NCFC proposes major immigration shake-up
(CNS): The new coalition government has issued drafting instructions for a major shake-up of immigration legislation. Following the immediate move earlier this month to introduce term limits for non-Caymanian civil servants, the government has turned its attention to the wider issue of labour and immigration to address the failings of the existing regime. The far-reaching proposals include rules around permanent residency and enforcement.
A lengthy press release issued Thursday explained that the creation of a national workforce database and national workforce plan are among the proposals, as well as changes to work permits and their term limits, the permanent residency (PR) points system, the Right to Be Caymanian, Residency and Employment Rights Certificate (RERC), information sharing, compliance, definitions and fees.
The PR points system will be revised to shift the focus to the impact people have on the local community rather than their ability to collect points, and the time between security residency and eligibility to apply for naturalisation will be extended.
The WORC director and boards will be given the authority to revoke certificates in the case of marriages and civil partnerships of convenience. Measures will be introduced to revoke the rights of those who break local laws to aid in their deportation.
Proposed changes to regulations include measures to reduce the ability of work permit holders to switch from job to job, and in keeping with the rise in cost of living over the years, work permit holders will have to demonstrate a higher income level to add dependents.
The Cayman Islands Government also plans to make it easier for Caymanians to be legally recognised through existing relationships with already acknowledged Caymanians.
One important proposed change is more information sharing across ministries through the database and workforce plan. The database will serve as a strategic tool to align education, skills and employment opportunities with industry needs. It will collect data on individuals who have received a CIG scholarship, including their field of study and intended date of completion. It will also collect data on what jobs for which work permits have been issued and the reasons for requiring the permit.
The release stated that these and other measures are necessary to bring a better balance to establishing sufficient employment and upward mobility opportunities for Caymanians while simultaneously ensuring that Caymanian-owned businesses continue to have their labour needs met.
Premier André Ebanks, Minister for Caymanian Employment and Immigration Michael Myles, and Minister for Education and Training Rolston Anglin have begun discussions with the Chamber of Commerce on establishing a working group to develop a comprehensive, enforceable National Workforce Plan. This strategic initiative aims to better align the education system and immigration policies with the evolving needs of the local economy, while ensuring that Caymanians are at the forefront of opportunity.
Officials stated that as part of this collaborative effort, immediate steps are being taken to enable Caymanians, particularly recent graduates, to access internships, apprenticeships and meaningful employment opportunities across both the private and public sectors. Further details on this joint initiative will be shared in the coming weeks.
Myles said this modernisation of the laws was a critical step in giving young Caymanians, in particular, the tools and opportunities to transition from education and training into employment.
“The contemplated changes to the immigration legislation represent our government’s commitment to ensuring that no Caymanian, whether graduating locally or abroad, is left struggling to find employment,” he said. “Through improved coordination among key government departments and the private sector alongside the strategic sharing of information, we will better align training, education and employment pathways, helping our people secure their rightful place in the workforce and driving the continued progress of our nation.”
In line with the recent discussion paper released by the former administration, Myles said the new legislation will be named the Caymanian Protection Act.
Premier Ebanks said the government’s commitment to increasing Caymanian employment remains steadfast. “By creating the national workforce plan, we can establish formal requirements for our people to gain the necessary experience and qualifications to build successful careers within their country,” he said. “Ultimately, such an initiative will promote economic growth, reduce unemployment and foster a more resilient and skilled national workforce.”
Anglin said he welcomed the removal of barriers to information sharing that would have stifled collaboration with the team at the Ministry of Caymanian Employment and Immigration. This will ensure that education is aligned with the labour market and give Caymanians “the greatest chance at maximising their God given talents”.
The full details of the proposed changes are still to come. However, the government did confirm that there will be a series of proposed revenue-generating measures, including new requirements for annual declarations to maintain the rights expatriate workers have acquired, as well as new administrative fees.
Meanwhile, officials have also stated that, following the recent announcement of term limits for non-Caymanians in the civil service, the new government is more focused than ever on providing job opportunities to Caymanians seeking employment, pursuing a career move, or who have recently graduated from college.
Once the proposed updated legislation is drafted, the public will be invited to provide feedback during a public consultation ahead of the parliamentary debate.
Caymanians interested in learning more about employment opportunities are encouraged to contact WORC’s Employment Services Unit by email at WORCemploymentservices@gov.ky, by calling 649-8087 or by visiting the online job portal on www.worc.ky.
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Category: Politics
I’d like to see a moratorium on new work permits for photographers. Ever since the digital camera revolution in 2001 we’ve seen a massive influx in imported photographers filling spots that ought to have been reserved for Caymanians. It is now possible to learn in one year what it took us 10 years of dedicated practice to learn using film. Though it is still expensive to get completely geared up, it does not require a college degree to become a superb photographer. A top tier shooter can make very good hourly wages, comparable to attorney fees. It just takes time, financial sacrifice and dedication. Loads of young Caymanian photographers are now ready to enter the market, but hundreds of non-Caymanians already have those spots. Please stop rubber stamping Photographer permits ASAP!
Love reading all the hateful comments from permit holders who get frightened when immigration reform is even lightly referenced. Every other issue is met with silence until the purse strings are tugged. Just wish you would post your names so we could put you all on a black list.
God bless these cayman islands including those deserving members of society who have acquired cayman status.
Some people engage with information solely to formulate a response, rather than to genuinely understand. This creates a significant, seemingly intractable divide that appears destined to persist. Life is inherently unfair, and that reality isn’t going to change. However, one thing is certain: a “blame game” approach serves no one.
The anti-expat rhetoric we often hear is meticulously crafted and effectively wielded by politicians. Making it more difficult to obtain Permanent Residency will primarily harm average expats—those who genuinely strive to integrate into and contribute to the community. The wealthy expats, by contrast, remain largely untouched by these policies because they simply leverage their financial power to navigate the system.
This is a valid point – let’s hope there ends up being a level of balance between the two worlds, however this will only be apparent when the new system (point or whatever they’ll call it) is reveled.
Is this not on purpose?
Yes, I absolutely believe it’s on purpose. This entire narrative is a calculated distraction from the real problems facing everyday Caymanians. While many of us are left scrambling for crumbs, the “big boys” are quietly lining their pockets.
Instead, let’s look at the actual issues: the exorbitant cost of living that impacts everyone, a failing education system that disproportionately disadvantages Caymanians, the crippling high cost of health insurance, and a concerningly heavy reliance on the National Assistance Unit (NAU) by some who may not truly deserve it.
I do see some politicians genuinely attempting to address these challenges, but what about the glaring conflicts of interest that remain unaddressed? What about our struggling elderly? What about the single mothers who are almost always left behind in this economic structure?
While Caymanians may understandably focus on the growing expat community, they’re often grappling with the low-hanging fruit of the problem. The core issue, the overspending by our government, remains the single biggest challenge here. And yes, these large corporations, which benefit immensely from the current system, absolutely could and should do better.
I have no doubt that the new system will be designed to significantly reduce the number of Permanent Residency applicants who are inherently decent and striving to contribute. However, I highly doubt they’ll make it harder for the wealthy. Will they make it more expensive? Probably. Will they do away with granting status for buying an expensive house? I doubt it. They’ll simply pull the wool over our eyes, claiming to make it tougher for the “average” while simultaneously making it smoother for the rich. It’s a classic maneuver to divert attention.
One obvious solution would be to vastly increase the minimum wage, e.g. to CI$ 18 / hour.
Presently, we are both (a) encouraging slave labor; and (b) destroying Caymanians’ opportunities to get a foot on the bottom of the ladder, because we (or our children) can’t live on those salaries.
The opposition will say that certain businesses can’t survive a CI$ 18 / hour minimum wage. Businesses which can only survive by employing slave labor SHOULD NOT survive.
What about slso shaking up DCI law. Cheap Trade & Business licenses are taken out in abundance just so people can bring in their countrymen and let them loose on our streets whilst laughing all the way to the bank.
Those folks who were recruited by invitation to come, that have had their permit application approved by their Caymanian employer, and by the all-Caymanian permit board, who then generously lend their vocational expertise and time to be here, have never been the bad guys. Blame the employers that lie, or the permit rubber-stamping boards that look the other way, but do not demonize the expat worker that, as you say, is doing exactly what they were hired to be doing: staffing an advertised position that was not filled by a Caymanian, for whatever reason. The “for whatever reason” is the problem area, if there are equivalent qualified Caymanians being overlooked for the same post. We also need to consider that the holder of that position, by appearances alone, might actually be an honest-to-goodness PR or voting Caymanian Status holder, and not a presumed permit holder.
I was one of those folks. Only stayed few years, then left. Never liked being treated as a second class citizen. Got a green card based on advanced academic achievements and professional experience, and now I am permanent resident in the US. Yes, I pay taxes but it is less than the cut that the Cayman employer and government were taking.
Reply to Poster 03.06.2025 11:38am
Good for you.
Cayman will not crumble in ight of your entitled distain attitude toward Cayman and its citizens.
Now let’s see if you can run your mouth up and down Trump’s country the way you, more than likely, did in Cayman and see how quickly your PR will be revoked.
Your sense of entitlement and arrogance is amply manifest in your statement: “Never liked being treated as a second class citizen”. You were not a “citizen” at all. You bristle at being treated as what you were: a non-citizen.
I believe the root of this problem is that these people have been allowed to think that we need them more than they need us – like they’re doing us a favour by coming here and earning more money than they have ever earned back home, while living in paradise.
Honestly, I place a lot of blame on the recruiters, who are also overvalued immigrants. The way that they speak to overseas marks, and the way that they talk down on the local work force, is truly appalling. However the majority of the blame I place directly on us – actual generational Caymanians – as we allow all of this. We allow them to speak down to us, we allow them to create their own insular spaces in gated communities, we allow them to not check their inflated egos on arrival.
All this to satisfy the woke mob led by the pied piper of stupids from the marl road, with no action to change the minimum wage to a living wage.
9:42:
A major defect in your argument is your suggestion that the eventual restructuring of the immigration scheme will “(…make) it more difficult (for expats) to obtain Permanent Residency”. At this point the restructuring has not concluded, so your opinion is merely a baseless assumption. Just because the criteria and structure may change does not necessarily mean that the new structure absolutely will make it more difficult for all who apply for PR here. Nor do we know that the restructuring will primarily harm “average” expats.
While wealthy expats do currently seem to enjoy, by reasons of wealth, certain advantages when it comes to grant of PR, you write as if for them, things will not change. Do you know for a fact that the new system will not effectively and fairly address that advantage?
The ability to switch between permitted jobs shouldn’t be restricted, so long as it’s at the similar pay grade level. A cleaner that is better served as a bricklayer or painter, or nanny, shouldn’t make huge differences to the opportunity landscape of Cayman. A cleaner, becoming an accountant, is more of the vocational opportunity erosion that the Permit system should be designed to protect. There should be a basis for any permit issued, secured by guaranteed work hours, pension, and some transparency on how this person will be living and moving around, supported by the attesting Caymanian permit applicant. Supervision of those hired at the low end of the spectrum is largely unsupervised, with hundreds of free-floating work crews waiting to go as may be directed every morning.
Recently bar maid then take a short course (not a degree) and now call themselves a teacher 😢
The cabinet office is the real slacker behind our progress. They never take full charge on anything progressive. These proposed changes will not do much. They will not submit anything to disrupt or challenge the elite expat community.
The “elite expat community” keeps the lights on here.
I am not of the ‘elite’, kept my own lights on thanks.
Implement and anonymous snitch line for Immigration infractions and crack down on all the illegal stuff – now that would be a start. Many of the people doing this illegal stuff are civil servants with their ‘sideline’ businesses. FACT!
Here you go:
https://my.egov.ky/web/worc/complaints
All they need to do is enforce the Regulation 6 “to identify and train a Caymanian”. Successive governments have not done this and therefor limiting the development of Caymanians. The new government is mostly made up of those from the last government (yes including the Premier) that was in power for 3.5 years. So now all of a sudden they are going to do something to fix their own mess. Or just maybe Garry Rutty is the one driving this because he is new and campaigned on the Protection Board?? He was the Chairman of the Immigration Staffing Board for years and do nothing but approve permits for all his developer friends. Come now we are not stupid and see the ‘First 100 days BS’
Just enforce the laws and Reg 6’s placed on permits and we will all be better off.
Yes, but in some of the less-forgiving Finance roles there are practical business limits to this. eg. There isn’t an employer alive that can train cognition speed, attention span, or showing up – even at the preliminary interview level where many Caymanians disqualify themselves. The soon-come Cayman-time performance standard will never pass the service deliverables test with precious lucrative clients in foreign jurisdictions that often want things yesterday. Any training for that needs to start in primary school.
Demanding that expats train Caymanians doesn’t work. It never has, and it never will. E.g. for high end jobs, employees must have:
1. Qualifications. Proper ones, from decent universities.
2. International experience. Clients demand it.
3. Aptitude. We can’t ‘train’ people to be intelligent.
4. Attitude. We can’t ‘train’ people to be hard-working and put their clients first.
My husband works at a law firm which promotes many Caymanians to partner, to appease WORC. They ‘inherit’ clients from retiring equity partners (almost all expats). Unfortunately, despite being supported and trained for literally decades (i.e. from school onwards with scholarships), some Caymanians simply cannot retain the clients which are handed to them. It seems to be a combination of lack of confidence, lack of international experience (and therefore credibility), and an unwillingness to spend 30-40% of your life off island on business development trips.
I don’t like it, I wish it weren’t true, but it is. My husband’s firm has lost many major clients because it has indulged WORC by overpromoting Caymanians who ended up not being able/willing to do the job. Those clients are now forever lost to the firm. Those client are now being serviced by expat partners at other law firms.
There is simply no way to stop this: CIG cannot dictate that international clients must only instruct politically-favoured Caymanians. That’s not how the world works. Any move in that direction would be rightly condemned as Third World, and would trigger the exodus of the financial services sector, to Singapore, Dubai or Hong Kong.
This isn’t to say that the situation is bad. On the contrary, very many extremely capable Caymanian partners are thriving in many firms. But they were promoted on merit, and – due to the tiny size of the local population – they will only ever represent a small % of attorneys here. A better use of political energy would be to better utilise the one billion dollars which CIG raises (largely from expats) every year, and use that to improve education.
Until Caymanians get to Singapore levels of education, they should keep focusing on that. Until then, most are not ready for top jobs. Students graduating from public high schools in Singapore consistently outperform their counterparts in Cayman in both literacy and numeracy. According to 2022 OECD PISA data, 92% of Singaporean 15-year-olds achieved at least Level 2 proficiency in mathematics, and 87% did so in reading, with 41% reaching the highest levels in maths. In contrast, the Cayman Islands’ 2023–24 national education data shows that only 41.2% of public secondary students attained a Level 2 qualification in mathematics, and 70.7% did so in English. These results reflect rigorous curricula, well-trained teachers, and high societal expectations in Singapore, whereas Cayman continues to fail year, after year, after year, after year.
This chasm in educational outcomes at the point of school-leaving is your main problem. Your politicians are trying to distract you by conjuring up expats as “Evil forrriners (sic) comin’ ‘ere and stealin’ our jobs!”.
Don’t fall for it. All employers want to employ Caymanians: we don’t like paying work permit fees, and we loathe the pointless bureaucracy of WORC. Presently, however, we already employ all of the capable Caymanians. There just aren’t enough of you.
Pse fix – thx.
What about employers who hire their “friends”.
Happens all the time esp on the Brac.
You mean like the foreigners, who are Cayman status grantees, that higher mainly their own countrymen and friends over generational Caymanians. Yes, that has to stop for sure.
Every permit application has to be submitted to the all-Caymanian permit board for approval and any renewal. You know this.
‘Higher’..?
Happens all the time. At an SAGC for the past decade the manager an expatriate with status has been trying clean the slate of Caymanians had been successful in getting rid of many Caymanians
He only wants his people, that can be be his watchdog and that he get paid and stay away he hates Jamaicans and Caymanians.
Those on work permits are doing other jobs They are breaking the Law
The people downvoting this are economically illiterate.
The Cayman Islands literally imports everything and exports nothing but rum cakes. There are no trade deals with other countries.
The financial services industry is the contributor to the economy.
Keep pressuring them with nationalistic affirmative action policies and watch them leave this place behind.
4:17:
There are major defects in your prattle.
The proposed changes do not target only the financial services industry. They will apply to all sectors. If any business can demonstrate a need for expat workers because they demonstrate to the satisfaction of the regulations that they cannot find suitable Caymanian candidates, then their application will be looked upon favourably. All businesses that continually require expat staff should be offering some training to suitably qualified Caymanians in order to minimise dependence on expat workers.
As long as the financial services industry reaps substantial profits from their operations in the Cayman Islands–which they certainly do–they will continue to do business here. Compared to their revenue streams here, the proposed additional regulatory burden amounts to but a slight inconvenience.
You write as if nationalism is a bad thing and that formulating policies favouring citizens over foreigners is also bad. That kind of thinking is pure tripe.
The general principle is that the employment of one’s own citizens takes precedence over immigration, but in the case of the Cayman Islands, the economic structure is unique and needs to be given due consideration.
The Cayman Islands is home to some of the world’s top financial institutions and has a large number of professionals requiring advanced knowledge and skills. Income levels are naturally among the highest in the world. However, the population of the Cayman Islands is only a few tens of thousands, which is about the size of a country town in a normal country. Is it possible that from such a rural town, more and more people who can play an active role in the world’s best companies will emerge?
If a system is introduced that forces even private companies, let alone civil servants, to employ Caymanians, there is a non-zero possibility that foreign companies will eventually scale down their operations in the Cayman Islands or withdraw from the island due to their inability to recruit the required level of personnel. In other words, it is very likely that a system that was initiated with the intention of increasing employment and income for Caymanians will have the exact opposite effect. This would be such a story.
It may have been influenced by the president of some neighbouring country, but this would be nothing more than a so-called populist popularity policy, reflecting an emotionalism at the level of an unthinking public.
There are many Caymanians with advanced knowledge and skills who are being sidelined by people just like you, 1:58 am. I expect to see more scaremongering coming from you lot but time is up and Caymanians WILL be given the jobs and opportunities we deserve. Any companies wishing to scale down or withdraw operations because they are being required to hire qualified Caymanians are welcome to do just that … leave.
Be careful what you wish for.
Got proof?
Do you really believe that having an “Qualification” makes Person A and Person B interchangeable? If so, I have a bridge to sell you.
Would you not concede that in fact people need four qualities:
1. Qualifications. The baseline, but even then all qualifications aren’t equal. (*)
2. International experience. Clients demand it.
3. Aptitude. We can’t fix stupid.
4. Attitude. We can’t fix lazy.
(*) All qualifications aren’t equal: https://caymannewsservice.com/2025/01/shortage-of-criminal-defence-lawyers-still-delaying-justice/#comment-670314
The problem of a population that is growing so rapidly that infrastructure and housing cannot keep up is caused by the increase in migrant workers, so reducing the number of work visas issued is justified, but it is unclear what the point is in making the screening process for permanent residence more stringent and the time limit for naturalisation longer. This may be good for the self-satisfaction of self-proclaimed patriots, but if they cannot obtain permanent residency or citizenship after years of contributing to the local economy, capable immigrants will choose countries with better conditions, which will attract only less capable immigrants. For the Cayman Islands in particular, where the economic structure is dependent on immigration, this will directly lead to a decline in national strength and lower income levels for Cayman Islanders.
The real problem with housing stems from airbnb and the like.
People are buying 2 to 3 houses and keeping them empty for renting as holiday lets. The ripple effect of this is that people who could rent in smb now go to wb and south sound. Those that could rent in wb gt and ss now rent in prospect, red bay and savannah and the rest keeps rippling out.
Thats why affordability is impossible now because people see housing as business assets and are pricing everything to cover their mortgages and get healthy ROI.
Houses should not be business assets even if they are in a tourist zone. Houses should be for people who live here not tourists. Tourists should only go to hotels or bed n breakfasts.
The govt need to take action and get serious about choosing a path. Regulate these small businesses to death so that if they are having tourists then the product is as good as what hotels can offer, and make a boat load of cash with inspections and permits for airbnb and vrbo etc.
Lets see what happens – I believe it will be all blowing smoke and no real action. Peanut ran fast food businesses for years and used nothing but imported labour. He never even tried to hire Caymanians, for example high school students after school or weekends. Michael Myles has all expats working for his business Inspire Cayman. I understand that CIG paid him 1.2Million last year alone with less than a handful of employment successes to show for it. NOTE to CIG – all these so called employment programmes ( there are 6 of them) that work against each other need to be looked at.
As soon as the doctors, nurses, teacher, judges, etc. start leaving we will all be screwed – oops i forgot Franz has a dozen areas of exemption to prevent that.
7:03 You hit the nail on the head with your comment, “oops i forgot Franz has a dozen areas of exemption to prevent that.” The very first thing this government needs to do is understand the key role that Franz has played in creating the very situation they are now trying to correct. Does his head nodding and bobbing at their meetings and press conferences means anything? Examine the record and history guys. Look at who was at the helm of Immigration when major immigration changes took place that resulted in the mess that we now have. The immigration mess countrywide and within the civil service. Use your brains guys, open your eyes and see reality, don’t be fooled.
If Mr. Jimmy Ryan, who was a Caymanian patriot, was still in the same position as Mr. Manderson (albeit under the former Constitution), was still there, then things would be different.
As posters keep throwing around the word ‘entitled’, it’s obvious those doing so are expats who believe that the laws should be written to favour them and their cohorts and to hell with the citizens of Cayman Islands.
Your WP, lest you forget, was given as a PRIVILEGE and not as a RIGHT and comes with loss provisions. So, believe me, yours should be revoked and given to someone who understands that because they have stepped off of a plane with a WP in hand, IT MEANS he or she GETS TO STAY IN THE CAYMAN ISLANDS INDEFINITE. Not!
I can guarantee you that your leave from your job whatever sector it may be in, and out of the country will not cause the Cayman Islands to collapse and there will be at least 5 persons ready to take your job, and I am being sarcastic with that number as I believe it would be much higher, who will be more than willing to come and work for the term limit they are given as the sweet, tax free KYD is the NUMBER ONE REASON unna come to work in the Cayman Islands in the first place.
So, if you are feeling that your own entitlement is now being squashed on because of the changes in the law, I sugggest you do us all a favour and look for work elsewhere in the world like yesterday!
But, foreigners aren’t the ones who feel entitled
Reply to Poster 01.06.2025 @9:19am.
I beg to differ with your opinion.
There are many foreigners in the Cayman Islands who believe they are ‘entitled’ due to their race and social status. That’s a fact!
This, more than, likely includes you.
Can we stop beating around the bush and just call out by name /nationality this entitled expat group.
Im not clued in enough to know who you are referring to!
Canadians
Australians, even more Americans.
I’m sorry but this simply isn’t true. Even my 80+ parents visiting from the UK picked up in less than 2 weeks “the disgusting entitlement attitudes and disdain that many expatriates display towards the locals”. They brought me up better, thankfully.
KYD isn’t a real currency. It’s entirely and exclusively parasitic on USD.
CIMA just get USD from the US, and print 1.2 times the amount of KYD.
It’s painful that you don’t understand this. It’s also indicative of why you’re too stupid to be employed.
Simple fix for this.
Switch over to a basket of precious metals to back KYD instead of USD.
There you go. Fixed the problem at least in theory.
Now, let’s see if those with the power to make this change have the courage and sense to implement.
Precious metals trade in USD, dumbass. Pegging KYD to gold is the same as pegging it to usd.
Cant tell the Marl Road morons nothing!
Having currency pegged to USD, which is a fiat currency, is far different than having KYD backed by actual precious metals, which have real value.
You morons still on this foolishness?
It’s real enough for 100+ nationalities to want to come here and make it instead of their own “real” money back home.
There is nothing that anyone here doesn’t understand, just like last time you were schooled on this: nobody cares about the technicalities of currency. They care about the end result, which is that KYD is “worth” significantly more than the *vast* majority of “real” currencies worldwide.
The entitled British Overseas Territories Citizen has entered the chat.
More like a Colonizer has entered the chat.
There should also be no internal transfers within the Civil Service. If you come here to be a teacher, that is your licensed work permit period. You cannot become an artist full or part time.
A Work Permit is a license.
I agree – i know at least 3 teachers from JGHS who taught things like art who are now in the civil service on their way up the ladder
Still only 18 comments on the CNS article about significant increase in the number of sex crimes reported in the Cayman Islands in 2024.
What a shame!
👍🏻
Our Constitution enshrines a Cayman protection provision that allows for justifiable discrimination in favour of Caymanians, over and above non-Caymanians, in the Cayman Islands, pursuant to s.16(4)(b) of our Bill of Rights, which provides that unjustifiable discrimination:
“shall not apply to any law so far as that law makes provision…with respect to the entry into or exclusion from, or the employment, engaging in any business or profession, movement or residence within, the Cayman Islands of persons who are not Caymanian”.
The constitutional interpretation of “Caymanian” (as defined pursuant to s.28 of our Bill of Rights) “has the meaning ascribed to it in the laws of the Cayman Islands for the time being in force”.
Thank you Orrie. It would be good if you could be brought onboard, in a key position, to assist in bringing about the immigration changes that our coalition government has promised us.
Well said. Unfortunately, the powers that be (who are ironically predominately non-Caymanian) seem to have read (or applied) this entirely backwards.
Looking at you public/private legal services.
What are you trying to say here? You’re very unclear.
Looks like the Cayman Islands are on the perfect path to become Zimbabwe
If we keep letting so many Zimbabwean’s in, maybe. Jamaica is more likely (but without the mountains, agriculture, fresh water, and minerals).
Those commenters calling these proposed amendments unfair and unnecessary should consider the immigration and labor laws of their own home countries. Every country has its own set of laws. Not all laws are perfect for everybody, citizens or otherwise. Immigration and labor laws in any country must be amended from time to time to keep up with changing circumstances. The Cayman Islands is no different. This country needed to import a lot of labor in the 80’s, 90’s and 00’s when the supply of qualified Caymanians could not keep up with the demand for labor. Those times have changed. The population of Caymanians has increased significantly, requiring the laws to be amended to accommodate that increase. And yes, there still will be positions that Caymanians are not qualified for. However, the number of qualified Caymanians has also increased significantly over the years. Times and circumstances change. While there are no easy answers, we have to make adjustments to suit the current time and circumstances, which might not suit everyone here.
The elephant in the room is the fact that many Caymanians do not want to do menial labor or service jobs or accept a bottom tier position much like Americans.
This is true in many countries, not just our islands, that menial labor is often imported. The issue here is that qualified Caymanians are being sidelined in white collar hirings for imported labor, while using a different set of excuses. Be it menial labor, blue collar or white collar positions, you people will use every excuse and loophole available to sideline Caymanians. Time is up … enough is enough.
Proof?
Research credible news sources and data and statistics office publications yourself, lazy ass.
No, you made the assertion, so it’s incumbent upon you to adduce proof.
You can’t, because you’re lying, so you won’t.
Employers are desperate to hire competent Caymanians, and we are employing ALL OF YOU ALREADY. Discrimination is a myth peddled by Cayman Marl Road to sell her stupid site to stupid people.
Yes!!! Caymanian Protection Act. I want to believe. I am hopeful for the first time in quite a while. First step: Enforce existing legislation to the letter. Wonderful.
So they are going to actually enforce the immigrations rules. This was the life of a WP holder when I arrived in the 90’s.
Raise Caymanian Status to 25 years
Government would still keep work permit fees but for longer
Ridiculous. I don’t think any country in the world has a policy as restrictive as that. If what you’re really saying is that you don’t want ANYONE to get status, then at least have the balls to come right out and say so.
Bermuda? Dubai?
I would like it to be harder. I’ve seen people come here and only integrate with people of their own background and obtain status. They look down on the local history and culture and have no desire to improve the community, only their bank accounts.
Say it loud and clear from your rooftop poster
– 31/05/2025 at 9:11am.
What you have said bears repeating:
“I would like it to be harder. I’ve seen people come here and only integrate with people of their own background and obtain status. They look down on the local history and culture and have no desire to improve the community, only their bank accounts.”
I too know of many persons, especially those in the upper social bracket that have been here for many, many years and still do not know a single Caymanian of Descent on a personal level nor have an interest to do so. They bad mouth us behind close doors and in some cases, right in front of us with their upper stiff lip body language or even verbally as some recent cases have demonstrated.
For these people, and there are many here, gaining PR or Status is about ECONOMIC GAINS and never about developing a SENSE OF BELONGING or LOYALTY to the country that has afforded them a living that their own birth country could never ever do.
For these people, what they should be doing is teaching their child/children to learn to love the country they call home because if not such child/children, when grown, will be a repeat of their parents and God help us if they were to be in a role of importance later down the line.
MAYBE THAT IS THEIR INTENTION for continuously bashing any immigration reform that is created, as long as it is deemed to be squashing their entitlement echo.
You rail against expats, and yet you happily took our money when we arrived — and all the money we’ve handed over since. Now, you are unhappy with the transaction you made, even though it was YOU who set the terms. Unbelievable.
You didn’t come here and work for free. *You* took *our* money, you confused leech.
I wasn’t involved with the conversation above, but I’m fascinated by this assertion:
“You didn’t come here and work for free. *You* took *our* money, you confused leech.”
Let’s break it down for the slow readers at the back of the class (guess who…):
“You didn’t come here and work for free”
Yes, indeed. No one works for free. This reflects an understanding of basic economics and thus is a promising start. Let’s grade this sentence “A-” (but with potential!).
“*You* took *our* money”
Argh, how disappointing. Ignorance and arrogance in the same sentence. D-, at best. Expats are ONLY ever allowed to earn money here when there are NO CAYMANIANS intelligent enough to do the job. We didn’t write the rules! You lot did!! We don’t enforce the rules!!! You lot do!!!! Therefore, in no way, shape or form is “the money” yours, or your wife’s, or your sister’s (we recognise that they may be the same person, but we don’t judge. Let’s be charitable, and assume they’re not).
We’re in the final stage now:
“… you confused leech”
This appears to be an accusation of parasitism. i.e. you are accusing Group A of being parasites, at the expense of Group B. That may be true, but not the way you allege. I asked ChatGPT to decide between expats and entitled Caymanians who the parasites are. Here’s the reply:
“Approximately 30–35% of CIG’s revenue comes from import duties, making this the single largest contributor. Financial services fees — including company registration, fund licensing, and related regulatory fees — account for roughly 25–30%. Work permit fees contribute around 15–20%, reflecting the size of the expat workforce (who are the economy). Tourism-related income, including hotel taxes, cruise ship fees, and airport charges, provides about 10–15%. The remainder—around 5–10%—comes from stamp duties on property transactions, licensing fees, and miscellaneous charges. An estimated 80% of CIG funding originates from non-multigenerational Caymanians, primarily through work permit fees, import duties, tourism revenue, and financial services fees—most of which are driven by expatriates, residents, or visitors.”
All people – Caymanians and expats – must live and die within their means. To attempt to do otherwise is to invite economic catastrophe. Cayman has massively abused expats the financial services industry for decades, and is slowly killing the golden goose.
See also: https://caymannewsservice.com/elections2021/2021/02/the-education-crisis-in-cayman/#comment-725
https://caymannewsservice.com/elections2021/2021/02/the-education-crisis-in-cayman/#comment-823
https://caymannewsservice.com/2021/12/pact-commits-over-200m-per-year-for-education/#comment-492412
https://caymannewsservice.com/2021/12/pact-commits-over-200m-per-year-for-education/#comment-492424
They are all describing the root problems. They are Caymanians’ problem. It’s your fault. All your fault. Your fault. Stop blaming expats, you pathetic, entitled cretins.
Expats built Cayman. The truth may hurt, but it’s still the truth. See Freyer, Tony, and Andrew P. Morriss. “Creating Cayman as an offshore financial center: structure & strategy since 1960.” Ariz. St. LJ 45 (2013): 1297. https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/facscholar/23.
Keep sucking, leech.
It’s a device to slow down the take over and ruin by Jamaicans..
Something, Anything , is needed to stem the scams and corruption, crime and drugs which Jamaicans are using to destroy Cayman.
That too but not only that 3:24 pm. There’s a desire by other nationalities to take over as well.
Yep! At this point we do not want anyone else to get status. See the balls there?
As-is, allowing someone to be 15 years in a country to apply for citizenship to even have the chance to vote leaves a portion of their adult lives completely disenfranchised without any say in their government. We walk everyday on a dubious democratic and human rights right rope.
I don’t believe there’s any other country in the world that gives so many barriers for residents to become citizens to be being able to vote.
I trust our new government to enact some smart reforms without getting mired in lawsuits and challenges.
Go back home!
4:25 pm 30/05/2025
Really now! Globally countries are making changes to protect their native citizens. Want a good example? Try the United States, consider the size of that country and the immigration changes they are making. Every country needs to do what is deemed necessary. Ours is a small landmass divided in 3 and we are already overrun with foreigners from every corner of the earth. Enough is enough.
You can become a US citizen in 5 years!
You just get transferred to the US with your existing firm, on a green card, then count down to five years, and hey presto.
The issue isn’t “Status” per se, it’s the fact that you’re giving it to thirdworlders who then drain the NAU and commit crime.
There’s a very easy solution for those so aggrieved. Leave. Your replacements will not mind coming here and abiding by our laws and legal requirements.
>” Your replacements will not mind coming here and abiding by our laws and legal requirements.”
Not true! Even very recent arrivals think that you’re idiots, and are baffled that most of your children are innumerate and illiterate.
Students graduating from public high schools in Singapore consistently outperform their counterparts in the Cayman Islands in both literacy and numeracy. According to 2022 OECD PISA data, 92% of Singaporean 15-year-olds achieved at least Level 2 proficiency in mathematics, and 87% did so in reading, with 41% reaching the highest levels in maths. In contrast, the Cayman Islands’ 2023–24 national education data shows that only 41.2% of public secondary students attained a Level 2 qualification in mathematics, and 70.7% did so in English; when excluding non-attendees, the figures rise modestly to 47.2% and 73.8%, respectively. These results reflect broader systemic strengths in Singapore’s education system, underpinned by rigorous curricula, well-trained teachers, and high societal expectations, whereas the Cayman Islands continue to face challenges in achieving consistent attainment, particularly in numeracy. The disparity underscores a marked gap in educational outcomes at the point of school-leaving, with Singapore positioned among the world’s best, and the Cayman Islands striving to meet regional and international benchmarks.
Sort yourselves out, and until then STFU because you clearly are too dumb to run your schools, so why would any employer or international client trust you to do anything else?!
Gunman force you a run Cayman??
Please, let’s leave sentiments concerning political violence out of the equation.
Political violence is an evil in society, no matter who it is directed towards.
We, both Caymanians and non-Caymanians, regardless of whatever what political views and positions taken, should never ever be advocating nor promoting political violence: we are not a lawless Island-nation.
Violence is never the answer the to solve anything. Let’s not even utter such words, please.
We need to advocate peace, not violence.
The pen is mightier than sword!!!!
I don’t think they were advocating violence.
As Trump said of Biden this time last year, “I really don’t know what he said… I don’t think he knows what he said either”.
Biden’s English is at least more coherent than many people in this comment section (and most people on Cayman Marl Road!).
“Gunman force you a run Cayman??”
Bless your heart. Well done for trying to use your words.
Would someone who is not intellectually retarded please translate this Pidgin English into Standard English – many thanks in advance.
Don’t come to the Caribbean and expect people to speak Queen’s English you moron. We don’t even speak or necessarily write it in the UK anymore, nonce! It’s people like you we could do with less of.
Don’t complain when you’re unemployable, then:
“So much of career success is knowing how to behave at work. The usual advice is, “Just be yourself.” But this only applies if you’re a member of the dominant demographic in your workplace: a working-class man on a building site, a middle-class woman in a teachers’ staff room, a young white man in a tech start-up. Anyone else needs to learn the dominant group’s codes of dress, humour, eating etc and put them on like a costume every morning.”
My career race is in the home stretch, here’s what I know – What advice would those near the end of their work lives give those just starting out?, Simon Kuper, Financial Times, 18 April 2024, https://archive.is/20240421041657/https://www.ft.com/content/ff58f701-fadf-43bb-a5e7-e4ebcf2bf6a9
Welcome to the real world. Even “five year olds ‘link accents with intelligence”:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c15vxw9qwkyo (BBC News, 23 April 2025)
That was not my point moron. I’m already a happily retired expat lawyer. This is not work, it’s not a job application, it’s a local news forum with local comments and your response to the previous poster was both unnecessary and in context, disrespectful. Sick of the stuck up entitled attitudes of people like you.
Right? Imagine going to a foreign land and calling *them* ignorant because *you* don’t understand the language they speak in their own land. I’m sure I don’t know the person that posted that BS, but I bet they have to wear lots of sun block.
Let’s start with some service to the community.
Step one could be mandatory jury duty.
That’s not a bad idea. It’s very annoying that Caymanians whinge that expats don’t integrate, but then don’t actually propose useful things for us to ACTUALLY DO to integrate.
We contribute by paying the overwhelming % of money that pays for CIG, and Caymanians generally, but apparently that’s not enough, so concrete ideas would be most welcome.
Jury service is a good idea: the jury pool here is tiny, so this would actually be a very sensible suggestion. There was an article about this recently: https://www.caymancompass.com/2025/03/12/top-lawyers-back-jury-duty-for-permanent-residents/
It has been proposed before though, after serious problems, but was rejected:
https://archive.caymannewsservice.com/2010/02/17/court-runs-out-of-jurors-in-firearms-trial/
https://archive.caymannewsservice.com/2011/03/31/prs-proposed-for-jury-duty/
https://archive.caymannewsservice.com/2011/04/14/jury-proposals-raise-concerns/
Try apply common sense to the equation instead of your bank account balance.
I came to Cayman >20 years ago I integrated in less than a year. How? I moved out of the room I rented in a gated GT development and moved to a small 1 bed home in BT. I ate local, drank local, sat under the cabanas at the public beach chatting with locals, went fishing and even horse riding with locals, joined local families on the beaches over Easter, shared food and enjoyed the company and friendship of people living within my community. On top of that I too contribute financially in the same manner as you.
That all came naturally to me, but real integration seemingly isn’t natural or common sense in your book.
SMDH…
Thanks for your reply.
I look forward to you proposing to the financial services sector your cunning plan for others to replicate your, er… ‘success’. You could call your master plan:
“Buy a 1 bed home for your family in Bodden Town, and try to prevent your wife from divorcing you and returning home with the kids”
Obviously, you’ll also need to implement a parallel plan aimed at employers, persuading them that – rather than servicing international clients for 12 hours/day – they should spend their time “at public beach chatting with locals, [going] fishing and even horse riding with locals”. You could call this plan:
“How to lose your clients to your competitors.”
Good luck with both of those!
See there you go again. I never proposed any such thing, in fact your response is almost nonsensical. I’m a female, I work in financial services and I actually rent. And all I was suggesting was that perhaps ‘you lot’ could venture out of your little perfect bubbles into the community you are blessed to reside in. Those scary locals ain’t so scary if you actually get to know them and that’s all I was saying to the idiot who thought spending money in the economy = integration.
Asshole. I too worked in legal and financial services both in London and here for the last 40 years. I know what those 12-14 hour days and international clients are like. But I manage to do all the things the poster suggested at weekends and vacay days. The district was not the persons point, they were just illustrating how they integrated not suggesting you moved to BT.
Well said!
Agree!
This was well needed long a time ago, Thanks for this new Government!!! Please look into all the fake businesses: like car washing and babysitters with work permits.
Get rid of all these buy a work permit people going around contracting work Raid the big construction projects including Dart’s. Do not be afraid of the money people, clean this place up!
Still waiting for a response from NCFC re Cinico Coverage for seniors and under 18s. Appears to be on the back burner till ?????. Please let us know the true position as we wait desperately.
Until they can find money to pay for it. Go on getting bewitched by those whose only talent is giving away other people’s money. These social payments have a cost and the money has to be found somewhere.
It’s more than a stroke of a pen, it requires funding and the more we give away to those without is the more they tax those of us who are actually working or running a small business. My business is struggling to keep margins reasonable while people are complaining and saying it’s cheaper to buy it online or go to Miami and get it.
Well let us really prove if they are a Government for the well-being of the Seniors, under 18s, NAU clients. Seamen, Veterans and Pensioners.
Hopefully they are not, because if they dig the Cayman Islands further into bankruptcy with more giveaways, they will further destroy the local economy.
Live or die within your means. There is no sustainable solution other than that.
Yes please!
My inlaws are driving me crazy.
I KnoW yoU’vE beeN in OfFicE FOr 5 MinUtes but YOu DIdn’T geT TO MY iSsUE YEt
Entitlement should not over ride qualifications, knowledge, & Experience, move forward not backward. The islands will suffer if there is no one qualified to work the jobs properly. There is a strong lack of work motivation with Caymanians
Sounds like youre the entitled one
And you live in denial.
While I do agree that there are many Caymanians who are not motivated to work and thereby create the stereotype that you foreigners always call on, there are a majority of us who want to work and are often willing to take any job available. There are many of us that are actually qualified for certain jobs, and yet we are constantly overlooked because we “lack the experience”, even for an entry level position. Correct me if I’m wrong, but do you not have to start at level 1 before you can move on?
This isn’t just about entitlement, it’s about being fair and following the law. And yes I understand that life isn’t fair. But to repeatedly overlook a qualified Caymanian and hire a similarly qualified foreigner is not only unfair, it’s disrespectful. The private sector is full of foreign bosses who hire their friends or neighbours because they all want a chance to live on our island paradise. Well newsflash, it’s no longer a paradise for the locals. I’ve heard stories of foreigners getting hired without the proper credentials, but the employer or a friend in the workplace aided them in forging whatever credentials were required so that they get hired over the Caymanian. Am I entitled to think that this is not only wrong and unfair, but also illegal?
We desperately needed a revamp of the immigration process. I’m not sure if still present (I haven’t read the law recently), but in the old immigration law that was around when I was in high school, there was a clause that if a Caymanian is not hired for a certain position, the foreigner is responsible for training a Caymanian to be qualified for said position. Over time, this clause was not enforced and seems to have been forgotten. The whole point of the work permit was to hire someone more qualified for the position, and then train a Caymanian to take over the role and eliminate the need for a permit holder. As I said, this seems to have been forgotten, as no employer enforces this clause. Even the work permit application doesn’t support it. Having worked in HR submitting the permits, I can aptly conclude that the whole process pretty much allows employers to cheat their way into hiring foreigners. They are supposed to explain why a Caymanian is not hired to fill a certain role. The answer is always that “there weren’t any qualified to take the position”, which is all well and good if that’s really true. But there is no contingency for some sort of training program to help a Caymanian grow within the company, if one is even hired at all.
And over the last ten years since I’ve come back from university, there have been more and more opportunities for Caymanians to learn certain trade jobs, earn certain degrees, and get the necessary training to apply for the jobs that we used to be unqualified for. So don’t ever say that entitlement doesn’t override qualifications, knowledge, and experience, when more and more of us do in fact have the qualifications, more than enough knowledge, and enough experience to do the job that is required.
Here is the cold reality. A degree and zero experience “qualifies” you for virtually nothing. The only thing you’re qualified for is starting at rock bottom, for rock bottom wages. And the reality is that Cayman companies (except for the really big ones) cannot absorb that many entry level jobs.
Bear in mind there’s a tightrope of your own that you’re walking without knowing it: you all go abroad to other countries to get tertiary education because there is none of any value in Cayman. Many of you can go to UK as BOTC…the same is not true of America, Canada, or anywhere else.
Keep making it harder and harder for businesses to choose the labor they want by pretending you’re qualified, and eventually they will shut down, leave, or offshore work. Then you lose completely.
If this country didn’t have expatriate work forces, it would completely collapse. You cannot grow enough food here to feed your people. You cannot raise enough animals. There are no natural resources and nothing to export. Without financial services and tourism you have no influx of capital, and you’d be completely broke within a few months of food and oil imports.
The ignorance of Caymanians not understanding how close this country is to falling off a cliff is beyond insulting.
So keep complaining about being qualified. When it all crashes down, plenty of us have citizenship in other places and will thrive elsewhere while you laugh and tell us to get on the plane. And then you’ll starve and this country will go back to absolutely nothing.
But rock bottom is now well below the surface given the wages have been artificially depressed to well below any reasonable starting point. The mass importation of labour at $6.00/hour only to aspire to $8.00/hour after years of hard work and three promotions is where you expect Caymanians with excellent degrees to start?
My apologies…rock bottom RELATIVE to your field. So if you’re in marketing or something that’s going to be $30,000 and not $100k. If you’re in finance it’s going to be $60,000 and not $150k. Gardener? Yes, $6/hr.
Bear in mind: foreigners did not set the minimum wage to $6. Caymanian politicians did that and Caymanian politicians have left it there, for the benefit of Caymanian employers.
Can’t make this stuff up: virtually all the issues with Caymanian employment are exacerbated by Caymanians. But blamed upon foreigners. Then politicians come out with laws to punish foreigners whilst at the same time doing NOTHING to actually improve Caymanian employment.
Changing rollover or making job switching more difficult or whatever new batch of BS they’ve cooked up has nothing to do with getting Caymanians hired.
It’s just lip service to get elected. Because as long as the politicians and Sandra Hill are pointing the finger at the foreigners, that’s where you’ll look.
Wake up!
We’ve woken up! Precisely why CIG is doing what is necessary. First, it’s fix public education, rightly so, but what about the Caymanians with degrees from the UK and US? Is that education not good enough to not be overlooked?
No. You haven’t woken up, you’re just riled up.
Public education has not been fixed. It’s a joke in shambles.
Returning with degrees and not getting a job is NOT being overlooked despite your education. You are being passed over due to lack of experience. It happens everywhere in the world and these policies will not magically fix it for you.
Read up. Then wake up. And in the meantime…shut up and get on with it.
It’s a four-stage process:
1. Qualifications. The baseline for your CV to be considered.
2. International experience. Clients demand it.
3. Aptitude. We can’t fix stupid.*
4. Attitude. We can’t fix lazy.
* Stupid people get degrees all the time. Most qualifications are worthless, particularly now with AI:
https://nypost.com/2025/04/21/tech/gen-z-grads-say-their-college-degrees-are-worthless-thanks-to-ai
https://www.smh.com.au/national/cheating-is-now-so-rampant-that-uni-degrees-have-become-worthless-20241119-p5krwq.html
https://brockpress.com/generative-a-i-is-rendering-your-degree-useless/
wasn’t starving before you came buddy so you can’t take your comments and catch the flight back to wherever you came from. I’m sure you’d have such a better life back in your home country instead of dealing with entitled caymanians. it’s this type of fear mongering that makes me laugh. so many times you foreigners act like you came here and found us swing from trees, when infact you were at the bottom of the pile in your own country, unable to compete with your own country men, and decided to inflate your status on some foreigner lover to get a salary you would never get back in your home country. go have several seats, that colonial concept has been debunked for some time now.
You all came here from somewhere else. There are no indigenous Caymanians, just those who arrived slightly earlier, and who whinge far, far louder because they refuse to compete on their merits.
Your educational results are appalling. Your children are unemployable. This is your fault, all your fault, your fault. Stop blaming others for your pathetic failure to educate your children.
Again, no high school leaver is begging for an entry level finance job, people with degrees do. Stop your lame excuse to continue to disenfranchise Caymanians.
It’s a four-stage process:
1. Qualifications. The baseline for your CV to be considered. It doesn’t even get you an interview, because we have hundreds of applications/
2. International experience. Clients demand it. Seriously – we don’t make this up: we would prefer not to pay work permit fees. We consistently find however that if we pitch teams of people without international experiences, we don’t get awarded the work. If we kept doing that over and over again, we would eventually be bankrupt. So we don’t: we hire people with international experience.
3. Aptitude. We can’t fix stupid.*
4. Attitude. We can’t fix lazy.
__
* Stupid people get degrees all the time. Most qualifications are worthless, particularly now with AI:
https://nypost.com/2025/04/21/tech/gen-z-grads-say-their-college-degrees-are-worthless-thanks-to-ai
https://www.smh.com.au/national/cheating-is-now-so-rampant-that-uni-degrees-have-become-worthless-20241119-p5krwq.html
https://brockpress.com/generative-a-i-is-rendering-your-degree-useless/
>>” I’ve heard stories of foreigners getting hired without the proper credentials, but the employer or a friend in the workplace aided them in forging whatever credentials were required so that they get hired over the Caymanian. Am I entitled to think that this is not only wrong and unfair, but also illegal?”
I don’t believe you.
If there was a scintilla of truth in this, every Caymanian within 1000 miles would have called WORC and reported it.
True there is manager at a SAGC that has no qualification.
@ Anonymous 30/05/2025 at 12:32 pm
1. The word is “override”.
2. Your grammar, punctuation and sentence structure suggest that your own level of education is substandard.
3. While the Cayman Islands does indeed have its fair share of lazy citizens, your generalization of Caymanians lacking motivation to work is ridiculous.
4. Bite me.
This is very untrue and the same old colonial rhetoric heard everywhere about indigenous people. As they say “if you are paying peanuts you get monkeys”. Caymanians built this country that you have come to enjoy and made it so good people don’t want to leave. But Caymanians cannot survive on rice, flour and bread alone and eat fish so small that endanger fish populations, plus take care of the young and elderly for $6 an hour. Pay us a fair wage and benefits.
At the outset, may I be explicitly clear that I agree that the minimum wage is a disgrace. It should be set at a level which allows Caymanians to hold a job and support a family. That means at least doubling it, possibly trebling it to CI$18/hour. Your condemnation of expats however is both unfair and inaccurate. Corrupt Caymanian politicians (the only type: because there are no expat politicians) have chosen to exploit thirdworlders who they import to run their businesses (see comments about Jamaicans and Hondurans, below). Indeed, many Caymanian politicians appear to have entered politics EXCLUSIVELY to protect their selfish commercial interests. It’s hilarious that Michael Myles is in charge of Immigration, for example: how many underpaid expats does he personally employ? What about DumDum in the last administration? You guys keep putting foxes in charge of the hen house.
Where I must respectfully disagree however is with the assertion “Caymanians built this country”. Expats built Cayman. The truth may hurt, but it’s still the truth. See Freyer, Tony, and Andrew P. Morriss. “Creating Cayman as an offshore financial center: structure & strategy since 1960.” Ariz. St. LJ 45 (2013): 1297. https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/facscholar/23.
Businesses WILL hire Caymanians who are suitably qualified and experienced, because they don’t need to pay for work permits. If a Caymanian is applying for a job and is not being hired, they lack the qualifications and/or experience. Businesses aren’t charities, they won’t pay work permit fees if they don’t have to. It may feel cathartic to contrive conspiracy theories, but it’s both nonesensical and counterproductive. The equivalent of the obsessive navel-gaving about Caymanian affirmative action is the Black Economic Empowerment legislation in South Africa. As with all attempts to impose racial preferences/unmeritocratic tribalism, it has been a failure: https://theconversation.com/only-south-africas-elite-benefits-from-black-economic-empowerment-and-covid-19-proved-it-189596.
If people want better jobs, they must perform better. That starts early. See “Almost 60% of Year 11 students miss 2021 exam targets, 19/04/2022, …according to the Data Report for the Academic Year 2020-21, just 40.3% of Year 11 students achieved the national standard target of five or more Level 2 subjects including English and maths.” https://caymannewsservice.com/2022/04/almost-60-of-year-11-students-miss-2021-exam-targets
Businesses are not welfare schemes for the unemployable (that’s the World Class Civil Service™).
In Cayman, the private sector is meritocratic and successful, the political system is race-based and self-evidently a failure. If you want success, allow people to get jobs exclusively on merit not skin color, and use the $$$ paid by expats in import taxes to better educate Caymanian children. See these two blog posts from 2005, almost two decades ago. Plus ça change….
Despite what you may infer from my points above, I am very supportive of the aspiration for Caymanian improvement. I just don’t think that the assertion “Caymanians built this country” is well-tethered in reality. What I propose you should be doing is using the 1 BILLION dollars a year that you are earning from expats, and use it to dramatically improve Caymanian education. The results are presently appalling, and do an immense disservice to your children. I recommend using Singapore as an example: it did a phenomenal job of getting from third world status in 1965 to world-leading status by the turn of the century just 35 years later. It is possible.
Caymanians did build this country. You just were not here to see it.
My original comment was too long, so my thanks to the CNS team for cutting it down. I would however respectfully submit that the following two links ought to have made the final cut, because they powerfully evidence that the current problems are now new:
Cayman Islands – What the brochures don’t say. Part 1, July 2025: https://archive.ph/xRscG
Cayman Islands – What the brocures don’t say. Part 2, July 2025: https://archive.ph/ggGOw
Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it, et cetera, and so on…
CNS: You’ve posted these links numerous time before and I’ve deleted them about half the time and probably will continue to do so. They contain some nuggets of truth but also a whole lot of bias, made more so by the fact that they are now very out of date. There’s also a certain supercilious nastiness about the two commentaries which I, personally, find very distasteful. They are the very one-sided observations of one expat made two decades ago. Given the rapid development of Cayman society, it’s like judging England today from the diary of a post-war refugee.
Thanks, that’s fair. I don’t endorse the tone of the comments, and I accept your point that the islands have evolved. There remain however valid points within those link which have contemporary pertinence, specifically the abuse of expats on minimum wages. The reason I asked you to re-add the links is because without them, there is no evidence to substantiate the point I made in my comment about Caymanians using Jamaicans and Hondurans as scapegoats:
“Corrupt Caymanian politicians (the only type: because there are no expat politicians) have chosen to exploit thirdworlders who they import to run their businesses (see comments about Jamaicans and Hondurans, below). Indeed, many Caymanian politicians appear to have entered politics EXCLUSIVELY to protect their selfish commercial interests.”
The current minimum wage, and the lack of protections for service sector expats, are inexcusable. Much of the weaponised xenophobia from certain politicians, giddily supported by Cayman Marl Road et al is a deliberate effort to conceal Cayman’s real problems.
CNS: I actually agree that those aspects of the commentaries are the most accurate and still have relevance. Allowing the abuse of immigrants and the block scapegoating of nationalities is not only immoral but has been the greatest con against the Caymanian people themselves.
An unlimited supply of cheap labour has created a situation where market forces cannot impose higher wages, resulting in an unlivable minimum wage, the importation of poverty and all that goes with it, and a rapid growth in population without a corresponding growth in infrastructure. i.e. all the ills that people complain about.
But you have to read a lot of annoying stuff to get to that.
Talk to Franz about the minimum wage. Caymanians do it to themselves.
so by removing the opportunity to move to a different job, it will embolden the employers like jon jon and Issaac who do not pay the pension, or insurance for the staff. amazing job.
Why not prosecute employers who do not follow the laws instead of letting these work permit holders just go job hoping? The laws are for everyone to follow, not that entitled people get to just ignore the law. Seymour should be held accountable, what makes him so special anyway?
What planet do you live on? This is Cayman, too connected. They will just cancel the permits, deport the victims and nothing will be done. As happened before. Wake up.
There needs to be heavy fines or inability to get future WP’s for those employers that do not cancel WP’s once there is no more work for the employee. Also, how closely does WORC inspect the accommodations? There should be licensing and inspection of all rental properties.
Cayman doesn’t do stuff like enforcing laws.
Teflon don
Maybe because he is so handsome when he is riding his donkey in the light of a full moon!
Michael Myles personal business about to get a nice little bump in government financing I bet.
“My company is best suited to fast track Caymanians into the workforce based on the changes I made myself in my own ministry.”
If you think that type of business is a good way to get rich then you really don’t know much.
He provides a service that no one else does.
It would be great if it wasn’t needed due to the government providing this training.
Which company do you think should receive it instead?
No for profit business should receive it. It’s that simple.
The question you avoided answering could not be more simple: “Which company do you think should receive it instead?”
Do you have an actual solution, or just a problem with the proposed solution?
Multiple downvotes, yet not a single rebuttal. Curious, that.
Over-hyped community college. Better to go with University of Phoenix online.
Links for those who hadn’t heard of Myles:
https://www.caymaniantimes.ky/news/michael-myles-on-a-mission-to-inspire-cayman
https://www.inspirecaymantraining.com/
Seems like a decent guy, and probably the right person to be the minister.
I’m not used to being complimentary about local MLAs, but unless I’ve missed something he’s doing great work?
Some PPM supporters are mad that he yelled at their precious [children] a decade ago for wasting his time and resources. Supposedly there are all kinds of videos proving he’s a big ol’ baddie, but they’ve never bothered to post said videos (even during elections).
In business he flip flops and he can have an unprofessional temper problem when things don’t go his way. 100% facts, I was on the receiving end myself not so long ago.
Which is why you have spoken out publicly about it, right?
No. There are plenty others with similar experiences with him, I have nothing to prove. I agree he has good intentions I merely question his ability to control his emotions. Nothing more than that.
…and those “plenty others with similar experiences” who have spoken out publicly about it, and provided some sort of evidence for these accusations, right?
Roll them over and roll dem out of yah please national coalition it’s about time we got rid those who have manipulated and corruptly obtain PR also we all know the stories and the connections being used.We need to look into this and remove them from these shores. .
Corruptly obtain PR…Jamaicans you mean.
time for a one day strike by all expats….
maybe then the local clowns will realise how much they rely on expats???
Exactly, if Expats sit still for one day, this country would be in crippling distress.
so what happens if Caymanians sit still?? you are a clown. the expat businesses you work for will close down and the move off island with you in towe.
Huh?
Nothing will happen, we see this all the time, for example, the day after a public holiday.
time for people like you to be deported.
Make it so.
As posters keep throwing around the word ‘entitled’, it’s obvious those doing so are expats who believe that the laws should be written to favour them and their cohorts and to hell with the citizens of Cayman Islands.
Your WP, lest you forget, was given as a PRIVILEGE and not as a RIGHT and comes with loss provisions. So, believe me, yours should be revoked and given to someone who understands that because they have stepped off of a plane with a WP in hand, IT MEANS he or she GETS TO STAY IN THE CAYMAN ISLANDS INDEFINITE. Not!
I can guarantee you that your leave from your job whatever sector it may be in, and out of the country will not cause the Cayman Islands to collapse and there will be at least 5 persons ready to take your job, and I am being sarcastic with that number as I believe it would be much higher, who will be more than willing to come and work for the term limit they are given as the sweet, tax free KYD is the NUMBER ONE REASON unna come to work in the Cayman Islands in the first place.
So, if you are feeling that your own entitlement is now being squashed on because of the changes in the law, I sugggest you do us all a favour and look for work elsewhere in the world like yesterday!
You should definitely do that, if only so the business owners you fools claim “are like family” can show you just how little you mean and how quickly you’ll be replaced with another impoverished “specialist” with an embellished CV.
waffle…that will end up doing more harm than good.
did they not learn anything from the 7 year rollover fiasco that crippled cayman economy and real estate sector?
any comment from the chamber of commerce???
Wait, crippled? I must have missed that day.
They clearly just make shit up at this point. The only thing they are better at than trying to run down Cayman is avoiding going back home.
What happened with 7 year rollovers, and why was it changed?
Please Honorable Premier, can your group please crack down on all these buy a work permit people who are running all over the islands contracting work. They are undercutting legitimate businesses who have to pay all fees, insurances, etc. The big money developers love it because they can just “sub-contract” the work to these people at lower rates. It would be very helpful for WORC to conduct many job site visits like was done years ago to catch all the people working outside the terms of their work permit (example gardeners working as mamaram man or housekeepers working as carpenter helpers). Make the big developer also pay a large fine since they know they are employing this type of labor. They need to feel it instead of just laughing at us.
That’s Jamacians!
Caymanians with Jamacian connections will always try to beat the system with “buy your own work permit schemes” .
you mean the Cayman owned businesses that are making workers’ pay for a permit to come here and not have any work and pay the business? why does everyone know who these business owners are except the govt? SAD
Could it be because the Jamaican influence has reached so high into our government now that they can do whatever they feel like? It was not like this years ago when people like Mr. Benson, Mr. Norman, the Boddens & Kirkonells were in government. Time to clean house and lets us get back to a more civilized country. The big money folks won’t like that but time to sit them in a corner for some time out.
You’re 100% right, but….Saunders Seymour Kenneth and Mac would disagree with you.
That group you speak about are exactly why we have this mess now. They and Joey Who need to all go back to Jamaica and be happy!
It was a matter of pedigree that cost Mr Benson his seat.
It was civilized in those days, then Jamaicans and Mac status grants spread like a disease.
Want a civilized country..? Stop importing Jamaicans, and Kick out the rest of them.
If you kick the Jamaicans out, are Caymanians willing to do the jobs they do?
Technology.
Robot lawn mowers, self driving taxis and busses, automated check-outs, and enhanced security technology.
That would take over hundreds of the jobs.
Hundreds of others would still need to be filled with foreign labour, but with greater diversity. There are 200 other countries our imported labour could be coming from. How about some prison officers from Singapore? Kenya? Finland? – just anywhere EXCEPT Jamaican or the Philippines. Some sense of demographic balance is needed so that Caymanians scan fit in and not have their culture entirely overwhelmed to the point of extinction.
Not for the unlivable wages that impoverished immigrants are willing to work for. When we continue down this road, we drag down our own most vulnerable to the benefit of very few (and even fewer actual Caymanians).