I have been living on the island of Grand Cayman for approximately two years and I must comment that the Cayman Islands are very beautiful and there is a lot of potential for growth and development.
However, based on my experience on the island of Grand Cayman, I was very disappointed and appalled by the manner in which I was treated by my employers, particularly the expatriate ones.
If I had known that I would have been treated that way, I would have stayed at home, but I gave up all that I had to come to this country. The high level of exploitation and greed in this country is unbelievable. I recently heard on the news that investigations have been made into the exploitation by security firms on security guards, however, I urge the authorities to investigate the employment agencies, audit firms, and other firms in the Cayman Islands.
My reason for writing this article is to express my view on the rollover policy;
I support the rollover policy and I think it would be good for the Cayman Islands in order to purge the land. In my opinion the policy should have been implemented a long time ago.
There are several reasons for my support of the policy;
When conferences are held by large firms in the Cayman Islands, it is evident that 98 per cent of the employees are from a particular country, 1 per cent may comprise other nationalities and the other 1 per cent comprised of Caymanians. This tends to have several disadvantages; these large number of employees from this particular country tend to dominate the organizations and when there are vacant positions in the organizations, instead of the human resource manager taking the active roll in the hiring process, this function is dominated by these employees who then bring their friends from their country whether or not they are qualified with the adequate experience. They also tend to promote the persons from that same nationality. This can have several repercussions on the country.
For example; large cliques are formed and due to the dominant and critical personalities of these individuals, they tend to exclude Caymanians and others who are not from that country from their social settings.
One factor the Immigration Department needs to investigate is the concept of the key employee. What some employers of these large firms are doing; is that those expatriate employers who would have reached the seven year limit and would be rolled over, they are actually promoting them to these key positions above other employees for example Caymanians and persons of other nationalities so as to retain them within the organization.
The problem is, again, the Caymanian is excluded because there is a little Boy Scout club in operation and if you are not part of the group one is excluded and some persons who have been seeking employment and qualified are unable to obtain jobs due to this factor.
The Immigration Department must beware of not allowing so many persons from one nationality to be hired on the islands. This can be devastating in the long run. For example, some countries which have been wealthy in resources, for example gold, oil, and even natural resources, these resources have been depleted by foreigners which have entered the land, dominated the land and refused to leave until all the resources have been depleted. Cayman must beware of this!
I am not saying that all the expatriates are this way, since some of them have the country at heart. However, most of them are just interested in the money and not necessarily the country.
To Cayman, I say, put God first in any decision that is made and let him guide you.
To the expatriate community, I say, respect the Government and the Caymanians in what ever decision is made.
Angel Castoff
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