Gulf Labour Reforms: can policy ambition meet everyday protection?
Across the Gulf, national governments are redesigning labour and migration frameworks to attract global talent and strengthen accountability. Yet behind these reforms lies a deeper story: one where millions of migrant workers experience both the promises of modernisation and its pitfalls.
In this time of profound economic and green transformation in the Gulf, it is vital to see through the eyes of those whose lives it impacts, and explore how responsible recruitment, wage protection, and residency reforms can align competitiveness with fairness.
A Region in Transition
Labour and migration governance lies at the heart of many Gulf countries’ national visions. Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, the UAE’s Centennial 2071, and Qatar’s National Vision 2030 all seek to diversify economies, attract investment, and build skilled workforces.
Yet the realisation of these ambitions is impossible without migration. Migrant workers make up over three-quarters of the Gulf’s workforce, with some economies such as Qatar and Kuwait relying on them for around 90% of their labour force, according to the Gulf Labor Markets and Migration Program (GLMM).
Many actors across the entire region have demonstrated a common normative, regulatory, and institutional commitment to fair recruitment, worker welfare, and labour mobility. While this marks genuine progress toward a more transparent and accountable model of labour governance, implementation continues to vary across sectors and local enforcement contexts, particularly in the uneven shift from discretionary, employer-centric control to rule-based regulatory oversight. From construction sites in Riyadh to domestic households in Doha, the realities shaped by reforms remain uneven.
Recruitment: Aspiration and Reality
The migration journey of most Gulf-bound workers begins long before their arrival. In villages across Nepal, Kerala, or coastal Bangladesh, loans are taken, and contracts are signed. Several Gulf states have moved decisively to bridge the gap between regulation and lived experience. In what the ILO's Fair Recruitment Initiative identifies as early examples of regional accountability, Qatar’s electronic contract verification system now ensures that employment terms are approved before departure. Saudi Arabia has expanded its oversight of recruitment agencies licensed to operate within the Kingdom. Bilateral labour agreements with India, Bangladesh, and the Philippines have strengthened monitoring of cross-border recruitment.
Yet migration experience continues to be decisively shaped by recruitment debt. Recruitment fees are costs charged to workers for job placement, visas, travel, or documentation. While these expenses should legally be borne by employers, in practice they shift business risks onto workers and commodify access to employment. According to an ILO global report on wage and recruitment fees, over half of migrant workers worldwide pay such costs. Evidence indicates that migrant workers continue to incur between $400 and $1,800 in recruitment-related debt despite official prohibitions, often entering destination countries already financially dependent on employers, recruiters, or informal lenders. As one interviewed worker from Kerala, India, put it: “Before I start earning, I am already at a loss.”
Addressing this structural imbalance requires a clear policy shift toward aligning national recruitment systems with zero-fee recruitment models, most notably the Employer Pays Principle developed by the Institute for Human Rights and Business. This framework holds that employers, rather than workers, should bear all recruitment-related costs, thereby eliminating debt-based dependency at the point of entry. Aligning recruitment governance with this zero-fee principle would protect migrant workers and strengthen Gulf economies’ reputations as ethical and forward-looking labour destinations.
Wage Protection
One of the most significant policy reforms in the Gulf region has been the phased introduction of Wage Protection Systems (WPS). First introduced in the United Arab Emirates in 2009 and subsequently adopted by Saudi Arabia (2013), Qatar (2015), Oman (2023) and later Kuwait and Bahrain, these systems require employers to pay wages electronically through approved financial institutions.
In practice, WPS generates a digital record that enables labour ministries to verify timely payment, identify underpayment or non-payment, and sanction non-compliant employers. The WPS frameworks are intended to enhance transparency and administrative oversight within formal employment sectors, particularly construction and large-scale service industries. However, according to the ILO, their impact remains uneven, with limited coverage in sectors such as domestic work and small enterprises, where informality, enforcement capacity, and workers’ access to complaint mechanisms continue to constrain effectiveness.
WPS marks a shift from reactive, complaint-driven enforcement toward proactive regulatory monitoring, reducing employers’ ability to delay or withhold wages without detection. However, the ILO cautions that electronic wage monitoring alone cannot address deeper power asymmetries unless paired with effective inspections, meaningful penalties, and accessible remedies for workers.
Moreover, WPS systems do not comprehensively cover many domestic and informal workers. According to Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ), exclusions and delays persist, particularly for low-income workers. As one Filipino cleaner I interviewed for this article put it, “The system protects us on paper, but when pay is late, the system is silent.” Technology is a tool, not a complete solution. To make wage protection meaningful, governments should extend WPS coverage to all sectors, ensure swift dispute resolution, and publicly release enforcement data. These steps would transform systems designed primarily for oversight into instruments of justice.
Residency and Mobility
Alongside WPS, another cornerstone of the region’s labour modernisation is residency reform aimed at attracting and retaining high-wage migrants and investors. Saudi Arabia’s Premium Residency, the UAE’s Golden Visa, and Qatar’s removal of exit permits have all widened pathways for long-term residence and professional mobility. These policies recognise a clear principle: stability in residency and employment status is a prerequisite for productivity and innovation.
Yet flexibility remains uneven. Many low-wage workers in domestic, construction, and service sectors continue to face restricted mobility under employer-linked sponsorship systems. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, despite recent advances in legal reforms, structural dependencies persist. One of the issues, as articulated in the GLMM’s analysis of labor mobility, is a “dual mobility regime” that grants autonomy to professionals while imposing limitations on low-income migrants. “They say I’m temporary, but I’ve been here twelve years. If I want to change job, my sponsor must accept first” - said a Bangladeshi electrician I interviewed for this article.
Recent policy reversals further underscore the fragility of labour mobility reforms. In July 2025, Kuwait reintroduced exit permit requirements for migrant workers. Such measures re-entrench employer-mediated control over mobility and undermine earlier efforts to reduce dependency within migrant labor regimes.
A more durable approach would involve extending mobility and residency reforms beyond elite categories to include mid-level and long-term workers. Expanding access to transferable visas and independent residency would enhance labour market efficiency, support skills retention, promote social stability, and foster a greater sense of belonging among migrants who contribute to Gulf economies over extended periods.
Overall, the Gulf’s trajectory is largely positive. Each year brings new reforms strengthening oversight, enhancing transparency, and reaffirming worker protection as a core governance goal. Yet isolated implementation risks uneven impact.
To transform policy competition into shared alignment, where progress in one state lifts standards across all, we need deeper regional cooperation. This includes Gulf labour frameworks, sustained international dialogue, and institutionalised partnerships with migrant-sending countries.
Three opportunities stand out:
Recruitment: Adopting regional zero-fee recruitment standards and jointly monitoring compliance.
Wages: Expanding wage protection systems to all sectors and publishing inspection outcomes to foster trust.
Mobility: Shifting away from employer-tied residency to ensure fair mobility for every skill level.
Dignified Modernisation
The Gulf’s labour reforms are reshaping global conversations about migration governance by foregrounding the challenges of regulating large-scale temporary migration, bringing recruitment practices and debt into sharper international focus, and demonstrating how labour protection can be pursued through institutional reform even in non-liberal political contexts.
However, despite real achievements such as digitalisation, wage oversight, and flexible visas, the deeper measure of success lies not in system design but in the dignity and security felt by those who keep these economies running.
Modernisation should not be evaluated only by investment or growth. Rather, it should be judged by fairness, safety, and whether workers can plan lives of stability and respect. A shared commitment to dignified alignment—where policy ambition meets everyday protection—should become the next frontier in Gulf labour reform and stand as one of its most enduring contributions to global migration governance.
Dr. Sanaa Ashour is Professor of Gulf Studies at Qatar University. She holds a Ph.D. in Development Studies from the University of Bonn and an MSc in Social Policy and Planning from the London School of Economics. Her research focuses on the governance of migration and higher education, as well as social transformation in the Arabian Gulf and Germany. She has published widely on higher education policy, and the socio-political dynamics of migration. Dr. Ashour brings a multidisciplinary perspective informed by academic research and fieldwork across Europe and the Middle East.