Gulbahar Adbullah | Female migration to Qatar: An examination of motivations and career opportunities of female migrant workers employed in the hotel industry in Qatar

Supervisors: Dr Tom Fletcher and Dr Kate Dashper

Gulbahar is a part-time off-shore PhD student in the Centre for Tourism and Hospitality Management.

My research focuses on female migration and emotional labour in the context of a 5-star hotel in Doha, Qatar. I conducted interviews with female migrant workers and observed them as they went about their daily duties. With each of my participants I was able to explore the reasons behind their migration journey and to understand more about their emotions during interactions with colleagues, supervisors and guests. I really enjoyed conducting my fieldwork as I believe that collecting primary data was collecting lifetime memories at the same time. An ethnographic approach enabled me to build relationships with my research participants and to understand and reflect on their experiences and emotions as migrant women workers in the hospitality industry.