Pandemic Mobilities in the Persian Gulf: Unpacking the “Crises”

In this article, the author gives an example for how particular policies during COVID19 in Qatar have affected the lives of migrants there, and in their countries of origin. Originally aimed at improving the conditions of migrant communities in Qatar, the Wage Protection System has further restricted the mobility of these communities. The author sets the wider scene for this case, by examining the different meanings and framings of “crisis” in world and in the Gulf. A “crisis” that is utilized by the state, or by specific structures of it, for further intervention and restrictions. As such, the Pandemic is yet another layer of a wider securitized and crisis-based approach. Moreover, this article also gives a nuanced account for how migrants in Qatar and in the Gulf are not one social group, but rather they are often perceived and treated along hierarchical lines of race and class.