Thursday, September 29, 2011

Immigration and work permit controls - the suppressed Jersey agenda

Tony’s Musings for 6 July 2011 (tonymusings.blogspot.com) published an excellent account of recent attempts to control immigration into Jersey using work permits.

Since 1999 Paul Le Claire has led several attempts with propositions to firm-up the legislation but the Protection of Employment (J) Law 1986 is presumably still in force. It was intended as a “work permit” control to be enacted when needed - most likely when unemployment in Jersey reached a “high” though not prescribed level.

Here four of the 13 Senatorial candidates (Forskitt, Gorst, Le Gresley and Bailhache) express their responses to a questioner at the St Ouen’s Hustings on 28 September 2011 in between electrical failures.

The views expressed are quite typical. There is no BNP rhetoric nor any great contrary concern for human rights safeguards but the almost inevitable desire for repressive controls of one sort or another seem to be ingrained into the Jersey political agenda.

The Control of Housing and Work (J) Law and Names and Addresses Register (J) Law currently awaiting Privy Council approval should satisfy the repressive aspirations of most. Nobody in this election seems to be very critical and the lone petition of Michael Dun to the Privy Council (published on this blog elsewhere) has attracted no comment or interest…

2 comments:

  1. You comment in the text that the video clip has the answer by Sir Bailhache but it is not there.

    I think the first speaker (Foskitt?) is arguing chiefly against existing policy of deliberately increasing the population, not for controlling it. He says work permits are the only measure proposed that could control it. I am not sure he supports introducing them.

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