Inward migration in Jersey

1240/5(6882)

WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE CHIEF MINISTER BY CONNÉTABLE OF ST. JOHN

ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 29th MAY 2012

Question

Can the Chief Minister, given his responsibility for migration issues, provide a monthly breakdown showing how many people have arrived in Jersey to work in the Island over the last 36 months who are not residentially qualified, but applied for and received a social security card?

Can the Chief Minister provide a detailed monthly breakdown of the number of residentially qualified people that have been registered as unemployed over the same period?

Answer

Residential qualifications are determined under the Housing Law and are administered by the Population Office. The Social Security Department does not hold information on residential qualifications. It will not be until the new Control of Housing and Work legislation is in place and operational that information like that requested by the Connetable will be known.

The Social Security Department can, however, provide details of the registrations as shown in the attached tables which are recorded by nationality as opposed to residential status. Every individual is legally required to register with the Social Security Department as soon as they start work, or if they are not working for an employer, once they have been resident in the island for a period of 6 months.

The Social Security Department is now registering children at birth, or soon after, and therefore figures include children born in Jersey.

The Statistics provided by the Social Security Department (April 2009 – April 2012) are as follows:

Table 1 - New Registrations provides details of individuals who have registered for the first time in Jersey.

Table 2 – Re-registrations provides details of individuals who were registered previously, have left the island, then returned to Jersey and re-registered.

Table 1

Table 2

Please note:

• Individuals registered as British nationals include Jersey nationals
• All categories include both children and adults
• The November 2009 re-registration monthly report is incomplete and the full report is not accessible in the time available to answer this question

Numbers Actively Seeking Work:

The Statistics Unit have reported the unemployment figures since January 2010. As above, this information is not recorded by residential qualifications. The information, however, is recorded by nationality. Under the new Control of Housing and Work Law, this information will be available by residential status.

The table below provides details from the Statistics Unit of the number of individuals actively seeking work for the period 2010 to date: