Details of consultation process on immigration proposals

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WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE POLICY AND RESOURCES COMMITTEE

BY DEPUTY G.C.L. BAUDAINS OF ST. CLEMENT

ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 26th OCTOBER 2004

Question

The Committee has stated that its immigration proposals have been supported by almost all of the 200+ individuals and groups that have been consulted.

Would the President inform members –

1. w h ether the Committee will be publishing details ofthe support ithas received, including attendance figures, atpublic meetings it hasheld,together with methods used to capture the viewsof those meetings and whetherthosemethodsexcluded persons whomayhaveattended multiple meetings?
2. w h ether there is currently emigration from Jersey due to a numberof factors such asover-regulation and concern regarding Jersey's economic  future, and whether inward migration would serve any useful purpose in the present climate?

Answer

1. Details of the consultation process,together with the numberswho participated in this process, will be published as part of the Policy andResourcesCommittee'smigrationpolicy proposals.

I n the meantime, I am happy to provide further details of the consultation programme, and these are given

below –

( i) a consultation paper entitled Migration Policy Steering Group: Consultation Report', was presented to

the States on 20th April 2004. Copies of the document were made available to the public free of charge from the States Greffe bookshop;

( ii ) the consultation paper received very significant media coverage, both on the day of publication and in

the following weeks. Responses from the public were invited, and a website was established which provided an opportunity to respond on-line;

( ii i) letters inviting comments were sent to 64 private sector individuals and organisations and, on 14th May,

a further 300 letters were sent to all Imagine Jersey' participants inviting them to attend the migration consultation meetings and giving details of the dates/times;

( i v) to advertise the consultation meetings, the department commissioned four advertisements in prime

positions in the Jersey Evening Post, together with a series of advertisements on Channel 103FM. Despite this coverage, the first of these consultation meetings was not well-attended, but the other two attracted a total of 60 members of the public.

D e p uty Baudains has asked whether the Committee's methods excluded persons who may have

attended multiple meetings', and I can confirm that the Committee did not seek to exclude persons who may have chosen to attend more than one of the consultation meetings. Indeed, the Committee would not have felt it to be appropriate to do so as these were public meetings that were open to anyone to attend;

( v ) m e e tings were also held with a wide range of professional and voluntary organisations.

2. The short answer is that we do not have definitive figures. The Island does not have any ongoing measurementofresident population. This is one of the major aims of the new Migration Policy whichmy Committee will be bringing to the States in the very near future. If our proposals are approved they will not only simplify and streamline ourbureaucracy, but will forthefirst time ever mean that wewill have a better measure of the overall population and real ability tomanage migration.

T h e best information we have is from the Manpower reports presented regularly by the Statistics Unit and

their latest report is due in two weeks time.

H  owever the best information to date is that a year on year comparison as at June shows there may have been

an overall decrease of some 900 in the total employment figures.

I n terms of over-regulation the business community regularly reports their concerns and again the migration

policy will address these. However I am aware of numerous financial institutions which recently are either setting up or expanding their business in Jersey. More widely the Regulation of Undertakings office reports that there are continued applications from business for new licences and additional staff in the order of 300 in the last quarter, which is fairly consistent with last year. All of which suggest real cause for optimism.

Y  ou ask if inward migration would serve any useful purpose and my answer is yes provided that it is not in

any large numbers and migrants do not take jobs which Jersey folk could fill. The recent TEP survey and ESS figures report that there are still skill shortages and many jobs which are hard to fill because there are not suitable applicants. If we are to allow our economy to grow and provide work for local people then we must allow inward migrants who bring the right skills to the Island.

I n the longer term we must become even more self sufficient, which is where the EDC's Economic Skills

Strategies will be very important.