Population: “Government is putting the cart before the horse”

Thursday 22 October 2020

The Government needs to know what population level it wants, before working out how it can control it, according to the States Assembly’s chief scrutineer.

Senator Kristina Moore, who chairs the Corporate Services panel and Chairmen’s Committee, said that the Government was taking the wrong approach on population.

On Tuesday, Chief Minister John Le Fondré launched a new migration policy, which will replace the categories set out in 2012’s Control of Work and Housing Law.

The new system, the Government argues, will remove the current ‘graduation’ system – whereby someone working in Jersey for five years becomes ‘entitled to work’ and is then free to move into any job without a licence.

Senator Le Fondré said that the migration policy – which he hoped would be up and running by 2022 – would then give the Government the tools and information to then devise a “meaningful” population policy. He added that it would succeed where previous policies had failed.

But Senator Moore said: “This shows the current Government for what it is: their view of migration will be without any overview or objectives.

Pictured: Senator Kristina Moore wants Scrutiny to have a proper look at the new Migration Policy.

“One would expect that the Chief Minister would bring a population policy for agreement and then define the underpinning policies after that. But no, instead we have the cart coming before the horse. 

“Also, we have not had time to scrutinise this policy. We can call it in after the in-principle debate and I guess this is what we have to do.

“My initial thought is that this policy sounds like what Government used to do, in asking people to come here to work pay taxes and contributions but offering them no secure accommodation or long-term security.

“This pandemic has forced people to work in a different way, with companies drawing on resources around the world. It means that the global marketplace will become more competitive and more than ever we need to prove our value as an Island community. 

“We could see a massive depopulation because of job losses anyway, so the issue might regulate itself. At the moment, people need clarity; yet this Council of Ministers is just providing more uncertainty.” 

Pictured: Deputy Steve Luce: "We need an agreed policy so everyone has clarity".

Deputy Steve Luce, like Senator Moore a member of the previous Council of Ministers, also expressed frustration at the Government’s approach.

“If the Chief Minister said he hopes the policy will come into force before May 2022, then it looks somewhat unlikely that there will be a population policy during the time of this Government, which is very unfortunate given that it’s a vital subject, and has been for some time. 

“Our previous Government had some good population drafts in train, but this Chief Minister decided to dismiss that work, and start again - very much like he did with the hospital.

"It’s fine to have a migration policy, but “population” is something that the we really need to reach a conclusion on and, regardless of your views on what level is best, we need an agreed policy so everyone has clarity as to where they are, and, more importantly, will be in the future.” 

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