A group of Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q) students has conducted research aimed at advancing financial literacy in Qatar’s migrant community.
The project under the Undergraduate Research Experience Program (UREP) was entitled “Advancing Financial Literacy for Transnational Families” and recently won the Student Poster Presentations Award at the Annual Research Conference (ARC’14).
It involved researching, developing, and testing educational videos based on a structured financial education curriculum for migrant workers and their households.
The financial education aims to encourage migrants and their households in their home country to maximise the benefits of temporarily living and working abroad through long-term and sound financial planning. The five video training modules will teach participating migrants about financial savings, how to make a migration plan, how to create and follow a budget, how to manage debt, and how to manage investments. The videos were developed on a peer-based learning model featuring migrant workers sharing their personal experiences in their own words, as well as advice from field experts.
The research team included GU-Q students Ahwaz Akhtar, Hisham Hassan, Fatema Hubail, Salar Khan, Atul Menon, Salman Ahad Khan, and Sherif Elgindi.
“The project was a terrific research opportunity to design a programme that would benefit the Gulf’s large low-income migrant worker communities. Financial education interventions have already been proven to have a high potential for positive impact, and this project is an innovative attempt at scaling it up for large audiences through digital media platforms. Our focus on tailoring content specifically for migrants in the region will hopefully help improve their current living standards and financial situations,” said Hassan.
“This project is very relevant in Qatar today. Financial education is often ignored, but is crucial for migrants, especially those who receive low incomes. With an influx of migrants into the country, there needed to be an effort to assist with financial matters. People migrate here primarily for financial reasons and are expected to return home after a period of time. Hence, financial literacy is important,” said Menon.
The students have set up several online forums to disseminate the research materials and instructional videos, including a website, Facebook, and YouTube channel. Plans are in place to assess the impact of the project on participating migrants and their families.
The research team plans to undertake an impact evaluation study of offering the videos to be viewed by a migrant audience and determining its impact on financial habits and behaviour over a period of time. Additional work is also needed to produce the videos in other languages spoken by migrant communities in Qatar such as Hindi, Nepalese, Tagalog and Arabic. The Peninsula
