Immigration and taxing foreign firms top of new Members’ list
Wednesday 26th October 2011, 2:59PM BST.
The Senatorial candidates at one of the hustings
JERSEY’s new politicians have set their sights on immigration and taxing foreign non-finance firms over the next three years.
The successful candidates in last week’s elections which removed nine States Members and brought in 16 new faces placed changes to immigration policy, reducing the number of States Members and job creation at the top of their ‘to do’ list in a Jersey Evening Post survey.
In their responses to the JEP’s pre-election survey of all candidates, the eventual winners of last Wednesday’s election also strongly backed the States’ current policies on benefits and Planning.
• See today’s JEP for full report and analysis
Read the full story in the Jersey Evening Post. Click here for subscription details. Individual editions are also available online.
Thursday 23 February
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Lets hope they keep their promise.
This has been the main topic for most locals for years,as we are so over-crowded something has to give.
Make it a priority- to give the work force a chance to gets jobs these newcomers have been taking.
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- Work permits.
- Australian points system allowing in only those that are required.
- Ciminal record checks before entry is granted.
- Those who abuse the system, don’t work intentionally or commit crimes get a one-way ticket off the island.
It’s not hard. Just a fair system that’s going to be good for the island in the long run.
We have such limited capacity on this island, we simply cannot have the same rules as perhaps the UK and Europe might have, allowing in vast numbers of immigrants effectively unchecked.
And please, before we get people bleating on about racism: questioning and examining a government’s immigration policy is absolutely not racist.
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I was on a plane a few fridays back, sitting next to two men (from Liverpool), who told me they fly over every Sunday and work in Jersey ‘cash in hand’ in the building trade and fly back to Liverpool every friday. They claim benefits in the UK and work cash in hand here, earning much more than they could possibly earn in the UK. They pay for their flights by buying duty free cigarettes and booze on each journey and selling it on each week back home in Liverpool.
I’m sure they’re not the only culprits…but at least they are showing a bit of initiative!
This is the sort of thing work permits should help to stop.
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@1 and 2,we are not from jersey but at least we can write without spelling mistakes…you should go back to school and give me your job.;)
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Those are some hideous curtains!
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3 years ? Why not make a dramatic start NOW instead of it being placed on a back boiler, and i wonder how much will have been done in 3 years time ? As (1) Bella stated, its a main topic on the island, and was so during the husting, so why not make the first cut of the knife now ?
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@4 – You could further improve your employment prospects by spelling Jersey with a capital ‘J’.
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Have a look here
Guernsey and Jersey are 13th and 14th respectively.
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2 Loco that’s not racist it’s common sense and what most of us have wanted for many years. We are in a unique position to make our own laws and govern ourselves in such a way to be a shining gem in the mire that is planet earth.
Jersey is a very desireable place to live, it’s not what it was but it still has many things in it’s favour. Lets exploit them to our advantage. Reduce crime – a good start would be not to let people with a criminal record enter the island, what happened to the police checkpoint before customs, they used to turn people back.
Loco I find myself repeating your view so I’ll stop, there can be only one reason why these ideas are not implemented, it does not suit those who benefit from cheap labour and unchecked immigration – go figure who they might be.
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Loco and others, do you not realise there is a points system already in place. I had to go through migrating from Australia. To get into Jersey you must pass through via the UK immigration system, not Jerseys. The UK determine immigraiton policy. Accordingly I have to have degree level plus be necessary employee, or Masters level in specific industries to qualify. IT was very difficult and took years.
The problem I think most of you moan about is the movement of EU people – which is also out of the hands of JErsey politicians.
Thay can talk about it all they like, but as long as we are signed up as a British Crown dependency, immigration and free movement of EU nationals is out of our control.
It is politically easy to go migrant bashing, but if you knew the facts you woudl realise the situation is out of JErsey politians hands.
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Do this mean that people who only arrive on the Island or decide to come back after a great number of years won’t received benefits as easy as they do now, others have to suffer for this and use their savings to survive. Where is the human rights in all of this?
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Why do people not make an intelligent contribution to a subject instead of continually pointing out petty spelling errors.
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@Pedantic love it.. Me thinks a few more little oiks need putting in their places firmly!!
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2 things:
1.) Fine if your going to issue work visas for people in the UK coming to Jersey, then I hope its reciprocal and you have to get work visas to work in the UK. You can’t have your cake and eat it.
2.) Stop whingeing about population levels. I used to live in Hong Kong ,before coming back to the island, and its one of the most amazing places in the world. Just build higher and get over yourselves. Hong Kong is 4th on the most populated list.
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#10 Marc Jones: fair point, but Jersey is somewhat smaller than the other EU contries, this is what I mean by having limited capacity.
If we had 200,000 EU migrants come over, there’d physically not be enough food on the island and people would literally starve. There is only so much room.
It’s common sense, therefore, that restrictions and limitations need to be put in place so we don’t get to the stage where the infrastructure in Jersey cannot handle the population (and some would argue that it’s creaking already).
I refuse to believe with the vast number of well paid politicians we have that they can’t somehow work this out with the crown; it’s plain common sense.
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Mona Lot, # 12
I do both, quite happily, especially when the subjects interest me or the mistakes are amusing.
Sometimes the mistakes are so ignorant (loose/lose, bought/brought, pedal/peddle are regular examples and I’ll leave ‘there’ etc, to someone else), that the writer really needs educating. Who better than a pedant in the truest sense to do the job?
I don’t get that much hate mail so I’ve probably got it about right!
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@8 Flymo… 92,500! yeah right… I wonder why the census results have not been released yet?
Too scary for us mortals, just like the exam results, we would not understand them. Just like our COM do not understand that their expansion policies purely to raise revenue do not work.
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Please remember that Jersey people dont have human rights!! States quite clearly in our passports NO RIGHT TO WORK IN THE EU!!!!
so as a Jerseyman i think its quite acceptable to have work permits in Jersey and be able to accept or decline anyone wishing to work here, in fact it would be the best position for the island currently.
But please remember that it is against their human rights to be told NO so carry on.
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Loco – Agree with you, I would prefer we have all immigrants who come to Jersey face the same restrictions, not just non-EU people.
I think it is unfair that Jersey people (my daughter for example) is unable to work in the EU having been born here, but EU people can work here.
I was just pointing out the problem associated with it, as I hear the same arguments without some people appreciating that the facts are currently outside the possibilitty for Jersey politicians.
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If it’s against their, (EU citizens), human rights to stop them entering and working in Jersey, surely it must be against Jersey descended people’s rights to be denied work in the EU, especially as we are part of the British Isles with very close ties to UK.
I do feel that we should be allowed to decide our own policy on immigration, especially as we had no say in the original decision to allow free movement and are now being discriminated against.
Marc Jones, if your daughter has one non Jersey born parent or grandparent, she has the right to work in the EU.
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I used to have the stamp in my passport stating I could not live or work in the EU and during this time I lived and worked legally with a work permit stamp in Holland, Spain and Portugal. Nobody takes any notice of the stamp, all that matters is that you’re stated to be a British citizen in the front page of your passport. This stamp should not stop anyone from working or living wherever they want to. Nobody knows where Jersey is anyway. Since moving to the UK I applied for a UK passport when my Jersey one ran out and received one with no problems, so I no longer have this stamp in my passport.
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No 19, those restrictions are not unfair. Its a very modest restriction for us being allowed within the EU tariff wall while not contributing the approx £8k per family a year if we were full EU members which would be the norm for an affluent state
within the Union.
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Colin, whilst I agree and share your frustration (as my daughter is unable to work in the EU, and I am not able to work in the EU as I migrated to Jersey), to claim that Jersey people do not have human rights is absurd.
This is not about human rights – as soon as you start confusing yourself you cease to make valid points.
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