PATH DEPENDENCE DAN “JALAN BUNTU” REFORMASI KAFALA DI QATAR
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31315/jpw.v6i1.16206Abstrak
The Kafala reform undertaken by Qatar’s government in 2020 is widely regarded as having failed to eliminate exploitation against migrant labor. This study aimed at analyzing the reasons behind the continued preservation of employee sponsorship over workers through the concept of path dependence and process tracing methods. The findings reveal that the failure of Kafala reform is a consequence of dependence on the initial policy formation, shaped by three main factors: (1) Qatar’s early decision in the 1960s to adopt the Kafala system as a legacy of British colonial rule became a critical juncture that structured a labor governance model based on full control and created a long-term institutional pathway; (2) increasing returns mechanisms reinforced the Kafala system through economic benefits to the state and business elites; (3) the political institution’s status quo bias functioned as an elite strategy that made the system difficult to change. Consequently, these three dimensions produced a lock-in-effect that rendered the reform partial and superficial, without addressing the root avoidance of migrant worker rights. This study contributes to framing the understanding issue of migrant workers and institutional practice in international relations from the perspective of path dependence in Qatar.
Keywords: Exploitation; Migrant Labor; Kafala; Path dependence; Qatar
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