Zahra Babar is Associate Director for Research at the Center for International and Regional Studies, Qatar University. Previously, she has served with the International Labor Organization and the United Nations Development Program. Her current research interests include rural development, Gulf migration and labour policies, citizenship in the Gulf States, and GCC regional integration. Her recent publications include “The Cost of Belonging: Citizenship Construction in the State of Qatar” (Middle East Journal, 2014). She has edited, with Suzi Mirgani, Food Security in the Middle East (Oxford University Press, 2014) and, with Mehran Kamrava, Migrant Labor in the Persian Gulf (Hurst/Columbia University, 2012).