Cayman Finance says it is concerned that proposed changes to immigration legislation that require work-permit holders to leave Cayman for a year before taking up a new job here will stymie recruitment efforts within the industry.
In response to queries from the Compass, Steve McIntosh, CEO of Cayman Finance, the association which represents the financial services in Cayman, noted, “Given that the financial industry contributes more than 50% of government revenue and GDP, any negative impact would be widely felt in our community.”
Last month, the government revealed a discussion paper that proposed a raft of immigration reforms, including extending how long non-Caymanian residents must live on island before becoming eligible to apply for permanent residency and Caymanian status, as well as changes to work-permit rules.
McIntosh said the proposed requirement for work-permit holders to leave the country for one year between jobs would be “particularly damaging” to the financial services industry.
“No employer would wait a year for someone to start, and no employee would wait a year to begin work,” he pointed out. “Since every new work permit holder would need to relocate from overseas, recruitment and relocation costs would increase dramatically, accelerating the trend towards offshoring and remote work.
“Moreover, the existing law already prohibits work permit holders from changing jobs, except in limited circumstances. Therefore, the proposed change seems redundant as well as unworkable.”
The discussion paper on the immigration reforms suggests a new section for the Immigration (Transition) Act, titled ‘Prohibition on changing employer’, which contains the following two clauses:
(1) A person who is a worker shall not change the person’s employer.
(2) Where a person who is a worker terminates his or her employment, the person shall leave the Islands for a period of not less than one year before any other prospective employer is able to apply for a work permit in respect of the person.
The existing legislation states that a work-permit holder may only change employers if the Work Permit Board or the director of Workforce Opportunities and Residency Cayman believes there are “special circumstances” or if the job description falls within a certain category specified by Cabinet.
McIntosh said Cayman Finance fully support “the effort to update the immigration regime and understand the community’s concerns regarding population growth and the protection of Caymanian employment. However, we are concerned that some of the proposed changes could negatively impact the financial industry.”
‘Difficulty in hiring and retaining talent’
A lack of Caymanian graduates who are qualified to fill available posts within the industry means financial services firms have no option but to recruit overseas, Cayman Finance pointed out.
“Industry members have consistently highlighted the difficulty of hiring and retaining talent as one of the sector’s biggest challenges,” McIntosh said. “Our top priority is, of course, to ensure that every Caymanian who wants to work in the sector has the opportunity to do so.”
He said the majority of jobs in the financial services industry require a relevant degree, and “there are currently nowhere near enough Caymanian graduates to fill every available job”.
He added, “This makes the financial industry dependent on skilled professional talent from overseas, which some of the proposed changes would make much harder to attract and retain.”
He noted the financial industry represents less than 5% of the total number of work permits, stating that this percentage has “long been in decline”, and that 15 years ago, it accounted for 10% of work permits in Cayman.
“This shows that, contrary to popular belief, the extraordinary growth in our expatriate population is in no way attributable to the financial industry,” McIntosh told the Compass.
McIntosh also noted that, without more data on the proposed changes to the length of time it would take for a person to become a Caymanian status holder, “it is difficult to predict the impact of the proposed change from 15 to 20 years of residence to become eligible to apply for status. However, one concern is that the change could be problematic for long-term residents whose children were born and raised here in Cayman.”
Under the proposed changes – tabled in the House by Labour and Border Control Minister Dwayne Seymour on 31 Jan. – work-permit holders would have to remain in Cayman for nine years, rather than the current eight, before applying for permanent residency under the points system, and permanent residents would have to wait 20 years, instead of the current 15, before they could be granted Caymanian status.
The proposed changes to the legislation had been slated to be discussed in Parliament on Thursday, 6 Feb., in response to a government motion brought by Seymour. However, the minister withdrew his motion late that day, saying that he had already spoken on the matter “sufficiently” and had provided information on the proposals for the public and MPs to consider.
He said he felt it would be “redundant to do so again” on Thursday.
He added, “I ask that persons seek out the published document and participate in the consultation exercise accordingly, so that the government can be informed about moving important immigration-related matters forward.”
McIntosh acknowledges that “there is plenty of room for improvement in the current regime”, but he said Cayman Finance would “much prefer to see policies focused on improving fairness, efficiency, and transparency for both Caymanians and employers”.
The Compass also reached out to the Cayman Islands Chamber of Commerce, which represents more than 600 businesses and about 20,000 employees, for reaction to the proposed immigration reforms.
Chamber CEO Wil Pineau said the organisation would be seeking feedback from its members in the coming weeks, “so we can submit comments by March’s deadline”.
Public consultation
The deadline for public input on the discussion paper is 3 March.
For more information on the white paper, click here.
Feedback on the document and its proposed changes can be emailed to the Ministry of Border Control and Labour via [email protected].
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