Guernsey’s newest Deputy is asking the island’s public, educators, and business owners if migrant workers are costing young people jobs.
Deputy Ross Le Brun has opened a survey in response to a social media post claiming that imported workers were leading to fewer opportunities for school leavers.
Deputy Le Brun told Express people had “genuine concerns” and he wanted to prove or disprove them “one way or the other”.
“If it really is a problem, then it’s something for the States to look at,” he said.
However, the early results suggested it could be more of a “sentiment rather than actual fact”.
Deputy Le Brun, who now sits as a politician on Employment and Social Security (ESS) after previously being a non-voting member for the same committee, said he had spoken to employers who “said that they wanted to employ local”, as it cost more money to bring people to the island.
However, they often didn’t get applications from local people or had been “let down” when they’d employed locally.
“But if there is an issue, I’m giving people a genuine chance to highlight it and really show evidence of it,” he added.
Deputy Le Brun also disputed claims that young people weren’t willing to work hard.
He said: “I know 16‑year‑olds don’t have the same level of experience and skills, but they can do work.
“Some are better than full‑grown adults, especially in physical work – they are capable of the work and they will do the work.”
Deputy Le Brun stressed that the survey was focussed on the narrow question of school leaver employment, rather than any broader questions about immigration, such as the effect on housing.
Low-cost approach
Deputy Le Brun said his previous experience as a non-voting member of ESS led him to take a “lean” approach to gathering data.
“There’s no point in me going into any meetings and saying ‘I’ve heard this or that’.
“But, if I can go in with data from the surveys, then the members can all look at it themselves, discuss it and come to a conclusion.”
Rather than getting a civil servant or external consultancy to conduct research, Deputy Le Brun said his approach would save taxpayers money.
“It’s not costing anything for me to publish a free survey and put on Facebook – it’s what I was voted in for.”
Deputy Le Brun said he was planning to share the results of the survey at the next ESS committee meeting, and would like to publish the survey results publicly.
