DOHA: Ranking 33rd on Human Development Index of the United Nations, Qatar has one of the highest percentages of foreign workers as migrants account for as much as 80 percent of the country's population.
The number of immigrants in Qatar is expected to hit 1.35 million by next year. The immigrants here fare among the highest in terms of education, as 43.9 percent of them have a tertiary level of education, while the highest percentage was 49 percent in Japan.
That said, not all immigrants are active as 10.5 percent of them are unemployed.
Qatar has one of the lowest emigration rates at 2.3 percent, the United Nations Human Development Report 2009 said.
The report registered an 8.7 percent annual growth rate in the number of immigrants in the country. With 80.5 percent of its population immigrants, Qatar comes before the United Arab Emirates (56 percent), Kuwait (47 percent), and Hong Kong (40 percent ) among countries that have a high number of foreign workers.
Written with immigration as its main theme, the report said that some countries, including Qatar, had joined those in the group with "very high human development" despite not referred to previously as first world countries. Qatar ranked 33rd in the human development index, while the USA was put at 13th and Norway came first.
Qatar has climbed two places up on the annual Human Development Index, ranking 33 and figuring among the group of nations that have registered "very high human development" in the report.
In the GCC, only Kuwait, ranking 31, is ahead of Qatar in the index, which is topped by Norway.
The report urged nations to ease entrance and exit procedures of migrant labour, stating that although immigrants often "do the same work and pay the same taxes as local residents, they may lack the access to basic services and face the risk of being deported," adding that an estimated 50mn people are working abroad with an irregular status.
The UNHDR tried to dispel misconceptions about immigrants, such as the belief that they "take the jobs" or that they create a burden on the economic system of the receiving country, saying such notions are "generally exaggerated."
On the contrary, "migrants boost economic output, at little or no cost to locals," the report argued.
"All immigrants do not try to move to richer countries either," the report explained. Out of the world's 200mn immigrants, those who immigrate internally within their own country are four times as much as those who move internationally.
Those that do relocate to another country, usually move between developing countries, or between developed countries, but not up the development ladder.
© The Peninsula 2009
