Many persons were involved in the implementation of the project at SESRI, EUI and GRCF. These are a few of them.
GRCF
Nasra M. Shah
Nasra M. Shah is Professor at the Lahore School of Economics since September 2018. Until then, she was professor of Demography at the Department of Community Medicine and Behavioral Sciences at the Faculty of Medicine, Kuwait University. She received her doctoral degree in Population Dynamics from the Johns Hopkins University, School of Public Health, Baltimore, USA. Professor Shah’s research has focused on several different demographic issues in the context of health and societal development. She has conducted extensive research on the Asian region, especially Pakistan and the major South Asian countries. Kuwait is another major country on which her work has focused for almost 30 years. She has addressed questions related to the role that social factors play in the reduction of infant and child mortality, and on the predictors of fertility and contraceptive use. She has also analyzed changes in the social, economic and health status of women in several Asian and Pacific countries and edited a major volume on the socioeconomic and demographic profile of Pakistani Women. One of her latest research interests includes the study of psychosocial factors in aging and the role that networks play in the aging process. Labor migration, especially from Asian countries to the oil-rich Gulf countries, has been one of the consistent themes in Dr. Shah’s research for more than 35 years. She has published two books and numerous articles on various migration topics. Her research has focused on the perspective of sending as well as receiving countries. It has addressed topics such as socioeconomic profiles of migrant workers, economic progress of migrant workers, domestic worker migration, violence against women migrants, increasingly restrictive policies of receiving countries, irregular migration, the role of social networks in the migration process, and aspirations and plans of 2nd generation non-nationals. Her many publications include books on Asian Labor Migration: Pipeline to the Middle East; Pakistani Women; Basic Needs, Women and Development; Population of Kuwait: Structure and Dynamics and Skilful Survivals: Irregular Migration to the Gulf.
Jihan Safar
Jihan Safar having lived fifteen years in Kuwait and conducted her Ph.D. fieldwork in Oman and Kuwait, acquired a deep understanding of the Gulf society and economy. The subject of her Ph.D. in Economical Demography is “Marriage and procreation in Oman and Kuwait: A study of generational change” (2015). During her Ph.D research, she conducted qualitative and quantitative surveys. This provided her with valuable field experiences and research tools, to analyze perceptions and behaviors on marriage, fertility, family and gender role. The comparative study between two gulf countries gave also important insights on the divergent population policies in the Gulf. Rceently, she obtained a grant from Georgetown University (CIRS- Qatar) to conduct research on the soaring brideprice (mahr) in Oman. Her study combines a qualitative approach (40 interviews) with a quantitative survey (800 women, online survey). The aim is to analyse the main socio-economic variables and women characteristics that are affecting the mahr in the country.
Françoise De Bel-Air
Françoise De Bel-Air is a researcher and consultant based in Paris, France. A socio-demographer by training, she specializes in the demography of Arab countries, especially in the Middle East and the Gulf region. She has been a research fellow at the French Institute for the Near East (IFPO) in Amman, Jordan for several years and a part-time Professor at the Migration Policy Centre, European University Institute of Florence, Italy. Her research focusses on political demography, as well as on the demographic and socio-political dynamics in the region: youth, intergenerational and gender relationships, family structures, labour and forced migration, migration and population policies. Her recent publications include a special issue of Arabian Humanities (2019) on “Marriage and Family in the Gulf Today” (with B. Destremau and J. Safar); Chapter 7 “Exclusion, Mobility and Migration” in the Arab Human Development Report 2016 on Youth; “Asian Migration to the Gulf States in the 21st Century”, in Chowdhury, M. and Rajan, I. (eds). South Asian Migration to the Gulf: Causes and Consequences”, Palgrave, 2018; Mapping ENI SPCs migrants in the Euro-Mediterranean region: An inventory of statistical sources, ICMPD, Vienna, 2020 and “’Blocked Youth’: The Politics of Migration from the SEM Countries before and after the Arab Uprisings.” The International Spectator (53): 2018.
Imco Brouwer
Imco Brouwer has more than two decades managed international academic programmes focusing on the Middle East and North Africa. He has established and managed networks of researchers and policymakers. He is presently the executive director of the Gulf Labour Markets and Migration (GLMM) Programme, a joint programme of the Gulf Research Center Foundation (GRCF) and the European University Institute (EUI). He has a deep knowledge of a multitude of Arab countries, including all six Gulf countries and, in the framework of GLMM, has established relations with the national data producers and stakeholders of labour and migration as well as the GCC Stat Centre.
EUI
Philippe Fargues
Philippe Fargues is a French demographer. He is a part-time Professor at the Robert Schuman Centre of the European University Institute and an Affiliate at the Middle East Initiative of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School. He was the founding Director of EUI’s Migration Policy Centre and held senior positions at the National Institute for Demographic Studies in Paris and the American University in Cairo and taught at Harvard and various universities in France, the Middle East and Africa. His research interests include population, international migration and politics. His recent publications include: Skilful Survivals. Irregular Migration to the Gulf (with Nasra Shah, GRC-Cambridge, 2017); Mass migration and uprisings in the Arab countries: An analytical framework (International Development Policy, 2017); Migration from North Africa and the Middle East: Skilled Migrants, Development and Globalisation (IB Tauris, 2015), Is What We Hear About Migration Really True? Questioning Eight Migration Stereotypes (EUI, 2014); International Migration and the Nation State in Arab Countries (Middle East Law and Governance, 2013); Demography, Migration and Revolt in the South of the Mediterranean (Brookings, 2012); International Migration and the Demographic Transition: a Two-Way Interaction (International Migration Review, 2011).
SESRI
Kien T. Le
Kien T. Le is Senior Researcher at SESRI, Qatar University. He has personally overseen and coordinated more than a dozen surveys implemented by SESRI. Among these are the two surveys conducted in all GCC countries: the Single Currency Survey and the Labor Camp Survey. Dr. Le also taught one part of the undergraduate course on Research Methodology at Qatar University. Before joining SESRI, Dr. Le was a researcher at the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, University of Virginia, USA. At the Universities of Virginia, he has implemented and managed a number of survey projects and studies covering a wide range of topics (socio-economic, health, education, immigration) for state and federal governments and methodologies (sample designs, non-response and coverage errors, cell phone RDD, interview privacy and third party effect) for his personal research interests. Dr. Le has published widely in both economics and survey methodology journals and has served as LPI or co-PI on numerous NPRP-funded projects.
Abdoulaye Diop
Abdoulaye Diop is Associate Research Professor and Head of the Research Department at SESRI, Qatar University. As the Head of Research, Dr. Diop oversees and coordinates all research activities. His specific areas of interest include survey research methods, social capital, labor markets and migration, evaluation of economic impact of programs and policies on communities. Prior to joining SESRI in 2009, Dr. Diop worked at the University of Virginia Center for Survey Research (CSR), the University of Connecticut Center for Survey Research and Analysis (CSRA) and the University of Connecticut Roper Center for Public Opinion Research. Dr. Diop has authored and co-authored a number publications and survey research reports and has actively participated in a number of international conferences on survey research methods.