States to tighten existing migration controls

Tuesday 10 January 2017

More than half of the applications to bring in staff from outside of Jersey submitted by the hospitality sector were turned down in 2015, compared to just 10% of applications from the finance and legal sector.

The figures have been released as the Population Office announces moves to tighten existing controls on how many employees larger businesses are allowed to bring in - with permissions focussed on "...delivering the greatest social and economic value."

They say they are going to focus on businesses employing 30 staff or more, and make comparisons to other companies in the same sector: those who employ more “registered” workers than other businesses in the same sector will find it more difficult to get what they want.

These companies will be put into what the Population Office is terming a “step down” programme to reduce the number of registered staff they employ; or they could be placed into a work permit-type scheme requiring them to demonstrate the value of each new registered worker before they are permitted to recruit them. 

Currently, once an employee has lived in Jersey for five years, a business can use the permission to employ that person for a new migrant instead, and that's what the States are now aiming to crack down on.  Every year 600 – 700 people gain their “entitled to work” status having been in the Island for 5 years, as this video from the Statistics Unit explains:

The States say the tightening of existing controls..."...is designed to ensure that migration is more focussed on delivering the greatest social and economic value, while also creating a fairer allocation of permissions across businesses," and "... The Council of Ministers wants to see more productive businesses making more profits and paying higher wages, with migration targeted toward delivering the greatest benefit for islanders."

An analysis of the permissions granted / refused in 2015 shows that out of 1,653 applications to employ staff without local qualifications, 606 were turned down - but just 27 of those refusals were in the financial services or legal sectors, and more than half, 316, were in construction and hospitality. 

The Finance and Legal sectors made 262 applications, with just over 10% being turned down - conversely, the hospitality sector made 352 applications, and 53% were refused.