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WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE CHIEF MINISTER
BY DEPUTY R.G. LE HÉRISSIER OF ST. SAVIOUR ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 6th MARCH 2012
Question
Would the Chief Minister outline the circumstances under which he would contemplate proposing the introduction of residence and work permits and also outline any legal or political impediments to their implementation?
Answer
The question of additional controls around migration will be reviewed alongside a post- implementation review of the new Control of Housing and Work (Jersey) Law and Register of Names and Addresses (Jersey) Law, and further measures may be proposed depending on the outcomes. This would seem a proper process to arrive at conclusions.
However, the new legislation will bring significant enhancements to the compliance regime around the ability of migrants to access work and be housed, and will provide a population register so we can track population and immigration, and so achieve whatsoever targets are agreed by the Assembly. In addition, the new legislation does contain provisions to grant permissions to workers on an individualised basis and to direct precisely where such persons may live and for how long they may work, so is able to be flexible in response to prevailing conditions.
As to introducing residence permits as well as effective controls over work, the dominant driver for migration is the desire to obtain work, for example, 94% of Polish nationals and 90% of Portuguese nationals of working age are working, so also controlling residence would seem largely an unnecessary cost. Furthermore, Jersey is part of the British Isles, with the obligations incumbent by virtue of our constitutional position, the Immigration Act, and Protocol 3, that British Nationals have the right to reside in Jersey (and Jersey residents to reside elsewhere in the British Isles) and that European Union nationals have the right to enter and remain in the Island.