Hiring in Bahrain’s Healthcare Industry: Recruitment Methods and Nationality

Abstract

Although sociologists have begun to examine the employer-side of the hiring process, we know little about recruitment methods. Using the understudied yet internationally consequential context of a Gulf Cooperation Council country, Bahrain, this paper describes the role of job seekers’ nationalities in the recruitment process, from the perspective of employers. Using in-depth interviews with employers in Bahrain’s healthcare industry, the results indicate that employers use job seekers’ nationalities as a proxy for their potential fit with the job position, and labor supply. Nationality is socially constructed as worker identities – using nationality as a means of ranking potential workers, employers choose recruitment methods to target specific nationalities that are seen as most ideal for a given job position. The recruitment process is also a site where employers construct nationalities and worker identities, through information they learn about potential worker supply. Consideration of the role of nationality and recruitment methods helps to understand stratification of the workforce in this region.