This study investigates the online socio-communicative challenges faced by African low-skilled migrants in Qatar’s Education City, focusing on their interactions on digital platforms, particularly WhatsApp. Qatar’s migrant workforce is dominated by Asian nationals, rendering African workers a visible minority. This demographic imbalance often results in limited cultural integration and communicative marginalization, as dominant linguistic and cultural practices tend to reflect the majority group. These disparities affect work-related digital communication, forcing minority groups to adapt to dominant workforce norms. Despite WhatsApp being widely adopted as a primary communication tool in corporate and operational settings, low-skilled African migrant workers face barriers linked to literacy levels and limited technological know-how. This research examines how linguistic discrepancies, restricted internet access, platform affordances, and gender dynamics influence their digital interactions, especially with East Asian colleagues. The findings highlight three key challenges: interactional difficulties arising from language barriers, technological constraints such as poor internet access for field workers and limited digital literacy, and gendered dynamics that restrict female workers’ participation in work-related WhatsApp groups. Using affordance theory as an analytical lens, the study explores how the design features of digital platforms enable and constrain these workers’ communication practices. While WhatsApp holds potential as a tool for enhancing workplace communication, the findings reveal that its affordances are often underutilized, reinforcing existing socio-communicative gaps. This study highlights the need to view digital communication tools as neutral platforms and socio-technical spaces that can either bridge or deepen communicative divides among diverse migrant workforces.

Authors:
Al-Hadar Mumuni, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar

About the Presenter(s)
Al-Hadar Mumuni is a PhD candidate in Humanities and Social Sciences at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), Qatar. His research focuses on sociolinguistics, intercultural communication, and migrant labor dynamics in the Gulf, with an emphasis on language as symbolic power and digital communication among marginalized communities. He holds an MA in Intercultural Communication from HBKU, where his thesis on Ghanaian migrant workers in Qatar’s Education City received the 2024 Outstanding Thesis Award. Al-Hadar’s research portfolio includes studies on online socio-communicative challenges of low-skilled migrant workers, kinship practices in migrant communities, and the intersection of disinformation and public relations in global sports events. He has received multiple honors, including HBKU’s Outstanding Thesis Award, Dean’s List Award, and Leadership Award, reflecting his commitment to academic excellence and community empowerment.

Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/al-hadar-mumuni-97911b9b

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