Controversial debates about workforce nationalisation: Perspectives from the Qatari higher education industry

Abstract

Workforce nationalisation in the Gulf Corporation Council (GCC) countries is a crucial challenge for their development plans. The current study explores controversial debates about workforce nationalisation to understand the existing threats from the views of less examined key stakeholders, namely, educators and senior students. The study argues that the identified obstacles relate not only to policy flaws but also to the education–employability gap, phantom employment, and detrimental social and community perceptions. Given its exploratory nature, the study adopts a qualitative approach and uses 28 semi-structured interviews to identify critical obstacles to effective workforce nationalisation from human development, legal development, and socio-cultural perspectives. The findings contribute to the literature on GCC workforce nationalisation by unpacking educators’ and senior students’ views.