My husband and I have been annual visitors to Grand Cayman for 25 years. We began with one week in 1982, graduated to two weeks, then to timeshares and finally to our own modest condo.
At last, we are privileged to spend several months at a time in this beautiful country.
As a visitor, I would never presume to pronounce on what Caymanian society needs or wants. However, I do listen closely when people talk about their lives.
What I hear makes me think that an open public review of the effects of the current rollover policy would be beneficial.
On the one hand, local businesses have been deprived of valuable employees. The owner of our favourite auto repair shop has lost three skilled mechanics to the rollover policy in the last month. He is struggling to keep his business operating until he can replace them.
On the other hand, the departing workers were consumers, too. Our favourite seller of local fruits and vegetables has lost more than half of his business because the long-established Jamaicans who were his main clientele have left the island.
The newcomers replacing them have not become well enough established to seek out his goods.
Caymanians may well feel that their heritage is threatened when outsiders in large numbers come to work but stay to settle, and change society by their presence.
It is understandable that people would want immigration policy to reflect that concern. However, policies formed for good reasons may still have harmful effects that were never intended.
Susan Smith
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