and religion complemented by significant numbers of migrant workers from all over the world who seek better work and income opportunities add to the socio-cultural complexities in the region. While the movement of labor and ethnic groups into the region has had profound positive impacts on its economies, there are some significant negative consequences. In this paper, we focus on prejudice and perceived discrimination between the various subgroups and study the characteristics of such negative realities. We focus on Kuwait, one of the earliest destinations of migrant workers in the region, and a country where locals constitute a minority group in their own country. We use an adapted version of the Perceived Ethnic Discrimination Questionnaire (PEDQ) to investigate perceived discrimination in Kuwait. While our study is conducted in Kuwait, we argue that the cultural and socioeconomic similarities between the six Gulf countries (Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Oman) make our study and its findings applicable to the Arabian Gulf region.