The Gulf cities rank among the wealthiest in the world due to the significant infrastructural development and homogeneous citizenry. According to Gardener, the states in the Arabian Peninsula continuously devise techniques to preserve the territorial integrity of particular neighborhoods. Cities such as Doha, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai have recently set global standards in urban growth rates and development projects. This essay will discuss the trophy buildings, architectural experiments, mega-projects and zones of patchwork in GCC cities as well as the problems that migrant labor faces and their potential solutions.
The Gulf cities are characterized by the prominence of monumental architecture in the urban landscape and worthwhile projects. The trophy buildings include the conventional centers, grand mosques, universities, shopping malls, skyscrapers, planned residential areas, hospitals, and the Pearl. The prestigious projects predominant in the Gulf region function as emblems of the Persian economic power as well as a representation of the supposed good that symbolizes its contemporary society. According to Andrew, the mega projects cluttering the Gulf cities include the Aspire Zone, designed to host mega-events, and the Pearl, the unique development in the entire peninsula, represents the state’s history. The prestigious one is also emblematic of Qatar’s considerable retail potential because it focuses on providing freehold investment opportunities for expatriates. Furthermore, the main objective of the multicultural architects preeminent in the states’ constructions involves attracting the foreign audience.
The prestigious projects in the Gulf are a way of recycling national wealth to benefit the individual GCC economies. They are quasi-commodities to attract foreigners, which, in turn, draw significant cash flows to the economy. The modern configuration of the gulf system relies heavily upon an ever-present and ever-increasing influx of people to the Arabian Peninsula. The mega-events in the Gulf materialize the states’ overall urban development that facilitates uninterrupted capital flows from state to citizens; therefore, reinforcing the economy model in those states. It functions to protect the natives from the influence of neoliberal system through the preservation of the traditional relations.
The growth of the free economic zones and other regions of limited sovereignty in the GCC countries have a symbolic logic link to the citizenship and nation in the peninsula. The free districts attract foreign direct investment into the Gulf. For example, the Qatar’s Pearl project is representative of a freeholder zone that encourages expatriates to put money into the peninsula. The spatial discourse in the Gulf is designed to preserve an indigenous identity and sense of place amidst the increasingly intense global flows. The zoning technologies focus on controlling the cash movements in the today’s world while maintaining cultural sovereignty.
The migrant workers in the Gulf, predominantly Indians, Nepalese, and South Asians in the Doha’s labor force, encounter a myriad of challenges. The Kefala System reflects an exemplary systematized structural violence against them through the restrictions on the mobility of the migrant labor and deportation threats in case of violation of the System’s parameters. In addition, unscrupulous sponsors tend to withhold employees’ passports. The resolutions of the migrant problems involve formulating state policies and regulations to address the issue of abusive labor practices. The recommendations include introducing wage protection measures and outlawing confiscation of employees’ passports among others.
Architectural experiments have transformed the landscape of Gulf States. Cities such as Doha, Dubai and Abu Dhabi have become major economic and tourist hubs due to their attractiveness. However, ineffective administrative and enforcement procedures in the Gulf have worsened abusive labor practices despite the states’ significant economies. Acknowledging the challenges faced by migrants lays a foundation for the implementation of laws that reshape macro-social and political economic policies on an international scale.
About the author: Scarlett Turner is a bachelor in Literature at California University. She is currently working as one of the best writers at the https://exclusivepapers.net/ She also studies feminine psychology.
