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By Jocelyn Sage Mitchell

For more than two months now, Qatar has been under a political and economic blockade led by Saudi Arabia. Just last week, Qatar approved a draft law that gives permanent residency status to certain non-citizens, including children of Qatari women married to non-Qatari men.
The besieged country has been changing its shipping routes and finding new importers of basic food products to offset the impact of the blockade, according to the Washington Post.
"By pushing through domestic policy goals that will reshape not only the country but the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) as a whole, this move is an indication that the Qatari leadership is using this crisis to its advantage."
It is also the clearest sign yet that Saudi Arabia's influence over the GCC is waning. The Saudi-led blockade was an attempt to force Qatar back in line with the more conservative members of the GCC.
But Qatar's move on residency laws demonstrates that the blockade is having the opposite effect intended.
Qatar's new law is the first in the union to bestow non-citizens with the economic benefits akin to those under full citizenship ” including free education, free health care and preferential hiring ” as well as the stability of permanent residency rather than temporary visas that must be renewed annually.
When the crisis began, the blockading countries recalled their citizens from Qatar and forced Qatari citizens to leave their countries, splitting families across the region during the holy month of Ramadan. Qatar's granting of permanent residency to previously excluded members of society is a wise political move.
And public approval was immediate: On Twitter, Qatari citizens and expatriate residents expressed support, with many encouraging further expansion of residency and citizenship laws.
Qatar's move to expand its residency laws may be the first of several attempts to make progress on societal issues that have been simmering for far longer than the blockade itself. Qatar's next moves will continue to illuminate the unintended consequences of a miscalculated blockade.

Jocelyn Sage Mitchell is an assistant professor in residence of political science in the liberal arts program of Northwestern University in Qatar. (Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/08/09/why-did-qatar-just-change-its-residency-laws/?utm_term=.42e84dd9ab10 )
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11/08/2017
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