Cayman Finance chief Steve McIntosh has called for a balanced approach to immigration reform, warning that the island’s core industry relies on imported labour because of near full employment among qualified Caymanians.
Fees from the financial services sector account for around half of government’s annual revenue — close to $500 million. That’s equivalent to the entire public sector payroll.
McIntosh said the strength of the sector had helped the country survive the economic impact of COVID-19 and its aftermath.
But he insisted that, as a direct result of failed immigration policies, employment in the sector had remained stagnant for more than a decade and a renewed focus on growth is needed to avoid a downward spiral.
“The financial industry is often described as booming. The industry is not booming,” he said, “government revenue is booming.”
He said the number of people employed in the financial sector — around 6,000 — is the same today as it was in 2009 while rival jurisdictions, particularly Dublin and Halifax, Nova Scotia, had grown significantly.
“The places that we compete directly with for creating jobs have been booming and yet, in the Cayman Islands, although our business volumes continue to climb and the government revenue continues to climb, the headcount has stayed the same,” he said.
By comparison, according to data from the Economics and Statistics Office, other local industries such as construction and tourism have seen dramatic increases in headcount over the period since 2009, primarily fuelled by increases in expatriate workers.
As Cayman further diversifies into fintech and reinsurance and keeps pace with global compliance regulations, he said the islands must allow financial firms to bring in talent that cannot be found or developed locally, or face a growing threat from offshoring and outsourcing to other jurisdictions.
While he supports some tweaks to the permanent residency system, McIntosh believes any reform to immigration rules and regulations must be balanced with the need for economic growth.
And he made a plea for greater efficiency in the work permit system, especially in important areas of the economy.
“The reality is that human capital is the life blood of our industry. We have no other raw materials. We’re not importing steel, we’re not using oil. We need people,” he said.
‘This is the biggest risk we face’
He said Cayman Finance was working hard alongside government on training, education and scholarships and was doing its part to ensure as many Caymanians as possible were working in the industry.
But, he said, immigration policies designed to guarantee certain jobs to Caymanians had the effect of disincentivising the creation of jobs in the first place, leading counterintuitively to a lack of entry-level job opportunities for Caymanians in the industry.
“When there are no Caymanians available, the next best thing is to grant a work permit,” he said.
“If you do not do that, or you make it very difficult to do that, or very expensive to do that, or very slow to do that … that job will be gone almost immediately and no one will ever see it happen. … The job simply moves somewhere else overnight. That is a disaster for our economy, because once the job has gone, it is never coming back.”
He said “the bones” of the current immigration system and the principle that Caymanians get first refusal of jobs that they are qualified for is “absolutely correct”.
But he made a plea for improved speed of processing of applications to be a goal of any review of the current structure.
“The problem is not that work permits are being declined — 99% of permits are approved. The problem is that they are being approved too slowly,” he said.
“It doesn’t need to be instantaneous, but it needs to not take months. That’s really the main thing that is driving jobs elsewhere.”
In an industry in which “time is money”, he said a delay of months imposes an “intolerable cost” on international financial companies.
“We need to fix this, or the danger is that, as an industry, the inability to create jobs here in the Cayman Islands begins to erode our global position,” he said.
“As decision-makers begin to move overseas, and those decision-makers begin to have more loyalty to other jurisdictions and begin to channel resources to those other jurisdictions … I think that’s the biggest risk that we face as an industry,” he said.
While some may be okay with a reduction that only affected work-permit holders, he said losing employees from the financial services sector would harm the economy, harm government revenue and take opportunities away from future generations of Caymanians.
“I think there are ways that [the government] could enhance protection for Caymanians, but those do not need to slow the system down,” he said.
“The system needs to do both. It needs to protect Caymanians, but it needs to move quickly enough that it doesn’t harm our economy.”
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I agree with everything Mr. Macintosh has said. Cayman Islands relies on fees from the financial industry for such a large proportion of its revenue, it seems prudent to encourage these companies to employ the best people. Until Cayman has a plan in place to educate candidates for these jobs, expats are the best solution. If the industry thrives, it’s been demonstrated that revenues for Cayman increase. It’s in the national interest.
What incentive will there be for labor force to come to Cayman if the government has built this model that expats have had to follow for years and fully upends it? They have told people to buy property, save money in banks, spend in the economy. It is already one of the longest countries in the world to PR and to status. People should be grandfathered in on the promise that they came here on. It feels criminal to change it overnight on people.
The author is right- when a job leaves Cayman, it isn’t coming back. I’ve seen it first hand. Often that job leaves once they find out it’s 14 years to status. More than 10% of someone’s life. Now what, there will be no incentive for PR and status? Who will come from abroad in finance to work in Cayman. It will be a joke.
Are they looking to welcome no new foreign labor and have the current labor leave? They seem to be playing with fire trying to make radical change that could impact so many people who worked so hard.
To be fair, both Bermuda and BVI have stricter immigration policies and still do quite well in the financial service sector. There are many overqualified Caymanians that are not able to get jobs, so unfortunately there now needs to be a balance. Caymanians deserve protection and opportunity as well.
Maybe it’s a little known fact but even high up positions in CIMA are held by expats, why is a government organization like this not hiring these overqualified Caymanians. Where are these overqualified Caymanians when jobs need to be filled?
It would be great to see stats on how many overqualified, unemployed Caymanians there are. There is always talk of this big pool of candidates but where are they? The other side is they all go to the U.S.,Canada and the UK for educations, why in turn are those countries frowned upon to work here if they are top talent, otherwise people wouldn’t study abroad.
100% great questions. No one will ever answer these questions. The entire “there are no jobs for Caymanians” is simply a lightning rod for votes imo
Mr. McIntosh I have read your article and 95% of it was primiarly the negative effects if immigration reform is completed i.e. implementation of the “Caymanian Protection Board”, you have said nothing on how you think government can do other things to protect caymanians. Let us take the bull by the horns, we welcome people to our shores but when you have caymanians unable to survive, to eat, to feel proud of themselves, then we have a problem. No matter how many gated communities you have, if the poverty surrounds these communities what do you think will happen in the end? So please sir, let us have your views on how caymanians can not be placed on NAU.
There it is, the first of the special interests group to speak publicly! Their wish is usually our Government’s command, hope the National Coalition gives them ‘polite silent treatment’
We voted for immigration reform and NC had better deliver.
Cayman Finance, put your energy in encouraging your members to give qualified Caymanians good entry and advancement opportunities! Otherwise stand back and hush!
Good points. Faster decisions are always welcome. How many people are employed in WORC? are there enough people there to review the 20,000 permits?
Unfortunately I disagree with this viewpoint. The system needs to be further tweaked to ensure that the upwardly mobile opportunities are so Caymanian filled not just the entry and mid level roles. If it was anywhere else it would be the same if not a stricter principle. There are many qualified Caymanians not receiving first priority and I would hope the new coalition government considers this.
Let’s be honest: **Cayman is full.**
Our roads are full, our landfill is full, our coastlines are overdeveloped, and the character of our islands is being diluted in the name of “growth.”
We keep hearing that adding more people is essential for the economy. But ask the average Caymanian — **who exactly is this growth benefiting?**
It’s certainly not those of us who already live here.
It’s like dividing the same cake into thinner and thinner slices — and expecting people to believe they’re getting more.
Yes, we understand the importance of financial services. But **we can support the industry without turning the entire island into an overbuilt, overcrowded corporate zone**. More work permits and more imported labour don’t magically solve our problems — they just **stretch our infrastructure, inflate housing costs, and erode our quality of life**.
Let’s not confuse **the revenue of developers and service providers** with the well-being of Caymanians.
What we need is:
* A **halt to unchecked population growth**
* A **serious cap on development**
* Real investment in **training and placing Caymanians**
* And **a standard of living that benefits locals, not just those flying in for contracts and condos**
Cayman is not an expandable landmass.
We cannot build ourselves out of this problem — **we need to protect what little we have left**.
Immigration reform isn’t “playing with fire.”
It’s finally recognizing that **endless growth on a small island is not sustainable**.
\#CaymanIslands #ImmigrationReform #EnoughIsEnough #Overdevelopment #CaymaniansFirst
The first place for the government to start is to put the same rollover rules in place for their own expat employees as for private enterprise.
Currently, any foreigner who gets a job working for the government can stay forever, eventually qualifying for Cayman Status without jumping through any of the hoops required of people who help generate the funds for the government to exist.
Of course Caymanians should always be top of the list for jobs. PROVIDED they are qualified to do them.
This comes down to a good education system and then a good system of scholarships, including an allowance for accommodation, to study at TOP overseas universities.
There also needs to be either trade schools here for skills such as plumbing, carpentry, haircare etc. or again, scholarships to suitable trade schools overseas. The later might be more cost effective.
Why is it that people always need to go overseas for education? There needs to be spending locally to develop top tier workforce talent.