May 8th 2021IN MOST COUNTRIES a worker’s best bargaining tool is the ability to say: “Take this job and shove it.” Knowing staff can go elsewhere gives employers an incentive to treat them well. But foreign workers in Qatar have long lacked this basic freedom. Under the emirate’s kafala system, their visas were linked to specific employers: if they wanted to change jobs (or leave the country), they needed their boss’s permission. So the boss could abuse them with near-impunity.But things are changing for the gas-rich emirate’s 2m migrant workers, who are 95% of its labour force. Legions of Indians and Pakistanis mop floors, chop onions and lay bricks.The kafala system kept their wages low. That made it cheaper for Qatar to build new stadiums for the football World Cup, which it hosts next year. However, the tournament has also brought global attention. Activists denounced the kafala system and called for reforms. At last in 2020, Qatar made a big one.Today foreign workers can quit their jobs and find new ones without risk of deportation. Qatar also raised the minimum wage and mandated a food-and-housing allowance for poorer workers who are not lodged by their employers. The UN’s International Labour Organisation (ILO) says the reforms are already showing results. By the end of March, 119,000 foreign workers had already changed jobs. Nick, 32, came to Qatar from Uganda to work as a cleaner, despite training in computer science. Recently he found a new job as a data analyst. It’s a dream come true, he says.The ILO helped with the reforms. It argued that they would make Qatar more attractive to skilled foreigners, whom the government wants to lure, and keep more blue-collar workers in the country. That would make it easier for local firms to find help. Previously, they had to spend months recruiting and training new immigrants.It is too early to tell if Qatar will develop a functional labour market, says Zahra Babar of Georgetown University in Qatar. The workers most likely to take advantage of the reforms in the near term are those in the service sector, where word of new job openings gets around. Construction workers are less likely to have enough information to shop for new employers.Bosses are pushing back. Some have required workers to sign contracts with non-compete clauses. In other countries these are used to prevent high-fliers from handing company secrets to a competitor. In Qatar they are being used to stop blue-collar workers from changing jobs. The emir’s advisory council has tried to water down the reforms. This year it recommended a cap on the number of times a worker could switch employers and an annual limit on the proportion of workers who could leave a company. The government, though, has not accepted these changes.Migrants face other complications. The labour ministry’s website, where workers go to get approval for new jobs, still asks for a resignation letter authorised by their previous employer, though this is no longer necessary. Nick, for example, waited for his old firm to certify his resignation. Now he is waiting for the government to renew his identification card, a process that cannot start until the ministry approves his new position. Fortunately, his new firm has allowed him to start working—at double his old salary. ■This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Free to quit”