Ministers want to lock gate on Cabinet status grants
(CNS): Ministers Kenneth Bryan and Dwayne Seymour have called for a freeze on granting Caymanian status to residents who have been here for at least 15 years or who apply through Cabinet. The government frontbenchers said this was their own view and not yet a PACT policy, as it hadn’t been discussed. But they said that the increase in “non-generational Caymanians” negatively impacts political power, cultural values, business opportunities, housing and public spending.
In 2017, when Seymour was re-elected to parliament as an independent candidate, he ran on a very popular policy of stopping all work permits until local people had all secured “decent jobs”. But having joined the PPM coalition front bench, he did not deliver on that campaign promise.
He is now the labour minister and in a position to do so if he can secure the support of another three Cabinet colleagues, but despite his position and his ministerial portfolio, he has said that these ideas have not been discussed with either the PACT caucus or its inner circle.
Speaking last week on For the Record, Radio Cayman’s morning talk show, in the first of two appearances by the two men together, the ministers said they wanted to see an end to the granting of status to those who are not married or related in some way to a Caymanian.
On Monday, Tourism Minister Bryan said he felt it was “time to lock the gate” on status grants, which also convey voting rights, to prevent expatriates from influencing local politics. “We are giving away voting power” and conveying “principal freedoms”, such as the right to create and own a business outright, Bryan said, explaining at length the impact that status grants have on “who has power and control in your country”.
Exposing populist sentiments, the MP for George Town Central said that “non-generational Caymanians” could have principles that are different from the cultural norms of Caymanians who were born and grew up here. He added that the government would eventually be elected by a majority of voters who are non-native, having arrived here with different values and without a true understanding of Caymanian culture.
Bryan suggested that a government elected by non-generational voters might even ban turtle meat because they don’t understand its significance to the local population. Housing, the pressure on infrastructure, public spending and the development of businesses are all being impacted by the increase in Caymanians who came from elsewhere, Bryan and Seymour stated.
The two Cabinet members said the problems start with the creation of Caymanians from the immigrant population through the controversial points system towards residency that awards a significant number of points for land and home ownership. Expatriates can get up to 30 of the 110 points they need to secure residency by buying property, but the ministers said they want to see the credit for property ownership removed.
The points system, alongside the sale of property to non-residents, has now distorted the local housing market demand so much that most local people can no longer afford to buy a home in their own country.
Seymour said it was vital that Caymanians see and feel the benefit from Cayman’s growth as the new status holders were diluting the benefits. “We need to slow it down, to try to find a way for Caymanians to benefit… If we had a model that was wrong for the last 40 years, let’s review that,” he said.
Turning to the issue of permanent residency, Seymour said the issue of status grants could not be tackled without addressing this. Bryan said that getting PR created a straight path to Caymanian status unless an applicant has committed a serious crime, and suggested limiting work permit holders to five years.
Citing the latest figures from Workforce Opportunities and Residency Cayman, Seymour noted that there are currently 35,646 work permit holders, which is yet another record with more coming every day, and 6,599 permanent residents, most of whom will be able to apply for status.
Seymour said that in the first instance, he was working on bringing a paper to caucus to address the PR system and the points process. “The problems that are coming along with the increase in the number of status grants are affecting our people in a negative way,” he added.
Bryan said that limiting the number of permanent residents and status holders would not necessarily reduce Cayman’s overall population but would “control who has power and control in your country”.
He said all Caymanians, including new Caymanians who already have status and are part of the community, needed to engage in this discussion so the government could come up with a way to protect all of their rights and help to ensure they retain political control.
See the FTR show on Radio Cayman’s YouTube channel below:
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Every expat in Cayman is well aware that the country could take a Bermuda-esque protectionist turn, and commit economic suicide. For example, any attempt to remove Privy Counsel oversight, or – hilarious a suggestion as this may sound – declare independence, would result in an exodus of investment.
The Bahamas’ and Bermuda’s missteps are years in the past, even if their respective economic carnage continues, but Hong Kong has more recently experienced capital and talent flight to the benefit of Singapore. Beijing however, could afford to take the hit economically. Does anyone think that Cayman could?
It would certainly create absolute chaos – and that would be a superb opportunity for the financial services industry. For Caymanians, not so much… Ironically, protectionist efforts would exclusively benefit the expats they were designed to attack: (1) funds would divest from Cayman, creating work for financial services expats who would move with them; (2) Cayman would be left with the dregs.
Sorry to be blunt, but apparently it is necessary. Cayman needs expats. Expats do not need Cayman. 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.
If Caymanians want better jobs, they must perform better. That starts early. See:
(1) 2021: “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.
(2) 2023: “A data report released by the education ministry reflects a decline in external exam results…with standards in mathematics dropping back to 2017 levels in 2022, despite the significant investment that has been made in public education… Only 27% of all students at Key Stage 2, when they leave primary school, had reached the expected standards in all three core subjects of reading, writing and maths.” https://caymannewsservice.com/2023/05/report-shows-school-leaver-results-drop-from-peak/
Businesses are not welfare schemes for the unemployable (that’s the World Class Civil Service™). The equivalent of the obsessive navel-gaving about Caymanian affirmative action, and whinging about expats, 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 Cayman wants to regress to being a handful of fishing villages, then it can have a hissy fit about expats. If not, keep quiet, knuckle down, and focus on educating your kids so that they can outcompete our kids for jobs in Cayman. On merit: not skin color. It may be our grandchildren, though: an island of only 30,000 so-called “multigenerational Caymanians”, with the record of educational achievement documented above, seems unlikely to be able to rapidly/if ever generate any more that a tiny % of competent, internationally, competitive, white collar professionals to fulfil the wide range of roles here. If I’m wrong, why are 60% of Caymanian kids leaving school functionally illiterate and innumerate?
Look at the Economics and Statistics Office (ESO) August 2022 report about how many banks and trusts moved off island compared to the previous year:
“Banks & Trusts: The total value of international banking assets domiciled in the Cayman Islands declined by 12.9 percent to US$518.3 billion in 2021 relative to the previous year. Similarly, international liabilities domiciled locally fell by 13.0 percent to US$517.5billion (see Table 4.1). The Islands’ financial system had cross-border assets of US$503.0 billion, a decline of 13.1 percent, and liabilities of $470.8 billion, a decline of 12.5 percent relative to end-2020.“
https://www.eso.ky/UserFiles/page_docums/files/uploads/the_cayman_islands_annual_economic_repor-7.pdf, page 27.
See the recent Financial Times article, “Singapore and Hong Kong vie to be the Caymans (sic) of Asia” which notes:
“The two cities have set up new fund structures to lure wealth away from traditional offshore financial centres… Singapore established the Variable Capital Company, a fund structure that allows a wide range of potential users to shelter large pools of capital in discreet, lightly taxed wrappers domiciled in a well-regulated financial centre… Investor take-up, particularly in Singapore, has been rapid. The bankers, fund managers and lawyers involved in setting them up say their impact could be far more widespread and more disruptive than previously imagined, drawing assets and expertise into the region… The new vehicles represent a direct challenge to traditional offshore finance centres whose success has been built on privacy and low taxes and whose economies are heavily dependent on the revenue generated by financial services… Singaporean authorities, frustrated at the tendency of local fund managers to register investment vehicles offshore rather than in Singapore itself, launched the rival VCC in 2020. It made it easier for overseas and domestic entities to register an investment vehicle in Singapore… For Singapore the rush to establish the new structures has been especially pronounced. “Prior to 2020 the vast majority of Singaporean managers had their funds in offshore jurisdictions such as the Cayman Islands, Mauritius or Luxembourg. Now the tables have turned,” says Mahip Gupta, a partner at Singapore-based Dhruva Advisors.“Since the Variable Capital Company structure was introduced, most have chosen Singapore as their fund domiciliation hub.””
https://www.ft.com/content/88e20280-bb6e-4209-ae76-d7183c60ff62, 20 March 2023.
We don’t need to be here. Financial services don’t need to be here. We can move somewhere else, and take our clients with us.
Plus ça change. None of this is new. A friend of mine wrote this back in 2005, i.e. almost two decades ago:
“Ex-pats, it is muttered (and written in very concerned and usually badly spelled letters to the newspapers), come over to the island, take jobs away from honest hard-working Caymanians (I’m told there is such a thing…) and end up taking Caymanian dollars off the island – weakening the economy. Weakening the economy? We are the economy. Where the bloody hell do they think all their money comes from anyway? Fish? Aside from which if there was a Caymanian capable of doing my job, there’s not a chance in hell I’d be here…
From: https://h2g2.com/entry/A4503683, Part 1 of which is at: https://h2g2.com/entry/A4503665
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 attacking expats is anything other than lobotomised xenophobia.
If you want to improve Cayman, stop complaining about expats, and take responsibility for your own failures. Cayman is presently incapable of self-government. Expats should be allow to both vote and stand for election. Four examples of incompetence/corruption demonstrating this fact are here: https://caymannewsservice.com/2023/03/premier-admits-widening-of-caymans-economic-success-gap/comment-page-1/#comment-587383
I see why these guys have the right to worry. if we do status grants, most educated people would not vote for them. They proved time and time again that they are not capable of doing these jobs competently and in the best interest of the country. They don’t understand the economy or the what drives it. They really need to stop playing with fire. They seem to be good at it, but they will get burned.
The picture of these two says it all LOL
for the great christians of cayman…ask yourself…what would jesus do????
As The Realist illustrated well in a former topic, going the route Bryan and Seymour are salivating over just does the converse in the long term, rather than benefit those it is attempting to protect. The new non-recipients of PR and later Status under their scheme , would leave Cayman (what they want). In doing so will take their jobs and the expenditure they would have injected locally with them , elsewhere. The companies that did employ them, now largely working remotely anyhow , could close up shop and move. The Caymanians that were employed there are now on CIG welfare. Cayman gets tarred with the ugly Bahamas brush, discouraging new migrants from coming here to work , as they just get kicked out in 5 years.
Financial Services is hanging on by threads as it is. If there is an event that impairs the Financial Services Industry – regressive political momentum, blacklisting, hurricane, cable interruption, or other business continuity issue – Cayman doesn’t necessarily come back from it. The quality of life spread to other jurisdictions is tightening to zero. Those with means and sense would just move, including many sensible voters already holding Status, education/ambition/skill, and a G7 passport. It would be a permanent setback that Cayman would never recover from. Real estate would plummet. Tourism would crumble since there would only be temp workers and nobody with vested care on the final service product. From every angle it’s bad. The coup de gras is that these two would also not be re-elected.
Those with means and sense – sure, go to the BVI where there are two restaurants, go to Bermuda which is even more expensive, you can’t buy property or own a car, and the food is terrible, go to Dubai where you will be inducted into an abusive class and cultural system where you will have to have house parties in secret, sure go to Guernsey/Jersey which are cold, sure go to Hong Kong or Singapore which are respectively protest-ridden, trending toward communist control after several years of brain drain, and you can get fined/arrested for how you walked down the street. Go check out all those places, look at your pay packet, your quality of life, how safe you are, and compare that back to what Cayman offers. No comparison. I think those with means and sense will continue doing what they’ve always done – milk Cayman for the minimum investment required, then leave. Currently we make that minimum investment most of a working life, and in return we have to give citizenship. What if we asked for less? We would surely get it, and have to give nothing in return.
That’s fine, we have enough people here now. If the current tens of thousands of qualified expats we imported all retire or leave, we’ll advertise again, the sun and sand and tax-free stuff isn’t going anywhere. We just don’t need any more of you. Sorry, supply and demand works both ways.
the true Caymankind Christian values on display here from dumb and dumber…. zzzzzzzz
I’m curious which one is dumber, I think it would be hard to tell as they keep out doing each other.
One of them floated the idea of awarding Caymanian cottage industries up to $50,000 to get started. His example was to pay for a business plan for someone in Northside who wanted tourists to come to her home to get their hair braided.
The other one is even dumber.
No wonder they don’t want expats to have the vote and maybe kick them out of their cushy, high-paid, do-nothing-useful jobs.
I had the misfortune recently to meet an expat lady at a social event who was arrogant, entitled and told me at great length about the money she earns in the real estate sector, selling high prices condos to fellow expats. At the time I thought to myself, now this is exactly the type of person our honourable MLA’s would like to see less of on island, taking jobs from locals and contributing very little to the community. then she finished with the classic “do you know who I am”. If I didn’t before, I certainly do now.
Realtors are a different breed to everyone else and I’m sorry you had to meet one at a social event.
On the other hand if you look at the charities formed to help Caymanians and this country you’ll find there are many expats who work for them free of charge. Charities like the Red Cross, Meals on Wheels, ARK, Cancer Society, Jasmine (hospise) etc.
For example: It was an expat, Susan Olde, who used her own money to ensure these islands had an ample supply of covid test kits at the start of the pandemic.
I’m pretty sure Susan Olde is a Caymanian.
The problem is that these idiots want to create different types of Caymanians based on some arbitrary ideas they have.
But they would most definitely be happy to stop the next Susan Olde from ever staying on island more than 5 years…
Yes, because we already have Susan Olde. That’s why we don’t need another one. But she’s not even the problem. The problem is that every lawyer and every accountant who comes here buys property and qualifies for PR and and eventually they and their children will have the grandchildren of ‘paper Caymanians’ to vote for, because that’s how the Constitution works. To run for office, you must have had a Caymanian grandparent. One more generation and the first generation eligible to run will be able to run, and the ‘expat-Caymanian’ population majority will vote for them and that will be that. Native Caymanians will become a protected species that some “Minister for Natives” makes a speech about once a year and sets aside some land for.
No thank you! This is already in motion; the least we can do is stop it from getting any worse NOW.
Thank you. Whenever you can enter any nation as a foreign national and effectively buy your way to the highest levels of political power and social status from the bottom, you have a fundamentally broken system of law and governance.
This level of archaic oversight with constitutional-wide gaping loopholes is only common in countries deemed “banana republics” or “third-world nations” or not even democracies in the first place.
For the politicians of the past administrations that have created this mess, allowing the creation of 20+ types of citizenship without elevating unique rights or protecting the rights of local sovereign citizens as paramount subsequently just legally renders the local designation worthless. Not a politician, just saying.
The twisted cherry on top in the Cayman Islands is that individuals can bend the loopholes to completely and utterly exploit the country, commit treasonous activities, laugh all the way to the bank, and board the next flight out when the fire is too hot, all without consequence.
Because they have the money and posh organised lives to support causes. Everyone else is trying to get by. Money to donate is a luxury, time even more so.
Susan Olde is a widow and has given away a tiny fraction of the fortune her husband made.
That wasn’t Susan’s money but do carry on.
I call BS on this comment, 3:17. Unsubtle and stereotypical.
Nice, using a individual case to support a moronic proposition. Not sure what is more simple, your statement or the premise of this article.
Likely created from whole cloth as well…
While i agree that Caymanian culture is changing, trying to stem the tide by limiting natural population growth will make no difference in reversing this trend due to the inevitable influence of the Internet and globalization.
In order for Caymanian culture and values to survive and thrive into the next generations, it first ought to be defined, documented and then preserved by sharing with the new residents of these islands.
True Caymanian values like honesty, integrity, persistence and entrepreneurial spirit are what built this country. Traditionally we were characterized as a hard working, g-d fearing society with a sense of collective responsibility, neighbourly spirit, always seeking the better good at all times, this is what brought us the blessings of present day prosperous Cayman.
We can draw inspiration from the women who looked after their families while the men were out at sea, who made everything stretch, they were humble giants who valued relationships and friendship over possessions and titles.
Instead of viewing new Caymanians as a threat to our traditions, we can instead perceive them as 35,000 new potential “Converts” to our way of frontier life.
Let us focus on honing in and sharing our traditional values thus ensuring that persons from all over the world can adapt these Caymanian values and create a multicultural Caymanians society for the coming 100 years.
You have clearly never listened to expats talk amongst themselves. ‘Why can’t we all just get along’ is not going to work. They want different things, they are different people, and they will finish changing this place beyond all recognition, and kicking the natives out economically. Wonderful sentiments but horribly misguided and uninformed. Expats do not mean us well; individual expats mean individual Caymanians well. As a group, they want to take over and change everything, and hate that they can’t already.
Glad they’re being honest about why they care about this — power and their fear of losing it.
It’s harder to convince ppl to buy your BS when you’re not related or didn’t grow up together. Plus, think about all the additional cash they’ll need to spend on turkeys and refrigerators.
It matters not, because according to the ‘experts’ Cayman will be underwater in 25 years or AI will cause the extinction of humans. “Life is a waste of time. Time is a waste of life. Get wasted all the time and you’ll have the time of your life.”
And the jab, don’t forget about the jab.
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha….!!!!
To that, I would like to add: HA!!!!!!!!!!!!
immigration lawyers are licking their lips….just hope cig has enough $$ to pay out for all the legal challenges….
any comment mrs governor???
She’s supposed to stay neutral on issues such as these.
Until she needs to use her Reserved Powers to stop the stupidity…
Yes and no. She has responsibility for good governance, so the current situation in which WORC under political direction simply ignores routine applications for status without any legal justification for doing so is in her wheelhouse. 2 government ministers saying they want to completely ignore existing immigration law because they don’t like the implications for the voting franchise is a problem, as will be the consequences of all the applications under human rights conventions that the UK is party to and by extension its BOTCs are expected to comply with that will be breached by denying those with 15 years of residence a path to status is as well. Look back at 2004 and see what generated the mass status grants -wasnt a sudden change of heart by Caymanian politicians, although some of them took advantage of it. Nope – dictat from the UK. What gets me is this was a public forum – going to put a massive hole in any attempt for CIG to defend a judicial review application for status applications on the basis that the delay wasnt government directed when the minister n charge of the department has openly said he is opposed to granting fresh status. Diverting all the resources to the examination of possible fake marriages my left foot.
Well this is not 2004 and it seems we will need to tighten things up now. I have intimate experience of immigration law and practice here and we have had enough for right now. The island is cluttered with identical foreign greedy people taking everything and the system is designed to let that continue indefinitely. Government doesn’t even publish figures – imagine if every month we got a steady drumbeat of how many ‘new Caymanians’ there are. I fully agree with these Ministers and I am the farthest thing from a simpleton you’ll find. People aren’t coming here anymore because they can settle permanently; they’re settling permanently because we make it easier than anywhere else. Otherwise, they’d be happy to continue office-hopping, and I’m suggesting we switch to that. When we need more permanent residents, we’ll announce that we’re opening our citizenship pathway again and anyone who arrives during a certain time and starts the process can make it all the way through, and get mobbed again. Easy.
If you had a report on how many new Caymanians there are on a monthly basis, it would read zero – they haven’t been processing any applications for at least 18 months.
Good! I hope that’s because they’re working on a law to cancel all citizenship/residence processes and just figuring out how to make it retroactive. We have ENOUGH mouths to feed here.
LOL, good luck with making it retroactive
issues such as basic human rights, good governance, racism???
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
BULLSHIT. She is supposed to ensure good governance, all day, every day.