Keywords: Methodological challenges and improvements, including in the areas of sampling, measurement, survey design and survey response or non-response

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is a regional cooperation system between Arab States of the Gulf established in 1981. In the last three decades, there has been a large influx of migrant workers into these countries in response to rising oil and gas production, and the subsequent plans of these countries for rapid development. These plans require the import of a very large number of foreign workers, since the indigenous labor forces are small in number and do not have the variety of skills required for the development of infrastructure and other projects. According to recent statistics, migrants have come to outnumber nationals in terms of the labor force in all GCC countries, while in four out of six countries they represent the majority of the total population.

A common feature of these countries is the existence of many group quarters, usually called labor camps, where non-related foreign workers live together. The camps are usually provided by the employer, and their capacity may range from hosting a few dozens to a few thousand people who come from many different countries and speak various languages. The camp size and the composition of residents inside the camps change relatively quickly, as people move in and out of the camps due to their labor contracts expiring or change in project needs. These population characteristics pose serious challenges for survey administrators and technicians in terms of the selection of people for interviews inside the camps, also known as the group quarter sub-sampling. Thus, there is not usually an updated list of people in the camp and instead, the sample-listing inside the camp has to be conducted during the field work.

In this study, we first discuss sampling methods used in previous GQ surveys conducted in the US and GCC countries. Based on these existing methods and our knowledge of the camps in Qatar, we propose a simple way to accurately subsample the dynamic population inside such labor camps. We tested this sampling technique in one of our surveys conducted recently in the Gulf State of Qatar, where more than half of the country’s population resides in labor camps. We conclude the study with a discussion of the results and implication for future studies on this topic.