Sportswashing is Norway's latest word of the year. Your initial reaction may be 鈥榳hat?鈥�, but here鈥檚 why the choice of word is important.
In December every year, the Language Council of Norway announces its 鈥榳ord of the year鈥�. For 2021, the word was , or sportswashing. In their words:
鈥業n 2022, several large sporting events will be organized in countries that are criticized for their poor human rights records. With that in mind, sport washing has become a relevant word in Norwegian鈥portswashing is used when authorities in totalitarian regimes utilize sporting events to present themselves in a better light鈥� (my translation).
Some expressed surprise at this year鈥檚 word choice – perhaps especially when compared with last year鈥檚 鈥榢orona鈥� – but Helene Uri, author, linguist and professor, is quick to that this year鈥檚 word is important politically. She praises the Language Council of Norway for providing a platform for discussion.
Speaking out against sportswashing and the 2022 Qatar World Cup
The most-discussed sportswashing case of 2021 was perhaps the 2022 Qatar World Cup.
Norway鈥檚 football team did not qualify but they certainly made a statement, opting for jerseys with the message in several qualifying matches.
Norwegian players and have been outspoken on human rights conditions in Qatar, and Norwegian football magazine Josimar has published texts that were controversial enough to put them at the receiving end of a from the Qatar 2022 organizing committee.
Additionally, the editor-in-chief at Josimar as well as Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) members of staff Halvor Ekeland and Lokman Ghorbani were detained while reporting from Qatar late last year.
Amnesty Norway have also been vocal in their of Qatar鈥檚 poor human rights records, arguing that the World Cup is a golden opportunity to apply more pressure on Qatar to respect the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), which the country .
There is no doubt that Qatar鈥檚 human rights record leaves a lot to be desired, and that some of the foreign migrant workers contributing to making the 2022 Qatar World Cup a reality live and work under appallingly poor conditions.
In the game of rights, power matters. In the game of rights, the Norwegian national football team, 罢谤辞尘蝉酶 IL, Josimar, and NRK can share information, stories, and outrage without potential risk to livelihoods, host country residence permits, or prison sentences.
The migrants, more often than not, cannot. To understand that, we need to understand the structures of sponsorship linking migrants and citizens in Qatar.
Migrants in the Arab Gulf
The tiny state of Qatar relies heavily on a non-national workforce. Migrants completely and make up over 90% of the population.
The migrants are seen as temporary guest workers; there to do a job, and return home. This is not necessarily what happens in reality and the Arab Gulf is full of non-nationals who have spent a lifetime there – but structurally, always as 鈥榯emporary guests鈥�, knowing that permanence or naturalization is difficult if not impossible.
Migrant workers can be roughly divided into three categories:
- domestic workers
- low- to mid-skilled workers
- mid- to highly skilled workers
The 2022 World Cup construction workers we鈥檝e been able to read about inl fall into group two, composed largely of South-East Asian and African nationals.
The kafala system – a relationship of power difference
The kafala – or sponsorship – system, regulates the vast non-national workforce and is perhaps best described as a structural relationship of power difference between a national employer (kafeel/sponsor) and a migrant employee.
The 鈥�… is a way for governments to delegate oversight and responsibility for migrants to private citizens or companies.鈥� It gives 鈥�…responsibility, powers, and rights to the sponsor in the eyes of the State.鈥�
The migrant鈥檚 relationship, therefore, is not directly with the State, but with a citizen or (citizen-owned) company who is legally and financially for them, states Silvia Pessoa, teaching professor at Carnegie Mellom University in Qatar.
That sponsor controls both work permits and residency, which means that your right to live depends on your right to work which again depends on the sponsor.
Adding to this, freedom of organization, demonstration, and expression is limited throughout the Arab Gulf. Complaints, or publication of views against sponsors or the host state could or cost you your job.
A migrant鈥檚 chances of filing a labor against their sponsor and resolving the case with a favorable result are also limited.
For a migrant construction worker, a job loss is a considerable personal and financial loss, affecting not just himself but also his family back home.
The end of kafala?
To be fair, Qatar is working towards reforms and has made system in recent years. Some have even stated that the kafala system has come to an while others worry about recents to the changes made.
Either way; it鈥檚 not enough. Migrant workers in the 2022 Qatar World Cup still live with a structural system of power imbalance where the odds are most definitely not in their favor.
鈥楽portsvaske鈥� is a political statement. Use it well
Making sportswashing 鈥榳ord of the year鈥� is a political statement. Let鈥檚 not allow Qatar to sport wash their image so all you remember from the 2022 World Cup is glitzy football fields and heroic players.
Don鈥檛 get me wrong; I admire and applaud the players. But the migrant workers are the real heroes of this World Cup.
Want to learn more?
