Labor camps: a tool of segregation

Giddy excitement in Qatar as a new project to house 50,000 workers is announced. Once complete (in 2010), the $1 billion project will include mosques, playgrounds, a fitness centre, cinemas, malls, a motel, a medical centre, a petrol station, used car showrooms, and an auction place. Workers will sleep six to a room and each will have 4.25sqm of living space, says a breathless report in the Gulf Times, which is more than internationally accepted standards.
While better facilities are a step in the right direction, it is worth remembering such camps entrench the view that laborers are a resource that is to be used, controlled and, when finished with, shipped out. A fresh batch can then fill the accommodation.
Such camps, however well equipped, cement the view that laborers are not expats – they have no place in mainstream society, they can’t be expected to live among the community, they can’t rent accommodation on the open market. This camp ensures the two need never mix, and is that really the sign of a healthy and confident society?