Remove barriers for CTA residents - Kazantseva-Miller

States members will debate Home Affairs’ Population and Immigration Policy Review policy letter next week and will be asked to agree that there is a strategic need for net migration of 300 people each year to sustain the island’s workforce at its 2020 levels.

But several amendments have been submitted to instead focus on getting more islanders working.

Deputy Sasha Kazantseva-Miller submitted an amendment calling on States members to recognise that ongoing work to improve economic and social participation of islanders might reduce the requirement for so much net migration.

Her amendment includes four pages of explanatory information about the effect on the workforce of increasing participation rates, which measure the percentage of working age populations that are in work.

Deputy Kazantseva-Miller lists the top 29 OECD jurisdictions ranked by their participation rates and shows that Guernsey would sit 26th, if included, with a rate of 81.22% – below that of the UK’s 82.11%.

The OECD website lists 50 jurisdictions, as well as giving the EU’s rate as 80.32% and the OECD average as 78%.

‘An increase and maintenance of a higher participation rate creates a permanent and sustainable positive adjustment to workforce without additional pressure on infrastructure, housing and public services,’ she said, ‘because those people are already here.’

The same deputy has submitted two further amendments, one of which calls for the consideration of ‘options to provide long-term employment pathways for residents of the Common Travel Area’.

The original resolutions being proposed by Home Affairs, if approved, will abolish medium-term employment permits.

This will mean a clearer delineation between those who are here temporarily – for a maximum of three years – and those who are working their way towards the right to live in Guernsey permanently through long-term employment permits, which are available only for certain listed jobs.

However, Deputy Kazantseva-Miller’s amendment argues that Guernsey should seek to make best advantage of its membership of the Common Travel Area to remove barriers for CTA residents to access long-term employment in Guernsey.

Her third amendment calls on Home Affairs to look into which jobs may be added to the list for long-term permits.

Although she is the skills strategy lead for Economic Development, Deputy Kazantseva-Miller said she had submitted the amendments in her capacity as an individual deputy.

‘I haven’t been asked to be involved in the work streams that have led to this Home Affairs policy letter,’ she said.

‘And I’ve had no opportunity to engage with its contents.

I haven’t shared the amendments formally with my committee but I have discussed them with [Policy & Resources vice-president] Deputy Heidi Soulsby and she has agreed to second them.’