Over 34,000 foreign workers fuel population explosion
(CNS): The latest figures on foreign workers in the Cayman Islands highlight the population explosion that many believe is having a negative impact on the environment, putting a strain on local resources and affecting the cost of living. According to the numbers released to CNS by WORC this week in response to an FOI request, there are currently 34,171 foreign workers in the categories the department counted. The figures, which include around 1,200 people working for the government plus their dependents, revealed that there are more work permit holders and government contractors in Cayman than ever recorded before.
With more than 34,000 overseas workers, the increase of around 10.5% in the population last year is evidently not an isolated bump that could be blamed on the post-COVID recovery but an emerging trend.
Never before has a national census been so out of date so quickly. The final count for the 2021 national survey conducted in October 2021 and published in the summer of 2022 was 71,472. But by the time that number was released, it was already far short of the reality. The 2022 Spring Labour Force survey revealed that the population had already grown to 78,554.
If the current estimates of around two dozen people being added to the count each day are accurate, there will be almost 90,000 people here by the end of the year, and the much-feared headcount of over 100,000 people could be reached before the next general election in 2025, putting further strain on resources and highlighting the failure of successive governments to manage this rapid and unsustainable growth.
Last summer, when the census was published, Premier Wayne Panton said the population growth was “staggering”. Despite indicating a need to manage this, the PACT Government has still not revealed any plan to tackle the growing headcount and all of its implications. Panton has said on a number of occasions that he wants to have an open conversation about the issue and the direction the country should be going and has often said he wants to undertake an exercise like Vision 2008.
“We need to make plans that reflect the wishes of the country,” Panton said last summer. “I don’t know that we can ever say what the [population] should be, but we should be planning and trying to ensure a reasonable level of growth instead of this uncontrolled and unpredictable growth, leaving us behind and trying to catch up in terms of services.”
In his 2023 New Year message, he said he wanted to establish a list of priorities for a sustainable future in Cayman based on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. “As a government, we are committed to make decisions where we focus on fulfilling the needs of current generations without compromising the needs of our future generations,” he said.
With just over two years left in office, time is running out for PACT to roll out any meaningful plans to address the uncontrolled importation of labour and manage population growth or its fallout impacting issues such as the housing crisis, over-development, environmental threats and traffic congestion.
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If anyone has been paying attention, you would have noticed long ago that this is all part of what appears to be an organized plan. Government continues to grant permits for Dart and other developers to import cheaper labor to complete their development projects. Government also continues to grant permits for financial sector jobs, further increasing the population of residents. More residents means that government needs to continue to expand the public sector. Health services, law enforcement, government registries, postal, road works, waste management, all of these services are needed to service the residents of this country. Who does government hire for public sector jobs? Mostly Caymanians.
Get the picture? Fuel growth by importing labor, increase the public sector and fill those public sector jobs with Caymanians to service that growth. Use the work permit fees to pay the public sector. That’s the model that has been used for decades now. Add to that the fact that government pays as much to educate local kids in public schools as it would cost to educate them in private schools, however the public school education isn’t sufficient to land many Caymanians a private sector job, nor advance them to tertiary education. The result? More Caymanians ending up in public sector jobs. Coincidence?
Work permit fees are negligible compared to financial services fees.
Negligible? Not to me it isn’t.
Downvote all you like but total government revenue is $950m and WP and residency fees only contribute $100m. Stamp duty on property transactions $100m. Financial Services $300m, import duty 200m. Good luck trying to keep that $300m in financial services fees without an army of highly qualified WP holders.
You blew the whole post apart with the last two words of your first sentence, ‘organised plan’, – not possible 😉
LOL! Not possible for government leaders and wealthy business owners to be in cahoots? You must be new to Cayman!
Remember those marvel character self righting bop bags, inflated with air and sand at the bottom ? Grand Cayman is one of those that’s leaked air, it’s not like it was out of the box and to the point where it’s never righting itself back up again 🥊
Well let’s be honest, SMBeach is gone, the culture is gone, the traditions are done with, the environment is vastly diminished, developers pursuing and cutting everything up for their own pockets & ideals, leaving your doors & windows open at night never again, – in fact everything Cayman up to the early 90’s has disappeared and the only thing left and being imported these days is ‘how well can I f*** over the person next to me. I don’t remember that really being around back then.
The fun has gone too.
Vultures circling 24/7
If only, as they would clean up the carrion
Sad but true, and the bad part is, “The people in charge are only interested in more wealth for themselves… and family… and for their friends… and business buddies… and others that can help them get more wealth.”
Here is something I cannot understand. You come here, your on a permit. You lose your permit, your on vistor extension. You need to show funds so that you can support yourself. I think you should have to do that before you come here. $20k in the bank before you can walk in. That would get rid of all the rift raft. Clear up all the expats on jobs that are considered unskilled and give caymanians introduction type positions. Done. Immigration problem fixed.
But Caymanians don’t want to do those kind of jobs. That is why employers are FORCED to hire from overseas, along with all of the associated extra costs, extra paperwork and extra hassles.
Either that or employers cannot find suitably educated or experienced people on the island for their jobs – the spelling above is a good example of that.
The employers WANT the very cheap labor workers!!
Stop ya lyin
Here is something I don’t understand. You are here, you come from here. You don’t need to show that you can support yourself and are living off of money the Government gets from expat workers and expat tourist and expat investors. You don’t have the skills needed to get a job in the private sector but you don’t want expats to do the work needed. Maybe if your culture would teach your kids to value a good education more Caymanians would get the jobs expats now do. Done. Immigration problem fixed. I have a feeling that your culture won’t actually let you do that easily. P.S. your government already has made it easier to hire Caymanians in introduction type positions and all qualified persons are working. If you can’t get or hold a job you are a big part of the “too many people on the island” problem.
See these two blog posts from 2005, almost two decades ago. Little seems to have changed:
https://h2g2.com/entry/A4503665
https://h2g2.com/entry/A4503683
Some quotes:
“[Caymanians] have been abruptly thrust into the twenty-first century by a world seeming falling over itself to shove money into the collective pocket (which, naturally, ends up being a rather more selective collective than one might think), but demanding modernisation in return. Politically, they are shielded from many of the harsh realities of international relations partly by being on of the few remnants of the British Empire, but mainly by the fact that everyone keeps their money here. They are far and away the richest nation in the Caribbean region, but they’ve only really had one generation in which to get used to this. They may have a first world standard of living, but the society and the mindset that goes with it are still, well, developing…
Given that the Cayman Islands now has a population of just over 40, 000 (I’m really talking about Grand Cayman here – I don’t know much about society on the ‘sister islands’ (Little Cayman and Cayman Brac), but by all accounts it consists of a handful of people, most of whom are their own cousins, and some interesting blue iguanas, so I’m going to ignore them here) it’s an important point to note that only about half of those are actually Caymanian. This seems to make Caymanians extremely paranoid about us foreigners coming and ‘taking over’ their country…
This results in several things. Firstly, a society so organised around a bias towards Caymanians over foreigners that the sheer gall of it takes my breath away, and secondly a deep and abiding resentment of the bloody foreigners who have the temerity to come over and bring wealth and prosperity to the island whilst getting treated like second-class citizens…
[For Caymanians] schooling is free, higher education can be undertaken at any university in the world on a hefty government scholarship and a good job is more-or-less guaranteed at the end of it. Because the economy of the Island far outstrips the population, there are far more jobs than there are Caymanians, which is, of course, why all this foreign labour is essential. As such, there are stringent laws in place to the effect that any job must be advertised locally before it goes overseas, companies are obliged to have quotas of local staff, no foreigner can operate a business on Island without a Caymanian partner (these ‘silent’ partners have a reputation for waiting until the business becomes successful and then forcing out the foreigner and selling up) and so on. As a result, few Caymanians seem to bother about getting much of an education, as it doesn’t really affect their job prospects one way or the other…
So, as fewer Caymanians than one would expect take up the opportunity of an education, generally they get themselves a junior (but not too junior) position in some kind of business and ‘work’ their way up. As it’s virtually impossible for a Caymanian to get sacked – particularly if they’re working with ex-pats (and if they manage to do something so spectacularly wrong that they are, they’ll just get another job), it really doesn’t matter to your average Caymanian whether they do their job well (or at all) or not – they’re just out for as easy a ride as possible, which is what their society has taught them from day one that they can expect from the world. This is why so much out here in terms of basic services and utilities works so badly. The Caymanians tend to get promoted by osmosis and as a result a majority of the native population ends up sitting comfortably in and around the middle-to-upper management strata (and, if the health service is anything to go by, would have difficulty managing it’s way out of a wet paper bag with a clearly marked fire exit). This is, of course, where Johnny Foreigner comes in…
all come, earn a bit of cash, don’t pay taxes, soak up a few rays, shake our heads at the ludicrous way the place is run (but are quite unable to change anything because no Caymanian likes to have a foreigner tell them what to do) and cheerfully bugger off home at the end of our stay. Equally, as all the Caymanians are busy sitting in offices, being important and making up jobs for each other and all the ex-pats are well trained professionals (or they wouldn’t have been allowed here in the first place) who’s going to mop the floors, cart trolleys and generally to all the donkey work? Happily, there’s a multitude of Jamaicans and Hondurans desperately keen to earn Caymanian wages (even donkeywork on Cayman pays enough to support a family back home) and happy to do all the work that Caymanians won’t do for the simple reason that they don’t have to and that the white ex-pats are overqualified for. That’s how the society functions here; class delineation corresponds almost perfectly to nationality. It’s a situation that affords the Caymanian people a standard of living comparable to any of the world wealthiest countries whilst having very little part in maintaining said standard of living and so being totally dependent on foreign nationals to fill in the gaps left by an entire society cramming itself into the upper-middle class. OK, not all Caymanians fit into this picture of things. Some do other things; learn professions and so on. There are always the stupid and the lazy (lazier, I mean), the increasing crack-smoking faux gangsta section of the youth of the country, who won’t get jobs – aberrant factions of society, who don’t fit the pattern (one of my patients described himself as being from ‘the ghetto’ the other day – he meant a square kilometre up the road where the houses need a lick of paint and most families don’t run a second car). Generally speaking, though, society functions as I describe above and very nice it is too for most of us – particularly the natives. What I can’t get my head round, then, is the total lack of insight into the way things work and the constant underlying resentment of foreigners from the population as a whole.
Ex-pats, it is muttered (and written in very concerned and usually badly spelled letters to the newspapers), come over to the island, take jobs away from honest hard-working Caymanians (I’m told there is such a thing…) and end up taking Caymanian dollars off the island – weakening the economy. Weakening the economy? We are the economy. Where the bloody hell do they think all their money comes from anyway? Fish? Aside from which if there was a Caymanian capable of doing my job, there’s not a chance in hell I’d be here.”
There you have it. Problem solved by someone who can’t spell you’re. Simple.
Wayne Phantom-thats a good one. Rare photographic evidence suggests an ominous but unobtrusive presence at public events, particularly in the hospitality area but seemingly unable to exert any physical influence on the earthly plain.
The truth is, at least two thirds of these permits are for least-desired roles earning less than $20k per year. Most of that group a best case minimum wage $13,500 gross, less employer’s deductions for healthcare, etc. Maybe $10k per year net, where their share of a space in a rental room of a mixed household accommodation might be $500-800 a month. They send a little home, and the rest goes to rice budget. Assuming they are getting the work that was promised to them. Might as well be working in cane fields of the 1800s. Yet Caymanians, Rotarians, and self-ascribed “Christians”, are angry about perceived opportunities lost to others, or their burden to “traffic” congestion, rather than the indentured servitude elements that the Caymanian owner-class are still exercising in 2023.
And they cannot afford to get sick, with only SHIC to back them up.
Our Governments DEPEND on Work Permit fees because they are successively too DUMB to consider ways to diversify our economy, so they FOSTER and PROMOTE the importation of workers to the DETRIMENT of CAYMANIANS.
That’s the bottom line. Simple.
So, we have almost 35,000 people on work permits, that’s roughly 50% of the population. The remaining 50% are mostly status-holders. So, blood-Caymanians (called BELONGERS in some OTs) are now firmly in the MINORITY!
ANYONE paying ATTENTION???
Are you? What % of government revenue do you imagine WP fees make up?
This argument gets repeated ad nauseum by the kind of people who think capital letters prove their point and yet it doesn’t stand up to just 2 minutes and google. Work permit fees (including PR fees) make up just 10% of government revenue.
Simple solution stop issuing work permits and those with most permit holders reduce their numbers immediately ! Stop the hemorrhaging of Cayman.
Great idea but who will you be getting to do all the jobs that local legal people will not do? This idea will never ever pass to any law as the money people will not support.
It’s when I read ideas like this that I understand why Cayman is doomed.
Who then will do the work of the scapegoats?
Yes! Stop all the money that Keeps CIG functioning as a welfare stop for Caymanians. That will tell who is taking more of their fair share of self responsibility and who needs to leave immediately. Your welcome.
Time for an income tax on expats. It can be used to fund a state pension instead of the under performing private pension plans. I would love to see MPs survive on $1000 a month (the max payout by law), but of course they have seen to it that they are well provided for with public funds.
Another pie in the sky idea, never will see the light of day as the money fat cats will put a fast stop to it.
How is that going to address the population issue, exactly?
Because it will be less attractive to come here as an income tax free jurisdiction.
any tax raised would be equaled by the bloated CIG department that would administer the tax
Yeah. I don’t like the way our C IG operates, either.
Caymanian employers already take a 60% cut of the income of doctors on work permit. Good luck keeping the business if you tax the remaining 40%
Agree, lots of fronting going on in the Medical Profession.
The sense of entitlement is breathtaking. Here’s an idea; save for your own retirement.
That is Cayman Kind
Well dum dum, you can have a million dollars in a retirement fund but the pensions law says you can on get 12k a year.
LOL. You don’t have to save for your retirement in your CIG restricted retirement account. Dear god. Grow up and take responsibility for yourself.
So just put the minimum in you retirement account and invest for your retirement elsewhere. Duh.
Duh how many can afford that?
Maybe read the post it was replying to?
They’re already taxed in the form of a work permit.
does the us have work permits and do they pay tax?
better yet… tax the landowners like Dart who horde the land and not develop it. Cayman could easily accommodate 100k people if some thought was applied, or even better, CIG grow some balls and collect the $25k a day you should have been charging him for that derelict Hyatt eyesore for the last six years = $55m
http://archive.caymannewsservice.com/2010/04/18/bush-warns-owners-of-stiff-fines-on-derelict-property/
wait till we all sue for our PR that has been stalled. you people are going to regret that your government stalled it so they can push through more low class Jamaican woters if they don’t start going through the pile now.
But you won’t, because you know it is a privilege not a right. You might tick all the boxes but you can still be refused.
That’s not completely correct. There is a legal basis for the determination and as you’ll remember it does become a human rights issue. The cycle repeats itself.
Blaming “you people” for CIG stalling PR applications, “so that they can push through more low class Jamaican woters”, is disrespectful and discourteous, and appears to be the ultimate product of misplaced anger. Bad form and lack of class choice of words.
Are Jamaicans the only ones applying for PR? Why are we the ones always getting blamed for negative issues here in the Cayman Islands
Why do you want to become one of “you people”. Maybe it’s better that you don’t get PR
I doubt this an actual PR applicant. Reeks of someone pretending to be.
The sad part is, it’s our very own Caymanians selling us out. Usually I’d have disdain for these developers, but this is a capitalist society, they saw property on the market, they took it. We have no one to blame but ourselves. Now the average young Caymanian can’t afford a modest one bedroom apartment, even with a proper 9-5.
Yes, not only acquired/swapped for the prime land but these astute capitalist developers had the wherewithal to properly grease or extort their MP/Cabinet enablers who then instructed the CPA; their indentured minions cleared the land without permission, they skipped the DoE’s EIAs and other nuisance for maximum return on investment. Model citizens. /s
Wow, sad for you?!? For your house dreams we could assign you 5 of these minimum wage permit jobs, and, forgiving that you wouldn’t get the work anywhere near done, you’d barely crack $50k a year. Minimum wage after deductions is <$10k per year. Try buying groceries, or paying rent to a gouging landlord with that. Talk to your gardener or cleaner and ask them what their world looks like, and then lecture on your relative sadness. We will all light a candle for you.
With the global economy remaining in a financial slump, the Thompson family does not only desreve to be recognized, but also applauded for there effots in trying to support lacal Caymanians who may want to attend college to further there education, but cannot afford to do so because of financial hardships
https://www.caymaniantimes.ky/news/the-peter-n-thomson-family-foundation-awards-25-000-in-scholarships-to-ucci-students
The display of there foundation shows that they are socially responsive to the Cayman Islands and its socio-economic development and should call for a similar approach by businesses like CUC, the Water Authority, Degicel and Lime to also make agreements for annual donations to both the the International College of the Cayman Islands and the University College of the Cayman Islands to get our youth into college and engaged with academic development, to aquire a college degree or certificate and properly prepare the citizens of our country for the future
25k? Wow, that’s like a whole 15 minutes revenue. Seriously the self congratulatory back patting that goes on here when the fabulously wealthy publicly give away some pocket change is a sight to see. These people are saving millions every year in income, corporate and inheritance taxes and still expect us to fawn over their generosity when they give back some of the obscene margins they make off us.
Cayman solution in one word CASINOS
This is just Mac, Kenneth and now The Sir Alden continuing there sell out of everything Caymanian.
Yes Mac, Kenneth and The Sir Alden are promoting the lottery referendum, step one towards casinos that DART, Shilling and Imperato plan to build in Cayman.
They are all taking us on a destructive road for their own selfish gain.
Asking for a friend, why is it the Las Vegas flight is cheaper than the Miami route? Not making a lot of dollar or sense Minister Bryan?
what vegas flight?
What Las Vegas flight?!
Panton says he “…wants to have an open conversation about the issue and the direction the country should be going and has often said he wants to undertake an exercise like Vision 2008”?
Please allow me to present, The Rest of the Story…
Panton wants to nothing more than talk about the problems, form another committee to drag on with an exercise that will last until the end of PACT’s term in office so he can pass the buck to the next set of leaders. The Vision 2008 Strategic Plan, was an epic exercise. In the meetings here, I and other Brackers made many suggestions and we tracked the progress and outcomes.
The outcome: Some of the Plan groups’ suggestions were given some attention and implemented. Several of those were implemented well. However, in regard to addressing the problems of unsustainable development and unsustainable population growth, it was our mindless expectation that governments would do something meaningful about it.
Under the heading WE BELIEVE is found (among other beliefs):
–That a healthy natural and built environment and a balance
between the two, is essential for social, economic and political
well-being and prosperity.
Under the heading VISION STATEMENT, the group set forth that they would like to see “A Cayman Islands that is…”(among other visions):
–A country which manages growth and maintains prosperity, while protecting our social and natural environment.
–A country with open, responsible and accountable government…
REALITY: Not much got done, at the end of the ten years the problems were worse than at the beginning. Laws and enforcement aimed at being “A country which manages growth and maintains prosperity, while protecting our social and natural environment” remain lame to this day.
Under the heading PARAMETERS we read (among other parameters):
–We will manage growth in order to prevent the degradation of our Caymanian culture, environment and socio-economic framework.
–We will ensure that the decision-making processes within the public sector are open, transparent and subject to accountability.
–We will ensure the implementation of this Plan.
REALITY: Government has yet to manage growth; has yet to prevent the degradation of our culture and environment. And as far as openness, accountability and transparency; and as far as implementing The Plan are concerned… we have PACTless at near zero.
Under the heading STRATEGIES, you see that IV through X need PLENTY work.
Under the heading OBJECTIVES we see:
–To have full community participation in all phases of Vision 2008.
–To have successive governments committed to Vision 2008 by funding and implementing the Plan.
Earth to Panton in orbit around planet Cluelesstus: We have ALREADY talked about it…A LOT! The people gave government a PLAN, Bobo! The people spoke! Why the hell start from scratch and undertake an exercise “like” Vision 2008? Finish implementation of the most relevant and presently urgent parts of Vision 2008. Construct a process and group to prioritise and revise/update/add to The 2008 Plan. Call it the “National Strategic Plan Council” or similar…they will Produce a document, “National Strategic Plan Update 2023”, for example. Governments will be held accountable for implementation and will produce a document annually, “National Strategic Plan Implementation Report 20XX”, for example. The government will set forth what they have done to implement strategies and give reasons for failures to do so. Lots of possibilities that will get the process rolling again and avoid reinventing the wheel and passing the buck.
Ok, people: Read the Plan and Guide for yourselves. In regard to the article at hand, pay particular attention to:
>Strategy 10, Action Plans 1, 2, 4, 5 in regard to growth management.
(I LOVE STRATEGY 8, Action Plan 9: “To allow electors to recall individual elected Members..between scheduled elections and to bring about by-elections.” BRILLIANT!!!)
Mostly ALL of the as yet non-implemented parts of The Vision 2008 Plan are pretty good and very timely even today. In light of the fact that they finished the Plan 24 years ago, I must say that the producers of the Plan were truly visionaries! It is aptly titled.
What is breathtaking is that so much of the Vision 2008 Plan remains undone and so many of the problems addressed are as urgent and pressing and serious today (some very much more so) as they were way back then.
(HINT to Panton and PACTless: Read The Plan and do your damn jobs!!!)
The Plan, “Vision 2008 The Cayman Islands Nation (sic) Strategic Plan 1999 – 2008” may be found here:
http://www.caribbeanelections.com/eDocs/strategy/ky_strategy/ky_Vision_2008.pdf
The Guide to the “Nation (sic) Strategic Plan 1999 – 2009” may be found here:
http://www.dlp.gov.ky/portal/pls/portal/docs/1/1061536.PDF
(Did anybody notice the typos? Seriously?? CIG published the Plan and the Guide for distribution, and put them online with errant titles on the covers!! Unbelievable!)
8:33, Sorry to say our education level here in writing, reading and arithmetic is very low.
The report reflects our education.
So tell me why the grass outside the government building is cut by work permit holders and not Caymanians?
That’s the low end of the work spectrum, and Caymanians don’t get there. Now tel me, why the work of a brain surgeon is done by work permit holders?
8:18, Because we all know Caymanians don’t cut grass. You must be new here.
Why are the current economical/financial, social, and mental health woes, we all are experiencing here the Cayman Islands, not frightening the sh** out of our politicians and the government? I know it’s bringing on my stresses at a level I wish I could share with EACH member of Parliament.
Cayman less we be careful not to set ourselves up to a ultimate crash. It can and has happened to other jurisdictions that were equally poised in all aspects of its success.
Why aren’t the Caymanian millionaires and billionaires that routinely hold majority of these indentured permits, required to make proportionate contributions back to the community that hosted their greed and made them rich? In many countries, Corporate Social Responsibility best practice guidelines point to 2-3% of net profit re-investment back into the communities that served them. Here, zero seems to be perfectly acceptable, even for old Caymanian families that have enriched themselves for centuries. Rather than name and shame these exploitative actors, the government handling our public money is asked to pay again to make up their social shortcomings. Take issue with that please.
I’ve said this exact thing. There are some exceptionally wealthy Caymanian families on the island and very few give anything back. In fact, most continue to take at the expense of their people.
“With just over two years left in office, time is running out for PACT to roll out any meaningful plans. ”
Fixed the last paragraph for you.
Chris told unnagh to have more kids!lol
Chris, the wanna be PREMIER ois a DAM FOOL.
Temp work permits system are the problem. No advertisements or health check ups required for 1 month temp work permits. Once the person is already on Island, the employer put in a full work permit application and the person on the temp work permit continues on.
PACT what is your solution?
Solution to what? A Caymanian business owner finding an employee for his business? Seriously, who the hell do you think is going to take the place of even 10% of the workers on work permits?
Qualified Caymanians.
There are 3400 unemployed “qualified” Caymanians? Really?
Missed a zero. Maybe not.
Obviously not a business owner or dont want to face reality.
Wasnt that long ago that the hotel(s) had an employment event to allow Caymanians to enter the industry.
The turnout was abysmal.
and $75,000/year jobs were being promoted as $4.50/hr. plus tips, so…
Too funny
Minimum wage is just KYD$6 per hour, and only $4.50 for those getting tips. That’s less than $50 for an 8 hour work day, on the days there are shifts being given. There will never be Caymanian applicants for these jobs, and we are racing to the bottom on human capital. Many of these duped souls don’t have vacation, sick days, pension, or custody of the passports.
If you’re not making at least $10 an hour on tips on top of that 450 then you’re clearly in the wrong job!
But, why won’t there be? Caymanians should be the only group without stratification? Not everyone has the skills, willingness, or ability to earn more than minimum wage. Why can’t we value a hard day’s work?
$6/hr isn’t a hard day’s work. It’s “living on a bag of rice” indentured servitude.
100% the problem is the ability to get here on a temporary permit and start to look for work zero checks on this scam it’s out of control
Right to work and granting BOTC status after only 5 years are also big problems and need to stop.
how is it possible to get botc after 5 years?
If they have a potential murder charge coming up in Jam Rock then the temp work permit gets them out in a hurry.
temp work permits are not the problem. employers are the problem the majority of whom are Caymanians.
this is a Caymanian issue. which must be solved by a Caymanian.
how many Caymanians have a caymanian helper or even try and find one. how many Caymanian ensure that their Gardner is a Caymanian.
Businesses have to be majority owned by Caymanians. The visual demographics of what “Caymanian” looks like in 2023, thankfully do not factor in those requirements! It’s not because of 2003 Status Grants either!
Have you considered that they may want the best workers for their dollars?
If you count stayover tourists, cruise shippers, and those visiting loved ones, then we probably have around 95,000 people on the islands at any given time.
Caymanians wanted to be rich and this is what comes with it. Blame yourselves as you sold it.
You need to be a slave-owner to be rich?
As my visiting father said on his first and last vacation here, “where has all the money gone”. He was referring to the apparent lack of infrastructure. Compared to other island states we pail in comparison.
Face it, there is no master plan, if there ever was one there was no follow through. Our political leaders are and have been clueless with regards to building and maintaining essential infrastructure in line with growth. The only infrastructure they have built maintained is that which satisfies their ego, greed, pocket and thirst for political power.
At this point I, as many of my born Caymanian friends are preparing for the bus to hit the brick wall. Most all of the WP holders at least have a country and place to make their escape but I pity the rest for which it will be hell.
Ample and surplus inflows here, it just doesn’t trickle down, go into infrastructure or public philanthropy. Wealth amplifies personality. Here, it is focused into the pockets of a select group of jerk millionaires and billionaires that take and don’t give back anywhere near their proportionate means. There is no tax deduction incentive for pretending to give a toss about giving, just to create a better society.
It’s an absolute gravy train for some of the big families. They can’t lose and the money just keeps pouring in.
i wish this place only had 34,000 foreign workers…they are not the problem.
You must mean we wish we only had 34,000 foreign born on island . Instead we have at least 50,000 and their basketload of kids.
When the population was 34,000 it was great
Correct! They are actually what keeps this rock functioning. There are far too few educated, ethical Caymanians to guide us.
And far too many Caymanians unwilling to accept menial labor or service type jobs.
And I wish you went home. I’ll give the other 33,999 foreign works the benefit of doubt that they are decent people who at least try to understand & respect the people who call this place home
Sorry to burst your bubble: you sold your home a long time ago. It now belongs to Dart and another couple of business people.They decide for you.
The question is WHY Cayman are we allowing this to happen and WHO is allowing it to happen the game is up Wayne Panton or is it Wayne Phantom who vanishes when comes to issues to protect Cayman or Caymanians?
Happened long before Wayne- no economic development plan, no vision. No infrastructure development plan aligned to population growth. Failure after failure. Year after year.
@3:40:
Had the then current government and successive governments (including the Panton-PACTless Clown Car) paid attention to the We the People and dedicated themselves to the principles and strategies contained in the Vision 2008 Strategic Plan, things would have gotten done. Wayne and his PACTless Clown Car share in the blame.
Nice try but explain why our dear leader is so spineless he refuses to do anything but sit down with his low energy attitude and get those like yourself 340pm to write post that absolve him of all responsibilities for what is continuing to take place as you say year after year ??? You seem to have identified some of the issues why can’t he ?He seems to have surrounded himself with too many political mouthpieces who do very little but cry about what’s happening and blame others.
Yes. You are right 3:40 pm but what has Wayne done since his time in office to remedy this and the many other issues facing these islands? Give me something tangible that he and his gang have done, or intends to do. Nada! Look, I’m not some political bot jumping on here trying to defend either of the so called “political parties”, that’s not my vibe. As a Caymanian, still resident here, I am interested in the common good for us the people. Right now I am not seeing a whole lot of good.
Jamaicans mate. Jamaicans.
Next it will be the Chinese. Blame, blame, blame
I am not sure the CIG fully comprehends the situation.
or anything else for that matter.
And therein lies our problem.
Walking blindly into a disaster but with full pockets.
Thank you CNS we see and feel it everyday the really sad part those that really cared about Cayman and have always been apart of our society are leaving and going elsewhere and Infact are now even being disrespected and mistreated. Now to be displaced by bottom feeders and dangerous rabble who have little regard for anyone. Yet they are being lauded by our new political reality here who unfortunately see them as assets who will enable them in fleecing our island and keeping them in political power because of a share goal or get rich or die trying .
So true!
Get a hand mirror. 100% of the businesses taking out permits for imported poverty workers are Caymanians. You take issue with their number and not with their treatment, and/or living conditions at $6/hr, and still call yourselves Christians. You need to check yourselves.
The island vibe changed dramatically over the last 5 to 10 years. It felt like a community not so long ago and now it just feels some sort of soulless, influencer awash, self-entitled traffic jam.
WOW. Poetic and true.
You also occasionally flash your lights to help someone back out of a tight spot?
Good onya, and us all.
I’m sure there’s a few island vibe change points, post Ivan was significant, looting became a National Sport possibly coincidentally at the time of a Caribbean nation immigrant influx
34,000, as a number on its own, doesn’t tell us much. What are the splits weighed by industry, imported education human capital, professional compensation, CIG permit revenue, and GDP economic contributions? We should expect there are probably way too many at the lowest minimum wage poverty-line level, and that those so permitted are not always fully employed or utilized, or necessarily stay long. Quite a lot of them will need to go home when the recession kicks in harder. The intermediate outlook is for our population to experience the same knock-on impacts as the rest of the world, and contract significantly. There might even be another world war.
It is shocking how inept and out of depth this government is. We have long known we need a Vision 2008 type plan, just get off your backside and make it happen!
Unfortunately, with two years under the belt already and campaigning for elections to start in earnest Dec 2024 (next year!), there is not much time left for this PACT-less administration to do anything.
8:36 summed up the current immigration system perfectly and it should be noted by the public at large – all of those people who are waiting for word on their PR applications will get through the gate WHETHER they actually qualify or not, because after 10 years it will be a human rights violation to move them. That’s what ineptitude gets you.
I hope Cayman realizes what they got when you vote for independents with no clear cohesive manifesto. The thing is Wayne knows better but let his vendetta for Alden get the better of him and forced this pathetic administration upon us – wheeling and dealing to prevent anyone else from becoming Premier. Power by any means necessary, no country being created by community here, that’s for sure.
@11:35:
We do not need we need a Vision 2008 “type” plan. Let’s start with implementing the best of the rest of the Vision 2008 Plan as a start. Much of that plan is very very relevant today. It addresses many of today’s currently pressing and urgent problems. Vision 2008 was never properly implemented. Many of the most important aspects of the Plan were neglected and continue to be neglected. The Panton-PACTless Clown Car and successors will do the same with a new plan.
As a tourist who likes visiting a few weeks a year for the last three decades, I have to ask if any of your leaders are educated? What sort of higher education do you have in your country? Because they seem really naive, incapable of critical thinking or problem-solving, and prone to inaction.
That is the problem, they are all well educated with the exception of the tourism minister and the Bodden Town one. Clueless following the halpless
The donkey ride under a full moon strategy answers that.
That’s funny. For decades the USA was the most popular destination for “higher learning”. Make of that what you will…
Minimum wage needs to be doubled and inflation-adjusted. Permit holding employers should be required to regularly demonstrate they are actually paying full-time living wages, pension and health, or have their T&BL pulled. Too many permit holders working side-hussles to make ends meet. Worc is entrusted to ensure that never happens, not create holes for it to exist.
yet still they all earn enough to send money off island!
They get paid to Smurf the drug money being laundered.
And where are the employers going to get all the extra money from that your socialist pipe dreams are going to cost?
Living wages can definitely be accomplished from the cash fire hoses these workers create for their millionaire owners. It might even help those fat brimming billfolds that can’t close.
The Incredible Cayman Miracle now extends to hundreds of low pay young men brought from Nepal (Nepal!) to open and close CIG’s surplus of front doors.
Please stop with the misplaced racism. How do Caymanians mentally square their intense dislike of foreigners (or blatant xenophobia) with their love of a $6/hour minimum wage? The USA federal minumum wage is USD$7.25, which has real world wage value >20% less than a decade ago. There are only 7 US states that haven’t over-ridden this minimum with a state living wage up to $15/hr (about KYD$12.45/hr). Even UK’s National Living Wage was upped 6% last year to £9.50. Disgust and contempt should be reserved for the Caymanian slave-drivers duping economic migrants into coming here to run shifts for peanuts, on an island with one of the highest costs of living in the western world. Shame on the Caymanian “business” owners importing this poverty and/or on the hope and promise of work shifts that may or may not actually exist, and shame on Worc and DG, who were entrusted to make sure this never happened.
I wish I could double thumbs up this comment
Proper based but correct. The Asians lowering and raising the flags each evening and morning!
This place is proper knackered. It will be a 3rd world hell hole within 10 years – quote me.
Those represent 34,000 jobs that Caymanians can’t, or won’t do at the prevailing wage point. Local employers are enduring workforce delays and investing additional up front recruitment costs and permit fees – because their owners feel that payback and performance equation makes more sense. Meanwhile, the cost of living and wage gap widens, creating a vacuum for supplemental income seeking.
Cant even recycle glass. What makes you think they can manage something complex and critical like immigration…
I wonder what Cayman would be like if no foreign money or workers ever came to its shores. Would Cayman be an island utopia paradise or be like its neighbors and be “little Jamaica” or “mini Haiti or Cuba”. Maybe in that world McKeeva would have been like Hugo Chavez or Castro. This alternative Cayman outcome is when the Doc arrives in the DeLorean and tells Michael J Fox they must go Back to the Future to fix things.
It once was Utopia.
I think the problem is because they’re not as selective or strict with unskilled workers as they are for professional roles. And suddenly there was a flood of foreigners – not that I have a problem with foreigners but there was a sudden influx. That’s when we also started seeing homes turned into rental rooms for 12-15 people, scabby cars on the road, increase in crime (particularly gun crime), clogged up roads, higglers on the beach (never ever saw them before – thought they were illegal here which for tourists is a major plus). I could go on. But I blame the immigration policies. Also, I’d love to see
– How many in the total count are married to Caymanians
– Dependents of WP holders
– Unskilled workers v Professional workers
– Domestic helpers specifically (since Mac’s amendment)
It would also be a good idea to introduce a system whereby unskilled workers can submit reports and evidence of employers who pay for work permits, and then deduct the cost from the workers monthly salaries, often also deducting pension and health insurance but not taking out polices. It all needs close investigation and analysis.
It will be interesting to see once the permit holders will be gone who will buy all the new prison-like condos on island, and what their sale price will eventually be…
I’ll give you a clue. Two words and the last one is all.
The investor owners will simply Air B&B or VRBO them all which will escalate rental prices even more.
You mean the investors, after losing 50% on their invested capital due to property price dropping, will chase tourists to rent them overpriced tiny condos by the rubbish dump? Sounds like a great idea, I like your undefeated optimism
How has the population grown so much in such a short span of time? What business or industries are these people connected with? Neither financial services nor tourism seem to have grown that much. And the work permit count doesn’t even include wealthy people who buy their residencies. Can’t fix the problem if you don’t understand it
10:25 am
Work permits attracting the wrong class of people to these shores. People who are common labourers are only doing what they do best. So what is the big contribution to the economy? This is causing a problem in the housing market. I think we should the fallout from housing and hold off on permits.
Howabout this: Emergency cabinet meeting. Make executive decisions and push them through the house in a special session: Agenda as follows: 1. Complete freeze on all new work permits, 2. Complete freeze on all new car imports 3. Complete freeze on all mega development proposals over $5million 4. Total overhaul of planning law to eliminate all and every loophole, 5. Enforce existing laws by immediately hiring more code cops. 6. Instruct Public Prosecutions to handle major overload by establishing a new PP flying squad, 7. Limit cruise ships to one a day. All rulings to become effective 15 February, 2023. There’s a lot more. This is just for starters.
How about stfu
2: So tourist cant hire a car because you stopped all imports – as the Americans say go figure!
I agree, this place is overpopulated and unfriendly. Time to invest money and move businesses somewhere else.
Good, we dont want you here
A rare case when I agree with people like you. I go (already gone, actually), you stay and enjoy your little Jamaica (you could not go anywhere else anyway)
we could always go to the motherland – so please.
yup, on to pillage the next. As with everything else, the cycle continues.
Growth is inevitable whenever and wherever prosperity succeeds. I appreciate the opportunity to work here and do my part to help this beautiful country continue to prosper, develop, and grow. I enjoy helping Caymanians here grow by sharing my expertise with them. It’s frustrating when most of the ones I am here to help show up to work more interested in whatever it is on their phone screen day after day than learning or doing their job. My employer does have some successful Caymanians that have learned a lot, grown a lot, and prosper as a result. The sad reality for my generous employer is that they care much more about helping others than most of the ones they are trying to help. When someone shows up with proven reliability to help and educate you, maybe share that interest by showing up on time with initiative to learn. PROSPERITY IS A CHOICE. LEARN and embrace that or you’ll never obtain it. No one is simply entitled to prosperity no matter where you are from, here or anywhere else. Thank you for allowing me to be here to help whether you want me here or not. I’m glad to help you just the same, especially whoever shows legitimate interest in accepting help by learning so we can all prosper together. How about we move forward together?
don’t worry…no-plan-pact are ‘working’ on it….!
zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Thank you for this so important news story CNS. Now let us see how the geniuses in the PACT government plan to mitigate this serious and constantly growing dilemma! The opposition also have a responsibility to become involved, put forward solutions and challenge the government. If this trend continues we will be facing total destruction quicker than we can imagine.
9:21, The Opposition were the ones who put this plan in place under the fearless leadership of Sir Alden.
So hard for the Opposition to get involved because it makes them look stupid considering they proposed and approved the original plan.
Change the plan. The ship is sinking.
What is the plan Honorable Premier? Better ask Big Daddy Dart before you answer.
The original plan was put in place and approved by a Caymanian man who just received a knighthood.
Not the current Premier.
Yeah genius @9:17am, we know that! Did you consider that perhaps that is the reason why his government is now on the back bench? Moving on, I now want to know what this PACT government is going to do about it!
10:10, Did you ever consider how difficult it is to just abolish the original plan put in place by Sir Alden, and approved by his Cabinet colleagues a few years ago?
It is an all encompassing master plan that cannot simply be thrown out by the Premier without a whole range of policy implications.
For example, the possible new East – West Arterial Road.
Try doing some reading and pull up your big boy pants and do some heavy reading.
Thank you honey child!
Is this because Caymanians do not or will not work at hotels, fast food/ restaurants, stores or do gardening etc. so all jobs like that need to bring in expat workers? Wouldn’t it be more beneficial if these jobs were held by the local population?
Yes to the first question.
You must be new here to the second.
Please stop the tribal politics. Just stop. Regardless of who put the plan in place it needs correction and I hope that the current government and Premier will step up and do so.
It started with MacKeeva not Alden. However he should have stopped it.
Dart is only doing damage limitation on this island now. His money is going to different places already. Sorry for young generational Caymanian, but their parents and grandparents already sold all the family gold
Shut up cry baby – Mr. Dart has helped Cayman be great.
We already know this. Do something about it!!!!!!!!!
Begin with widespread remote work. If most or all of the work is done on a computer, make it remote. This takes thousands of cars off the road.
Decentralize GT. The daily Grand Harbour roundabout will be made much better.
Mandate bussing for all schools. If one chooses not to bus, then a yearly fee should be paid and used for modern traffic speed cameras everywhere.
CNS,
Your numbers are very much understated. The population we need to be concerned with is the total number of warm bodies here every day. During the Winter we have thousands of stayover tourists and others that are here temporarily and not included in your figures. They still impact the environment and clog up the roads.
In the summer hundreds if not thousands of school children come to visit their work permit parents, and the tourist numbers no longer drop like they used to. We are likely over 90k people at any point in time.
Still no proper landfill, still no real public transport and our “World Class Civil Service” still not doing its job.
agreed, except that civil servants are controlled by politicians and failing management.
they are forced to work in a certain way
Not true. There is a civil service association.
Maybe WORC and Steve McField’s PR Board should hire a few more people to process the massive backlog of PR Applications.
Right now, there is a massive danger that significant numbers of applicants that do not qualify under the current points system will be granted PR and eventually Cayman Status.
You may ask “How can this be if they are not qualified?”, well if they reach the magic 10 years on island when Gov’t loses the inevitable court case all of these people will likely be allowed to stay just from being here for 10+ years.
But this is likely all part of Saunders plan. The people that will eventually become voters this way are much more likely to support old school Cayman “gifting” politicians than those who get points for high levels of education and wealth.
It is one thing to be importing massive amounts of labour under Work Permits, after all apparently they are filling needed roles. It is entirely different to increase the number of people who are allowed to stay here permanently and ultimately receive Status.
We have a system in place, people are meant to be assessing these PR applications and for some reason they are not. Why is that? It must be a choice and under the PPM, John Meghoo’s Board not only processed applicants in a reasonable matter of time, they also cleared the backlog from the last time these shenanigans went on.
What has changed at WORC and the PR Board, absolutely nothing except their being a new Gov’t after the last election and their political appointee and Minister Saunders slowing down the process.
We are all going to pay dearly for the large numbers of economically unviable people that are going to get status and start sponsoring their family members to come to this “Land of milk & honey”!
Just follow the rules that are already in place in a reasonably period of time and this doesn’t happen.
Saunders’ excuses about needing to investigate “Sham marriages” ring incredibly hollow as the majority of these applicants are either unmarried or not married to a Caymanian!
We are still suffering the ever multiplying consequences of Mac’s self serving status grants. Saunders is just following in his master’s footsteps .
We can’t afford any more NAU candidates, but Saunders Kenneth and DUHwayne need them for wotes.
The deposit for the hire purchase of Cayman began in 2003. Instalments keep being paid. The final one (though it will be hard to pinpoint) which will transfer full title to the handlers, away from the electorate, is just around the corner. Abolish elections. They are not changing anything. Mac, Alden, Wayne and Roy (?) are, and will all be, working for the handlers.
The place is bulging at the seams and the infrastructure simply can’t cope as highlighted by the chaos with the Pirate’s Week road closure.
I think we’re at a point now where people’s quality of life is suffering due to simply having too many people here.
The post Air Show traffic management failure showed how bad it will be without a plan.
But, keep building, building, building.
Big Mac says get 100,000 more people. He is our national treasure.
12:17, And a God in West Bay.
Seems to be the same issue every Friday afternoon as well.
Yes it does. If only there were a traffic management plan in place. We have a dancing officer for traffic flow, so why cant we have others doing the same to help this?
I like the dancing officer: pleasant gentleman and seems to be a good person.