Babies born pre-2017 will have to earn full rights
PEOPLE born before the new population regime comes into effect, probably in January 2017, will not receive automatic residency rights, it is revealed today.
But Paul Luxon, the chairman of the population steering group, said a line had to be drawn somewhere,
Today the Policy Council has published its proposed transitional arrangements for the move to the new regime, which it hopes will mean only 1% of the population will need to take immediate action when it comes into force.
Under that new regime, anyone who is born in Guernsey with a Guernsey-born parent and grandparent in the same ancestral line, would immediately acquire permanent resident qualifications.
However, that will not apply retrospectively to anyone born before January 2017. It means they will still have to go through a period of residence before obtaining that right.
'When any law is changed, or a new law is introduced, it will always be the case that a line has to be drawn and, inevitably, some people will feel it's unfair that they are on one side of the line and not the other,' said Deputy Luxon.
'In developing proposals for the transitional arrangements, a number of options were considered, all of which had various pros and cons, but none of the alternatives were felt to be as equitable as the proposals that have been put forward.'
For more information go to populationguide.gov.gg. A dedicated phoneline has been set up on 717279. Alternatively, islanders can email population@gov.gg
