Changes coming to restrict status grants, says minister
(CNS): The minister responsible for immigration, Dwayne Seymour, has said the Cayman Islands Government is working on a number of amendments to legislation that Caymanians had been asking for relating to the pace of growth and “people walking onto our shores and getting status”. He said, “None of us are happy about the pace of that.”
The border control minister said the country had made mistakes in the past and there were things to fix, such as immigration, which is a “main concern”. However, he said this was taking time because the ministries were swamped, and there were “not enough bodies to do everything”.
Appearing on Radio Cayman’s For The Record with Orrett Connor on Monday, Seymour said that changes were coming to address the pace at which people were being granted permanent residency and status.
Seymour said that the growth over the last few decades had become quite stressful as Caymanians were not prepared for the opportunities brought by the “mass exodus [sic] of people coming to our country”, though it was clear he meant mass influx. “It is a mental health situation when a country grows this fast.”
He said that “most Caymanians are on the same page” about the growth, which he described as “quite scary”, and that it was clear the pace of status and PR grants had to be slowed down. He said the government had found some mechanisms it could use, though he didn’t go into detail about what those were.
Seymour implied that the focus would be on reducing the number of people getting status by making it much more difficult to qualify, putting an annual cap on grants or stopping status grants completely other than through family or marriage connections.
It already takes a minimum of 16 years of continuous residency for a person who arrives in the Cayman Islands as a work permit holder with no ties of descent or marriage to get Caymanian status, and then only if they meet all of the qualifying criteria. However, getting status through marriage can be much quicker, and twice as many people now achieve status through this route than those getting status through residency.
“We are working on a lot but… when you are working on a lot… sometimes you have got to pick which one you are going to move forward with because you can’t get it all done at one time,” he said.
Seymour has been labour minister since March 2023, except for one month after he resigned from the PACT Cabinet. He returned to the ministry in the UPM administration after Panton was ousted from office.
He and his predecessor, Chris Saunders, have been pressured through the courts and by Cabinet colleagues over the last three and a half years. However, despite promises to deal with the issues surrounding labour and immigration, as well as reviews and reports, there has been no significant change.
Seymour, who owns a security and baggage handling business that employs a significant number of permit holders on minimum wage, has failed to raise the minimum wage, which many believe would slow down the influx of foreign labour. The minister, who clearly has a conflict of interest, rejected the Minimum Wage Advisory Committee’s recommendations that it should be increased from the current $6 per hour to $8.75, with room for even more in the business community.
In July this year, he announced there would be a do-over of the process and that he wanted the committee to look at different rates for different sectors. In the meantime, he announced that in July next year, tourism workers would get an increase to just $7 per hour and that employers would no longer be able to use gratuities to supplement wages.
When Connor asked the minister about the situation with the minimum wage on Monday, he appeared to accept that all the issues were connected and said he had plans to implement a minimum wage. Ignoring his own role in stalling the rollout of the national pay hike, he said, “We should have had an increase in the minimum wage a long time ago… and I am doing my best to ensure it happens and is approved under this government.”
Seymour added that he would return to the show this week with his ministry team when he would address the minimum wage question.
See Minister Seymour’s appearance on FTR on Radio Cayman’s YouTube channel below:
- Fascinated
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Bored
- Afraid
How is that going to change, when one of the Immigration Department’s Annual Review goals is to collect MILLIONS of dollars in work permit fees? We the people need to decide what is our priority: Making money or controlling the number of foreign nationals who are able to apply for status. Let us take the bull by the horns (or other parts!)
Mr. Minister, you and the rest of us Caymanians know well that there exists this mentality that most if not all work permit holders have this attitude that from day one they have no intention of leaving these shores regardless of which sector they may work in.
The government needs to do better in reminding work permit holders that firstly, having a work permit here is a PRIVILEGE NOT a RIGHT, and does not automatically lead to PR or STATUS. Secondly, if a work permit holder does qualify and is granted Permanent Residency it is a PRIVILEGE and NOT a RIGHT and does not automatically lead to Caymanian Status. Thirdly, Permanent Residents who qualify and are granted Caymanian Status NEED to clearly understand that such a grant is a PRIVILEGE and NOT a RIGHT. And Fourthly, EACH of these PRIVILEGES comes with LOSS PROVISIONS.
Case in point, I spoke to a male employee from the Food Truck, located after the gas station by Hurley’s, asked about American Politics and his response to me was “I don’t care because I am not going back and I’m here to stay.” My response was one more with this entitled attitude.
Caymanians are not xenophobic as certain groups of people who are privileged to be working and living here try to make us out to be. Our small country can’t accommodate everyone who comes to our shores initially to work. It is simply impossible.
I, therefore, agree that Immigration Reforms are needed in the Cayman Islands to protect the RIGHTS of Generational Caymanians and their extended families.
A start Mr. Minister would be to revise ALL Immigration Laws, that are currently not in the best interest of Generational Caymanians and their extended families.
In doing so, the government of today will ensure that the RIGHTS of Citizenship of Generational Caymanians and their extended families are not in jeopardy now or at any time in the future.
I am glad to hear someone in government say that Immigration Change Will Come.’ Caymanians want ACTIONS from the Government rather than WORDS in light of the fact that a new election looms around the corner.
Let’s not delay this crucial issue like other governments have, which has resulted in the current mess we find ourselves in here in the Cayman Islands. ACTIONS are required NOW!
When Immigration Amendments are made such Amendments should be in favour of Caymanians ‘As Of Right’ (i.e. Generational Caymanians/Caymananians By Descent and their extended families) instead of the more recent trend which ultimately resulted in those who obtain Caymanian Citizenship through Status Grants having more rights than Generational Caymanians.
Here is just one of many Revised Laws that reflect the statement above.
“Children Born to Caymanians Under the Immigration (Transition) Act (2022) (the “Act”), children born on or after 1st January 2004 are ‘Caymanian as of Right’ (no matter where they are physically born) if, at the date of their birth, at least one of their parents was Caymanian and settled in the Cayman Islands. If the parents obtained Caymanian status any other way than by descent, and their child is born overseas when neither parent is settled in the Cayman Islands, then their child will also be ‘Caymanian as of Right’. … If the children’s parents became Caymanian by descent (i.e. through a parent or grandparent), and the child is born overseas, then the child is not necessarily Caymanian. . . .
Mr. Minister, where is the fairness for Generational Caymanians in this particular revision?
Most Caymanians want revisions and/or repeals of current Immigration Laws to ensure that the rights and safeguards are put in place so that the Rights of Generational Caymanians and their future generations are not ‘WATERED DOWN’ to suit a certain class of persons who are obtaining Caymanian Status or God forbid ‘TAKEN AWAY’ by any future Boards or Governments.
Serious ACTIONS are now needed.
No one is “people walking onto our shores and getting status”.
You have to live here for 15 years. About 20% of an average lifetime.
But of course Dwayne already knows that.
Not true, it depends on who you know.
Nope. Many people, married to Caymanians, are able to do just that. There is no need for them or their Caymanian spouse to have ever lived here until the day before the application is made.
How would we propose this vapid CIG hope to regulate who Caymanians decide to marry? What would satisfy the bureaucratic skeptics? A vesting period of how many months, years, decades? Mandatory 50% asset split on divorce or annulment? Hitching to Caymanians isn’t always a pleasure cruise. Single moms to deadbeat Caymanian fathers ought to earn some rights.
The CIG should do it pretty much the same way the UK does. There are meaningful barriers, including to baby-daddies.
“We are working on a lot but… when you are working on a lot… sometimes you have got to pick which one you are going to move forward with because you can’t get it all done at one time,” he said.
Y’know, it seems I’ve heard this tune before….
“But how can we ………do……. anything…. anything at a quick pace….”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=derikGAEE9g
Minimum wage in UK is CI$11 and the cost of living is less than half compared to Cayman. It is also tax free because below the tax treshhold.
Minimum wage for a full time worker adds up to CI$21k per annum. The tax free allowance is $12.5K. The worker would pay $1.8k in tax plus $800 in social charges. The employer would pay $1500 in social charges plus a minimum of $625 in pension.
That’s an annual net pay of $18.4k. It would take a minimum wage Caymanian 438 days to earn that which with weekends and holidays is about 2 years. Not to mention how cheap the UK is compared to here.
Then move to the UK. No want is stopping you from moving on.
Looks like his crash into the light pole when he wasn’t breathalyzed did more damage than we knew to his brain.
What a pile of rubbish.
What brain?
This man is thicker than a whale omlette
You wouldn’t guess it was election time.
Saying it is easy Min Seymour…..struggle you & your cronies have is actioning it….that’s the painful & most difficult part of you all Governance….you and them lack brass.
But It’s elections time and suddenly your ears have opened to the country crying for these long awaited policies that your Master Mac created 23+ yrs ago under the UDP….. Of course the PPM is the 2.0 for expanding and opening up for many more to invade our shores, so that remaining of what’s left of the 6 of PPM batch will be under fire as well.
Word of caution Min. Seymour and other PPM/UNP/Govt Try retire and stop sucking the blood from our children.
It’s time to turn the tides come April (or June) 2025
Listening to Seymour (and other unqualified xenophobes) rant endlessly about legions of minimum wage foreigners, lured here by unscrupulous low wage-conspiring Caymanian permit holders (like them), many that lied on WORC applications and never had full time work, or living housing lined up for them, is cursed recirculating BS, rather than privilege. Those permit workers are never going to qualify to meet the minimum PR criteria. The permit holders that lied should be prosecuted, not shielded because they are Caymanian crooks, work in WORC, or so-and-so’s cousin.
This is another Minister put in charge of a remit they don’t understand, even after years on the job. That’s what voters should urgently take issue with and seek a solution to.
You have been the Minister in charge for 4 years, you seemed quite happy about that! In the last 4 years the population has exploded and the buck stops with you. We going to vote you out, then you can spend your days at your favorite watering holes.
LTD Da Unboozler
Love how the assumption is that everybody wants to become Caymanian. In fact, a lot of professional expats would have no intention of doing that, but are forced to make a choice to apply for PR or leave after 8 years. Nobody, and I mean absolutely nobody including Caymanians, wants to retire in the Cayman Islands. Current immigrants are mainly from third world countries, because of the local demand for the cheapest available workers. They have nowhere else to go, once settled in the Cayman Islands. They also take no job from Caymanians, they serve Caymanians but Caymanians don’t like to see them around. The current delusion is that Grand Cayman is competing with Montecarlo or Dubai, while in reality being a remote protectorate of the Philippines. Caymanians also love women from the Philippines, but get upset when their children are used as a loophole to get citizenship. But hey, Grand Cayman is the last place in the world where condoms have to be kept behind the counter: changing that would help a lot reducing new citizenships… Restrict the rules as much as you like, the situation is much more complex than you are able/willing to see. You will keep losing the ‘good’ professional expats from advanced counteies, and slip even more toward the third word. And for God’s sake, approve Starlink, even Burundi has got it already!
Only Starlink will know if you have Starlink.
Regarding StarLink – yes exactly….Cost U Less just brought in dozens
OfReg can’t tell their arse from their elbow. They’re a waste of space. Cost U Less are quite sensible in giving them the finger.
Another area in which OfReg are utterly useless is in regulating the cost of mobile phone plans. Digicel and Flow’s plans all cost hundreds of dollars a month, whereas in the US and UK it’s possible to get low-end plans for $5-$15 per month (e.g. Mint Mobile in the US).
Most people do not need, and will never use, umpteen thousand of petabytes of data each month, and so Digicel and Flow are just flogging cr@p we don’t need.
OfReg should mandate the provision by each of Digicel and Flow of a basic tariff which, e.g. just includes:
1. Outbound phone calls limited to Cayman-only. Perhaps capped to 5 hours/month.
2. 1GB data/month.
3. Inclusive text messages (they cost the mobile network operators nothing).
This would immediately save many Caymanians $$$$$, but would still force all the rich businesses to pay for the expensive tariffs. Effectively, this would force businesses to subsidise personal phone use. I’m far from a socialist, but this seems quite reasonable.
You should leave. Your disdain for Cayman and Caymanians is evident and you are not wanted. The feelings you have are mutual. How dare you refer to us as a protectorate of the Philippines. What we are is the largest and most prosperous British Overseas Territory, the most successful example of a dying breed. We are worthy of respect, and you show none, so I hope you get none from Caymanians and that you do not remain here using the money you are no doubt earning with that attitude.
It looks like your thoughts are… nonsense! Have a great day!!
Caymankind
Department of Tourism?
The immigration rollover system is designed so that if an employee wants to stay, or employer wants to retain their talent, there are deadlines, applications that must be filed, applications to be lost and/or work furloughed by vengeful politics, with same fees paid, whether or not that person seeks Caymanian status. There is no other expedited “we don’t want, or need that” lane. That’s where this went off the tracks years ago. There is no “Finance Career” residency token for sale to replace the year by year work permit system with medium term temporary residency security with which to invest in real estate, own a business, and make adult plans.
See you in court morons.
It is people like you who should NEVER BE GRANTED PR OR STATUS. NEVER!
Do remember there is a plane leaving everyday to take you off of our country. But I can bet your massive income you earn here is keeping you from do so.
Work Permits, PR and Status Grants are a PRIVILEGE NOT A RIGHT AND THEY ALL COME WITH LOSS PROVISIONS!
I didn’t come here to make pals, I came to make money and I’m doing alright thank you very much.
Maybe you are looking into your mirror too often and for too long. YOU ARE THE MORON!
Looking forward to the data to back up this stance, rather than anecdotal soundbites. From what I can see on the ESO website the number of Caymanians has grown since 2005 from 32k to 38k and the total population has gone from 52k to 82k. So Caymanians are up 18%, including births/deaths/marriages/status, total population up 58%. What number is it that worries people, is it that there are too many people generally, roads, schools, hospitals etc all stretched? Would shaving 1k off the status grants make any difference to those issues? Do you want to limit the speed of growth and thereby accept less money and opportunities? They are important choices to be made, and in my opinion should be made, just with eyes open. I would prefer less growth (and people) if it means a better quality of life, I would prefer more Caymanians and less WPs, with a view to having less population overall. I don’t think swapping people who have invested time and money with temporary WP holders is the right choice. I also think anyone who does get status should be a net benefit to the country and not a drain on resources.
That’s always been it. Caymanian gravy train riders feel that every foreigner is angling for their slice of stolen debt-fuelled pie, and it isn’t so. There is collective disinterest in understanding the application requirements of the existing system at every interval. No exploration of the obvious missing laneways that might offer an alternative stable 15-20 year residency tenure without also leading to a passport they don’t need and Caymanian Status they don’t want. Donkey Seymour won’t even bother to call Nick Joseph to find out what those solutions are and take credit for them.
This is the same donkey that gave us daily updates in the languages of this country’s expats during COVID.
dwayne…why you dont tell yhe ppl about the 7.5% tax the govt levies as of march 1st 2024 on title changes ordered by the courts in marriage? it was 100 bucks prior….so the govt want ppl to remain miserable in marriage..as most ppl cant afford to get divorce with that tax?
you have no rights in cayman outside you married! but dwayne…adultery is not a crime in the law? why us this? even in marriage! therefore, i see it as only a way of signing a finanvial contract to invite the government into your lives…whivh…in divorce…oh well…it not usually pretty?!
Thank you “drunk at 7:30” for chiming in.
Cometh the Age of the Donkey.
Lol. In that case what is likely to happen is another order from UK and a lots of status grants.
There never was an order from the UK – but yes. Cayman had better manage the issue properly, or it will lose the choice of who gets to stay. This is why enforcing term limits is so important and why the civil service ongoing insistence to be exempt, is becoming questionable.
At only 9-12 CI Status Grants per year, there was a legitimate ECHR concern, with worrying precedent-setting litigation case law established elsewhere. We were on a collision course with the UK FCO without a fair path to citizenship. The failure in caveat was not adding, “for those that want it”, and providing an alternative mechanism for those that just wanted to work peacefully for 10-15-20 years and then leave at some point. Have them sign an annual affidavit that they don’t seek CI Status and offer them a different lane. Copying Bermuda’s own xenophobia policy errors was doubly dumb.
There was no order from the UK, not even a hint of an order. That was just one of McKeeva’s many lies saying that if we didn’t give the people status that the UK government would force it upon us and it would be worse than the 5,000 freebies the government of the day handed out.
The UK still doesn’t want to give citizenship to the thousands of Caribbean people who entered the UK as “windrush” workers after WW2.
8:11, your last sentence is utter garbage.
Thank goodness for Honorable Seymour as he will sort everything out. You should not print fake news that his company only pays minimum wage because he is a wonderful man. We all love you Honorable Seymour, you be our next premier.
Honorable my a*se!
You are as fool fool as donkeyman and must be on his gravy train too.
It’s been shown time and time again that the higher the work permits, the lower the unemployment of Caymanians. Like it or not that’s the fact and that’s the fact in almost every country. Jump up and down all you want or accept it like an adult
Premier Juliana O’Connor Connolly wants more power over finances. Illiteral in finances, economics and business she will bankrupt Cayman at the speed of light.
Why does anyone want live in Cayman? Name one thing please.
No Taxes!
This is literally the ONLY reason.
Moron Caymanian politicians are doing their best to ruin the economy though, by pi$$ing away money on electoral bribes left, right and center, so they may yet kill the golden goose.
Every transaction you make in Cayman using your cards is taxed..
Unfortunately, with undeclared liabilities amounting to at least 200% of GDP, for years, mass Cabinet resignations today, and what feels calls from the FCO to comply with FFR, taxes seem on course to become a certainty, for whoever sticks around. It won’t be the Finance sector. It’s happening before our very eyes.
Who in the world wants to live in Cayman permanently?
P.S Juliana has gotten some bold ideas in Samoa. Fasten your seatbelts, The Lady With a Suitcase full of cash wants to spend more!
“Security, you nuh see nuttin’.” – I think that’s John-John’s way of dealing with expats on minimum wage?
I mean to be fair it’s pretty obvious that janitors and security guards shouldn’t be exempt from rollover. Doctors, teachers, financial services people less so.
Status grants aren’t really the problem when we’re talking about population growth. I think most people would agree that there should be some path to status for people to encourage them to settle here and integrate into the community. We’re taking about a few hundred people a year which is a drop in the bucket compared to the number of work permits given out.
If the changes the Minister is proposing are made there will no doubt be issues with litigation, human rights etc, but, perhaps unsurprisingly, the government is trying to solve its problems in the wrong way. They can slow population growth much more easily and by methods that will create much less social disharmony.
The PR points based system is already in existence. Why not simply amend this to make obtaining PR much harder? The legal framework is already in place. If fewer people achieve PR then there are obviously fewer who ultimately obtain status. It also avoids moving the goalposts for people who have already achieved it.
And of course no discussion of solving a more serious problem – people obtaining status quickly by marriage. Sometimes by sham marriage. Why not make it 15 years before you can apply for status as a result of marriage? Why should it be shorter than the other route? We already don’t collect PR or work permit fees from those people so again they have an unfair advantage over other residents and cost the government revenue. People who get married should do so for the right reasons and a quick path to status shouldn’t be one of them.
Finally, the sheer number of people arriving on work permits needs to be curtailed. One way to do that would be to eliminate temporary permits leading to full grants. These simply allow people to be brought here quickly and without the same level of scrutiny and application of mechanisms to protect Caymanians that is supposed to happen on a multi year grant. A temp permit should be just that – temporary. You’re here for six or nine months and that’s it. You want to come back, sure, you can get one more temp after a 3 month break or after 6 months off island you can apply for a grant. Why should we roll out the red carpet and make it easy for people to come here on a dirt cheap permit with no job and then use their time here to look for work? This happens all the time now.
We can stop programs like the SEZ which allow shortcuts around the usual immigration controls and who does this benefit other than a few connected Caymanians? The whole island is already a special economic zone. There are no taxes. That’s the selling point. The entire premise of Enterprise City is that it reduces normal immigration costs and provides automatic 5 year permits.
You want to slow development to a more manageable pace? Make construction permits more expensive and have a higher minimum wage. Do more spot checks to make sure people are working in the jobs they say they are. This will naturally slow down the number of projects and, thankfully, the number of Honda Fit drivers cruising around at breakneck speed.
Raise the price of PR by investment and don’t allow it to be a path to status as it is now.
Some or all of these changes would immediately get results that Caymanians want without breeding the kind of social disharmony that plagues many of our Caribbean neighbours. The absence of that is a big part of what makes this place so great and so successful at the expense of the economies of those other countries.
I would think if Caymanians do not want so many work permits, then locals better start working in the tourist industry, become nannies and gardeners and work construction. That would cut down on a huge proportion of the permits.
Wow isn’t this called racism in the western world?
have you watched any of the news in “Merica” lately?
No. At least, not by anyone who knows what they are talking about.
He who casts the first stone. Difficult to take a man seriously, even when making reseaonble points, pretending to be a paragon if virtue. Those who know, know. Those who suspect, you’re most likely correct. 🫢
Wonderful news!!!!! You’ve hot my vote
Lost mine though. Luckily I can vote because I was granted status.
“mass exodus [sic] of people coming to our country”.
This is the level of education of our acting Premier and people are asking why we need work permits?
You need to listen to more Marley. The Hon. Minister was referring to Exodus! Movement of Jah People (to Cayman).
Who dat?
lol
Dat’s exactly why they call him da Rock!
Where would we be without Dwayne da Rock Seymour true man of the people a trailblazer. I sleep well knowing da Rock his guiding da Cayman ship hands on da steering wheel to greener pastures. Tanks Rock tanks a lot.
LOL
jabroni….
The third world work permits need to be stopped. Plus the idea of “rollover” needs to end too. It should be one 5 year work permit within a 10 year period. Cayman isn’t obligated to provide an alternative home for anyone.
go ahead and try….cig will be humiliated again in the courts.
Shame and humiliation hardwiring does not exist in the West Indies.
what an idiot.nothing more to be said.
cayman is lucky to have ppl wanting to stay with morons like him in power.
jon-jon….the perfect example of why we need more new caymanians here…
John John the moon isn’t full and we know this garbage you are spewing. Nothing will ever change until the S#$t hits the fan!!
It election time and we know you trying make us drink the kool aid!
Minister. Respectfully, that is not how it works.
If you want to dam a river you have to do it upstream. Not at the mouth. Doing as you propose will not only not work – it will result in a flood (of lawsuits).
If only term limits were enforced, including in the civil service, and the PR system were fixed, you would be half way there.
Then you would have to deal with marriages of convenience, and the ridiculous grants to people on the basis of marriage alone (without any assimilation or even spending any real time here). How are the prosecutions coming in relation to the 236 (or so) sham marriages that were identified under Minister Saunders? It has only been two years.
Oh, and that stuff about this being too complicated for the civil services to deal with in a hurry? Really? Is that what you are being told? Seems incredible, especially given the defects in the system have been well known and litigated for more than 10 years.
The Board has the power to restrict criteria to make it much more selective to ever qualify for PR. That’s really all they can do, but they might want to check with employers and their staff retention goals and hiring costs before fiddling with those dials. Naturalisation as BOTC comes after applying beyond 10 years, and CI Status after 15. Those folks have legitimately been contributing and investing as specified to our own exacting requirements for a big chunk of their adult lives, and at that point, unless they’ve fouled their own record somewhere, we don’t have a UNHR leg to stand on to refuse them. They are already on that track. It would be nice if we were more careful with our spending and benefits giveaways so it wouldn’t matter who’s Caymanian. Immigration might consider reading the inbound flight manifests and adding a couple more Caymanian Immigration lanes at the airport to help prioritize those who are truly our own, returning home after a long travel day. The Caymanian line is sometimes much longer than the tourist one! It shouldn’t be that way. We need to admit when we have easy things wrong, and fix them. It might be time to change the monarch pictures, for example.
The Board has no power to restrict PR. They are bound by an incomprehensibly defective points system prescribed by cabinet. There should be an investigation as to how it came to be, and how it has been allowed to continue. Cayman has been betrayed.
Election time that’s why.
focus on bot letting
people here on permits too not just those getting status.. we are FULL!
First thing is that the minimum investment required for “residency by investment” needs to change from $2.5M to $10M. That $2.5M number hasn’t changed in 14 years! So you can come buy a nice house now and get residency.
Easy peasy change.
Is this going to stop the “right” type of people? I think the people we are talking about aren’t buying 2.5M homes.
populist waffle….you’ll do nothin’.
But you’ll lead your BTW, BTE, GTC and WBW voters to believe they’ll be getting preferential treatment.
In my opinion, the bigger problem is the large volume of disposable minimum wage foreign workers brought here and being treated badly by employers. Just the sheer volume of people here on WPs not the relative few that are becoming Caymanian. We have a bulk immigration problem.
Agreed. They don’t want to do the dirty work of actually going through the list of WP holders and seeing if that person has gainful employment. They don’t want to fine employers that have WP holders with no jobs. They need to license all rental accommodations and make sure they are to code. We could easily remove 5,000 workers on permits.
Hundreds are becoming Caymanian. Thousands of their children will become Caymanian.
Let’s hope so.
So we on permits will come, work at the jobs Caymanians don’t want, make lives and contribute, build the buildings, clean the toilets, guard and keep you safe as you sleep and then you’ll throw us out as we come to rollover?
Cayman kind indeed.
“work at the jobs Caymanians don’t want to work for unlivable wages, because they can’t take that money back home in a few short years and live like kings due to the amazing value of the KYD”
*FTFY.
Also, keep us safe at night? Hilarious. Our crime has skyrocketed right alongside the throngs of impoverished foreign workers we have imported over the last decade.
You write: “Crime has rocketed right alongside the throngs of impoverished foreign workers”
yet 70% of the men in Northward prison are Caymanians.
Not good when they comprise about 45% of the general population.
exactly….the ‘great Christian nation’ of cayman should only ask itself one question:
what would Jesus do?
Yes. That works very well for Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore. Guest workers are just that: guests.
As long as Cayman is open and transparent about what it is offering – and what it is not offering – that is fair.
It won’t work for financial services employees though, as it would destroy the sector. Low wage areas though, yes – of course.
Truth! But this is the true reality of ‘Caymankind.’
Expats in the Gulf counties rarely get citizenship….yet people rush to work these. Cayman should be no different. You are welcome to work with no expectation of citizenship.
True, but e.g. Dubai has no rollover requirement, so they don’t need to offer status.
More sensible to ensure that high value people can stay in Cayman during their working lives, and then leave on retirement (which they would likely want to do anyway: why stay here once zero income ceases to be relevant?).
Allow financial services workers to stay for 20-30 years, but simply don’t allow them status or the ability to remain once they retire, and you have addressed the complaints about PR/status.
The main issue however is low-skill, low-wage, high-crime, work permit holders from backward third world locations, e.g. Jamaica and Cuba.
Our constitution prevents what you propose. Rollover is the only lawful measure within a human rights compliant framework.
Working here is a privilege not a right. Many countries have a limited period of stay before you have to leave. Cayman isn’t unique in that regard. Many locals don’t work certain jobs because mass immigration suppresses wages. If a business has the option of hiring a local for a decent wage or hiring someone on a work permit for a fraction of said wage who do you think they will hire!? The cheaper option of course! A balance needs to be struck and we are not striking it. Cayman-kind is a silly gimmick phrase created by the tourist board. Caymanians as a whole are a kind and friendly people but they don’t like being taken for granted. We have reached the point where immigration is becoming a net negative. A pattern observable in other countries across the globe. Me thinks you need to lose the attitude.
I am a former expat: don’t come.
To start with, Cayman has no future. It will end-up as a toxic wasteland, sooner than you think. Secondly, it was your choice to come FOR WORK.
@3:42, after reading your comments, I must ask what was your reasoning to come to Cayman? Was it to “build buildings” or, “keep people safe in their beds when they sleep”?? OR perhaps, you came because you needed work/money to survive and take care of family?? I suspect the former. Hey, I get it… wanting a better life is a human condition. BUT the fact is, it everyone who comes here should not expect that they have the right to stay here. Understand that if the current model continues it won’t end well for Caymanians, and everyone else here. There are only so many people a small island can take. The economy Cayman currently has does not allow minimum wage workers to live too comfortably. And it is only getting worse. Granting people to stay, who can’t afford it only has resulted in a ballooning budget for the NAU.
But you come here knowing that anyway.
Dwane, quite scary the pace of status grants and PR need to be slowed down? The daily pace and I mean literally every single day of Work Permit approvals need to be slowed down! The numbers don’t lie, what Island you living in bro?
Correct, it’s WP numbers that make the difference.
Long term, PR and status are also worthy of attention, but almost exclusively at the low productivity/low wages end of the spectrum.
(That’s a euphemism for no more importing uneducated voters who can be bribed, please).
Seymour and the rest of these politicians are what is quite scary.
we need to cap how many work permits are granted per year. no more than 10% of any nationality unless they are British is allowed.
And cap the British at 15%
Only if the UK also bans Caymanians from any UK privileges, such as the ability to move to, get educated in, and live and work in, the UK.
Fair’s fair!
The UK does ban Caymanians from having the privileges. No Caymanian has any entitlement to live in the UK. Only British Citizens can freely live there, and many, if not most Caymanians, are not British Citizens.
Oh, and you understand that 10 million Caymanians would have to be in the UK to reach the 15% threshold. Fair being fair and all that.
Can’t we cap the British at 5% (and make sure they stay out of the food & beverage industry, we like some of our food not deep-fried)?
Lawsuits coming, say persons eligible for status grants.
Bring them on then.
Cayman cannot afford them. And it will lose them.
If you want to avoid them and want to succeed in what the Minister wants (and many Caymanians seemingly wish) much care and understanding needs to be applied. That would necessarily require meaningful private sector participation. Something that has been offered pro bono (and rejected) for years.
You can’t afford them.
Best tell JuJu to borrow some more money first.
This is the kind of person who we don’t need here.
You don’t want persons who understand and follow your laws. That is a great position to take. So Caymanian.
This is the kind of person who moved here and has obeyed our rules, jumped through all our hoops, submitted endless certified paperwork from one government department to another, literally had blood tests and medical checkups for 15+ years and now you want to change the rules on them and say nah not good enough to be a Caymanian. Damn right they’re gonna sue us and quite right.
By all means make the rules harder, PR seem particularly easy but you can’t go changing the rules for people who already followed all the rules to get to where they are.
Will rally the troops.
Will sue.
that’s a promise.
When you lose, let me know if you need a sponsor for your plane ticket back home.
*loose
^ More of the imported “brightest and best”, ladies and gentlemen.
Looking forward to it mate.
It is a privilege, not a right.
Not good with understanding legal concepts, are you?
This is why you rely on expats to do all the high intellect jobs, eh?
Good self-own.
On the contrary, I believe it is you, one that is able to make such a broad judgement on a few words about my concepts and intellect that may need more schooling. When one is working in a foreign country you must abide by that countries law. Furthermore, if you come here to live and work on the condition of a rollover, then you cannot expect more as a ‘right’. I applied for residency after 12 years (before the rollover came into effect). It was refused and there was nothing I could do about it. My permit was only good for a year at a time and I understood that. Try making a more cogent argument rather than throw insulting comments that Caymanians are not intelligent.
The law as it currently stands is if I live in Cayman for 15 years and abide by the immigration law (and other laws of the land) law I have a right to status. Privilege doesn’t come into it. The poster is correct you don’t seem to grasp the legal concept.
There’s quite a bit more than just waiting out the clock. There’s also being of the correct originating nationality, passing medical screening, carrying substantial domestic asset investments for years, demonstrating training and promotion of Caymanians, logging qualifying community service hours, studying and achieving a high-pass “culture” test score, having qualifying points tabulated and credited to applications, then at least six application-supporting recommendations letters from generational Caymanians along each phase towards CI Status.
Or, you can forget about your period cycle and get knocked up.