From what I've reportedly seen. The working condition is much better than in my Country. We're still building buildings with bamboo scaffolding at times, and dont mention helmets.. some of them arent even wearing shoes at times.
And the accomodation they provided is much better housing than the majority of our worker's own house.
Countries like Singapore like to used South Asian (Bangladesh, Sri Lankan, etc) for construction workers. You should see their working condition and compare it to Qatar. You should also compare their working condition back home to Qatar.
Some of the immigrants choose to not going back and try for a better living, even illegally since whatever they're dealt with in Qatar usually is still much better than back home.
Indonesia has been exporting female workforce to become domestic helper... Not that i support this... But they're getting 10x their salary back home, and most would have come back bloody rich for their standard. Buying a house and cars and lands back in the village of the one people working in Middle East was quite normal.
Absolutely. Ever since the whole Qatar issue on migrant workers kicked off I spoke to about a dozen extended relatives I have in South Asia who work or have worked in the ME. One of them hated it so much he came back after 6 months, which didn't go down to well with his family due to the amount they paid to get him over there. Others toiled away while the ones that had a bit more about them managed to move onto better/comfortable jobs. But the majority have no regrets due to being lifted out of poverty, they have new /refurbished homes with a car, able to feed their families and able to send their kids to college. Does this make working poor working conditions OK? Absolutely not, esp for a rich country like Qatar, but this is not the way capitalism works and wholesale systematic changes are needed accross the globe. But the sad truth is these working conditions /pay are a lot better than they would get back home.
Life is also difficult for unskilled migrant workers in the west too, one of my cousins managed to get to Spain but works 12 hours in a day in a convinience store in Barcelona and shares a 2 bed flat with 7 other guys. But he will continue to do it as his family is being lifted out of poverty.
Capitalism only benefits those with power and money, as long as there is such a massive wealth disparity between countries worker exploitation will continue. A lot of people in wealthy countries also seem oblivious/ignorant or simply don't care on why they are able to buy a smartphone so cheaply or why their clothing is so cheap. And this includes me, but this is the world we are born into and there doesn't seem to be an appetite for actual change.
There is also a big issue with brain/talent drain from poorer countries, where the most educated and brightest people usually move to the west for financial reasons. My uncle, a brilliant educated man who had a lot to offer his home country was able to migrate to Australia on the points system which specifically targets skilled workers, I don't really blame him he's doing really well for himself now. But you can imagine the impact this has on developing countries.
In most western countries economic migrants are seen as the scum of the earth and elections are literally won on the party who can keep out the most immigrants. I hope the western media/people genuinely care about migrants as they have seemed to have shown regarding Qatar and change their rhetoric aroud them in their own countries. But I doubt they genuinely care.
